What was the most significant factor in deciding to move to Melbourne?
STIRLING MORTLOCK: Coach Rod Macqueen was a significant factor. He recruited me to the Brumbies and was my first Wallabies coach. As a person and a coach he has been extremely innovative. He made it clear that this was going to be something special and that was driving him. So that was exciting. Likewise, there was the opportunity to finish my career in Australia and tie in with post-career, possibly pursue coaching, and I have also a young family so it would have been a big call to uproot them and take them overseas. This was also perfect timing with a World Cup campaign coming up next year and hopefully pushing towards that. It all added up. When did Rod first raise the idea with you? It was a fair while ago, probably before he was officially the coach. At those initial stages it was just chatting about things and it progressed from there. It’s a situation I never thought I would be in. I pride myself on being an extremely loyal person. People show faith in me and I like to return th
