History is littered with average Australian players who have gone to Europe and done good. Salvi is a prime example. Apparently is great in the premiership yet quickly became third choice #7 at the Brumbies behind 2 rookies. Mumm (196cm & 109kg) and Chisholm (197cm & 112kg) have had 33 & 58 caps and are 29 & 32 years old. If they had the ability to perform at test level as well as deal with the demands of playing year round associated with test rugby we would have seen it.
It's a little harsh on the local Euro players who are playing year round and may be a bit flat at times to say they are inferior to these blokes who are mentally fresh playing 18 games a year, some soft, some hard games.
On the other hand James Horwill (200cm & 117kg) has clearly shown he is able to be a test performer. Currently he is not in form due to injury, but that form has occurred. If you want to bag him for his game on the weekend you clearly did not pay attention to him on the field. Needs to run with more venom yes, but got through a lot of work, provided a target at line out time and made 2 pilfers. Doing alright for a lock.
Rob Simmons (200cm & 115kg) at 24 years of age and with 33 caps is finally developing into a quality lock with the attributes to slot into 6 at times (obviously the top 2 nations right now) in the right game plan, however has strung together a good international season.
Kane Douglas (202cm & 123kg) at 24 and with 13 caps to his name has probably shown 2 really strong performances so far in gold. His debut against Argentina last year and his performance of the bench against England. With more consistency he will see more time on the park.
All of these 3 players are both taller and heavier than Mumm and Chisholm. In addition they have showed themselves to be more capable test performers at the current stage of their careers. Neither Mumm nor Chisholm had put in successive quality performances like Simmons has this season over their careers. In addition both Simmons and Douglas are around 4 years younger than Mumm was when he was last here, so I can only imagine that with 4 years continued development and improvement in only a few easy areas (e.g. Simmons and his brain farts), by the time they reach the ages of Mumm and Chisholm will surely be far superior locks.
Mumm and Chisholm might look good at club/provincial level, but at the end of the day they were never quite big enough to make it as test quality locks, nor athletic enough to make it as test quality 6's, really leaving them in international no mans land, repeatedly being shown up for each inadequacy throughout their careers.
We're not talking about players who looked the goods but never really got the chance. They got 33 and 58 caps a piece. If they had the ability, we would have seen it in that time...
