Mark Chisholm (born 18 September 1981) is a retired
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
n
rugby union
Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...
player. Chisholm usually played as a
lock
Lock(s) or Locked may refer to:
Common meanings
*Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance
*Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal
Arts and entertainme ...
, but could also cover blindside
flanker
Flanker may refer to:
* Flanker (perfume), a newly created perfume sharing attributes of an existing one
* Flanker (rugby union), a position in rugby union (not found in rugby league)
* ''Su-27 Flanker'' (video game), a 1996 computer game modelin ...
.
Career
Chisholm represented Australia's under-19 side in 2000 as well as being named QRU Colt of the season for his club Wests Bulldogs. He also played for the under-21 side in 2001 and 2002. He spent the
2002 Super 12 season
The 2002 Super 12 season was the seventh season of the Super 12, an annual rugby union competition contested by teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The season ran from February to May 2002, with each team playing all the others o ...
with the
Queensland Reds
The Queensland Reds is the rugby union team based in Brisbane for the Australian state of Queensland that competes in the Southern Hemisphere's Super Rugby competition. Prior to 1996, they were a representative team selected from the rugby union ...
as a product of the Energex Reds College. The following season he moved to the
Brumbies
The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005 to 2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the feral horses which inh ...
and made his
Super 12
Super Rugby is a men's professional rugby union club competition involving teams from Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, and the Pacific Islands. It has previously included teams from Argentina, Japan, and South Africa. Super Rugby started as the S ...
debut for the side that season in a game against the
Cats
The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...
in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...
as a replacement, he went on to play in six more matches that season.
Chisholm was a pillar of the CA Brumbies' starting XV, having held down a run-on lock position for six years. The athletic 115-kilo second rower managed just seven matches for the CA Brumbies in the
2009 Super 14 season
The 2009 Super 14 season kicked off in February 2009 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished on 30 May, when the Bulls won their second Super Rugby title with a decisive 61–17 victory over the Chiefs at Loftus Versfeld sta ...
before a broken wrist, suffered against the
Cheetahs
The cheetah (''Acinonyx jubatus'') is a large cat and the fastest land animal. It has a tawny to creamy white or pale buff fur that is marked with evenly spaced, solid black spots. The head is small and rounded, with a short snout and blac ...
in
Bloemfontein
Bloemfontein ( ; ), also known as Bloem, is the capital and the largest city of the Free State (province), Free State province in South Africa. It is often, and has been traditionally, referred to as the country's "judicial capital", alongsi ...
, prematurely ended the veteran lock's season. While the setback saw him overlooked for the
Wallabies
A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and som ...
domestic Tests, Chisholm returned to the international fold during the
2009 Tri Nations Series
The 2009 Tri Nations Series was the fourteenth annual Tri Nations Series, Tri Nations rugby union series between the national rugby union teams of New Zealand national rugby union team, New Zealand, Australia national rugby union team, Australia ...
, again establishing himself in the Australian starting XV. His role as an incumbent lock for the Wallabies also booked him a place on the Wallabies' Grand Slam northern hemisphere tour – the fifth Spring Tour of his career. His strong lineout winning ability, aggressive physicality, barnstorming running and frequent try-scoring has formed the cornerstone of his success throughout his career. The powerful tight forward was a consistent performer for the CA Brumbies since his boom debut season in the
2004 Super 12 season
The 2004 Super 12 season was the ninth season of the Super 12, contested by teams from Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The season ran from February to May 2004, with each team playing all the others once. At the end of the regular seaso ...
that featured six tries in a Super 12 championship-winning year. In addition to his Super 12 title, Chisholm was named the CA Brumbies' 'Best Forward' and runner-up to George Smith in the Brett Robinson Award in 2007, and is currently the club's second most-capped lock behind
David Giffin
David Giffin (born 6 November 1973 Scrum.com) is a former vice-captain of the
on a 2-year deal.
Chisholm has also been a key figure in Wallaby selections since making his Test debut – replacing
Nathan Sharpe
Nathan Sharpe (born 26 February 1978) is a retired professional Australian rugby union player. He began his rugby career at the Queensland Reds in 1999 before joining the newly created Western Force in 2006, where he captained the club until hi ...
– on the 2004 Spring Tour and passed 50 Tests in 2010.
The following season he made his debut for the Wallabies in a test against
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...
and was subsequently named in the 22 against
France
France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
the following week and went on to start at lock for Australia A against the
French Barbarians
The Barbarian Rugby Club, more commonly known as the French Barbarians, is a rugby union team formed in 1979 and based in France. It was founded as an amateur invitational team modeled on the Barbarian F.C.
