Many locks can make a claim on their own ability, but the true legends in the position are so often mentioned in the same breath as their locking partner: Matfield and Botha; Johnson and Kay; and I bet Whitelock and Retallick will soon be joining that list. It's telling how good Eales was that he is usually mentioned alone and not alongside someone like Giffin or the sort.
Hell, even now, if you want to start at lock for Australia, one of your main skills should be "partners well with Coleman". Simmons formed good partnerships with both Horwill and Carter, but, apart from that, has just been a good worker. He makes his tackles, he wins his lineouts, he sometimes tries to decapitate a member of the opposition and gets sent off at a time when you wish he wouldn't. I like him, but I don't want him in our 23 ahead of guys like Coleman, Rodda, Philip, or Arnold.
Ability to support the prop in the scrum shouldn't be some silver bullet; it's their job. Simmons is supposed to be good behind the tighthead prop? Cool, glad to hear he can do his job. Likewise, lineout caller isn't so important to a team that we should be picking someone down the pecking order in the same way we would for a goalkicker. Worst case, you just avoid any trick moves and throw to front, middle, or back. If they contest, good luck to them, but you're a thousand times more likely to lose based on a bad throw than you are a lock who isn't a "recognised lineout caller".
