Rob Simmons

Two minutes into a World Cup semi-final, Rob Simmons read an Argentina pass, took it at full stride and ran in under the posts. It was the fastest try of the 2015 tournament. Locks are not supposed to be the ones doing that.

Note on his current club: Simmons is still listed in Clermont‘s squad data. He spent three seasons in the Auvergne and left when his contract expired at the end of 2025-26.

He is 2.04m and 115kg, a second row who covers the back row, and he has 106 caps for Australia. That is a very large number for a man who was never the first name on a Wallabies teamsheet.

Simmons was born in Theodore, in central Queensland, and boarded at The Southport School on the Gold Coast. Australian Schoolboys in 2006, the Under-19s in 2007, the Under-20s at the 2008 Junior World Cup in Wales. He played for the East Coast Aces in the single season the Australian Rugby Championship existed.

The Super Rugby debut came off the bench against the Bulls in South Africa at the start of 2009, for the Queensland Reds. He won the title with them in 2011. He stayed almost a decade, was made vice-captain alongside Karmichael Hunt in January 2015, and was cut anyway in late 2017. The Waratahs took him in 2018.

His Test debut was against South Africa in Brisbane on 24 July 2010. He won the Tri-Nations in 2011 and the Rugby Championship in 2015, finished third at the 2011 World Cup and lost the 2015 final to New Zealand, and went to a third World Cup in 2019. Three tries in all that time, one of them the Argentina intercept.

London Irish signed him for 2020-21 and he lost the 2022 Premiership Cup final to Worcester. In March 2023 he agreed terms with Clermont, and scored on debut against Oyonnax in the opening round.

He calls lineouts, he holds a scrum square and he cleans rucks. He has not been quick since about 2016 and has not needed to be.