From the start of the 2017–18 sea ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
. In 2005 he started at lock in six of the 12 tests he played in. He also scored tries in the tests against
Samoa
Samoa, officially the Independent State of Samoa and known until 1997 as Western Samoa, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania, in the South Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main islands (Savai'i and Upolu), two smaller, inhabited ...
and
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
. He was named in the Wallabies
2007 Rugby World Cup
The 2007 Rugby World Cup () was the sixth Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition organised by the International Rugby Board. Twenty nations competed for the Webb Ellis Cup in the tournament, which was hosted by F ...
squad. He is the 32nd Australian player to play in a half century of Tests, and just the fourth lock. He finished the
2010 Super 14 season
The 2010 Super 14 season kicked off in February 2010 with pre-season matches held from mid-January. It finished on 29 May. The 2010 season was the fifth and last season of the expanded Super Rugby, Super 14 format. The schedule, which covers 3Â ...
just 12 matches short of a century of matches in that competition.
He was ruled out of competing in the
2011 Rugby World Cup
The 2011 Rugby World Cup, was the seventh Rugby World Cup, a quadrennial international rugby union competition inaugurated in 1987. The World Rugby, International Rugby Board (IRB) selected New Zealand as the host country in preference to Japa ...
due to rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in a Super Rugby match for the Brumbies in June 2011.
At 6 ft 6 inches and weighing 246 lb, he is one of the largest players in current Australian rugby. He was also described by body building flanker
David Pocock
David Willmer Pocock (born 23 April 1988) is an Australian politician and former professional rugby union player. Raised in Gweru, Zimbabwe, Pocock moved to Australia as a teenager and played for the Australia national rugby team. He played p ...
as the wallaby with the largest biceps.
On 5 August 2015, it was announced that Chisholm had joined Irish
Pro12
The United Rugby Championship (URC) is an annual rugby union competition involving professional teams from Ireland, Italy, Scotland, South Africa, and Wales. For sponsorship reasons the league is known as the Vodacom United Rugby Championship in ...
side
Munster
Munster ( or ) is the largest of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the south west of the island. In early Ireland, the Kingdom of Munster was one of the kingdoms of Gaelic Ireland ruled by a "king of over-kings" (). Following the Nor ...
on a two-year contract. Chisholm made his Munster debut on 13 September 2015, starting against
Ospreys
The osprey (; ''Pandion haliaetus''), historically known as sea hawk, river hawk, and fish hawk, is a diurnal, fish-eating bird of prey with a cosmopolitan range. It is a large raptor, reaching more than in length and a wingspan of . It is ...
in the
2015–16 Pro12
The 2015–16 Pro12 (also known as the ''Guinness Pro12'' for sponsorship reasons) was the fifteenth season of the professional rugby union competition originally known as the Celtic League, and the sixth with its current four-country format. i ...
. He made his
European Rugby Champions Cup
The European Rugby Champions Cup (known as the Investec Champions Cup for sponsorship reasons) is an annual rugby union tournament organised by European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). It is the top-tier competition for clubs who compete in a pr ...
debut on 14 November 2015, starting the opening 2015–16 pool game against
Treviso
Treviso ( ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Treviso and the municipality has 87.322 inhabitants (as of December 2024). Some 3,000 live within the Venetian wall ...
. On 27 February 2017, it was announced that, following an extended break from rugby due to concussion, Chisholm had returned to full training with Munster. On 31 March 2017, Chisholm made his first appearance since March 2016 when he was a replacement for Munster A in their 2016–17 British and Irish Cup semi-final win against
Ealing Trailfinders
Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club is an English professional rugby union club based in West London. The club's first team are the reigning RFU Championship champions of 2024–25 but were considered ineligible for promotion to Premiership Rugby a ...
. On 19 May 2017, it was announced that Chisholm would be retiring from rugby union upon the conclusion of the 2016–17 season.
Personal life
Mark was born to parents James and Laurel Chisholm on 18 September 1981 in
Gladstone
William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British politican, starting as Conservative MP for Newark and later becoming the leader of the Liberal Party (UK), Liberal Party.
In a career lasting over 60 years, he ...
,
Queensland
Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...
. In 1998 he graduated from
St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace
St Joseph's College, Gregory Terrace (colloquially known as Gregory Terrace, Terrace or GT) is an independent Catholic primary and secondary day school for boys, located in Spring Hill, an inner suburb of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Found ...
in
Brisbane
Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...
.
In December 2004, he married his childhood sweetheart Lauren Campbell with the blessing of her father, former Wallaby second row Bill Campbell, at All Hallows in Brisbane. They have 6 children together; Zachary, Xander, Allegra, Tobias, Olivier and Nathan (rugger).