Michael Cheika drops Rob Simmons after fitness regained

No one thought anything of it when Michael Cheika left lock Rob Simmons out of his team, assuming he was injured.

Wallabies lock Rob Simmons passes at yesterday’s captain’s run at Melbourne’s AAMI Park.

First law of journalism, never assume. Something about making a donkey out of you and me.

No one thought anything of it when coach Michael Cheika left lock Rob Simmons out of the Wallabies side for the second Test against England at AAMI Park.

The giant Queensland lock had been forced off in the 24th minute of the series opener at Suncorp Stadium last Saturday and, though it was decided to take him to Melbourne to continue working on his injury, the chances of him being fit seemed remote.

As it happened, Simmons overcame his injury but was not selected.

But Cheika wasn’t asked if he had been dropped and he didn’t volunteer the information.

When finally the question was belatedly asked yesterday, the surprising truth came out.

“He was available this week,” Cheika said.

“Any player that is left out is not happy obviously but that’s the challenge for him to improve and get his spot back, like all players who are left out of a team.

“That’s the nature of rugby; it has been forever. Some guys get picked, some guys don’t and it’s how you react accordingly.”

Simmons has been selected in 15 of the 17 Tests while Cheika has been Wallabies coach, including the World Cup final.

The two he missed, against the All Blacks last year, were because of a scaphoid injury.

As the designated lineout caller, he was regarded by most as a certain selection.

There are, however, no sure things when it comes to a Cheika side.

“I’ve never heard of the phrase ‘guaranteed selection’,” Cheika said.

“The minute anyone feels like they are guaranteed selection, he’s never going to perform. Sure, you don’t want them stressing about things but you’ve got to know this is the national team and there are a lot of players that are vying for that one jersey.”

Cheika could have allowed everyone to go on thinking that Simmons had missed out because of injury, but that is not his way.

He said before the Brisbane Test that the leaders of the side would have to be responsible, for the bad as well as the good, and clearly he has held 61-Test Simmons accountable.

The tricky part is that it’s not easy to say what the lanky second-rower did wrong.

Australia won an early lineout and the first time a scrum was set, in the 13th minute, the Wallabies received a short-arm penalty.

Indeed, Simmons is regarded as one of the best scrummaging locks and is assigned to the tighthead side because that’s where most of the weight comes through. Both tightheads, Sekope Kepu and Greg Holmes, swear by him.

Even on the scoreboard, the Australians were faring well. By the time he was injured in a driving maul — his upper body was wrenched in the opposite direction to his legs — Australia was 10-3 up.

Given that Simmons wasn’t named on the bench, even the original 11-man one, he suffered the same harsh fate as loosehead Scott Sio who didn’t take his chance and was dropped entirely from the match-day squad.

How they come back from that, if they come back from that, would seem to be entirely up to them.