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| Mark Weedon | ||||||||||||||||
| Rugby has always featured prominently in Katikati. One of the town's most famous sons was David Gallagher who captained the All Blacks during their 1905 tour of Britain. Gallagher was killed at Passchendaele in 1917 during the First World War.
A more recent successful Katikati rugby player is Mark Weedon. This profile of Mark Weedon has been provided by his uncle Kevan Walsh. |
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| MARK WEEDON
Born: 31 July 1968 |
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Mark began playing senior club rugby for the Katikati Rugby Club while still at school, - no small feat for a second rower. But with a grandfather over 2.05m tall and his father John Weedon 2.00m tall, Mark was never going to be a halfback or flyhalf. He was able to use the skills developed as a New Zealand Wrestling representative in 1985/86 to contend with opposing tight forwards who were over twice his age. Mark represented NZ Secondary Schools in 1986 and was plucked from the Katikati College 1st XV to earn his first class debut for Bay of Plenty. His second game for Bay of Plenty was a Division 1 National Championship game against Auckland, where he marked Andy Haden, who was playing his 150th game for Auckland. Mark gained his fair share of lineout possession, earning himself Player of the Day for BoP and the respect of an All Black great. |
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| His impressive debut year earned him two early honours. He was named by the NZ Rugby Almanac as one of the five promising players for 1986. In recognition of an awesome debut year, he gained selection to tour the United Kingdom with the NZ Barbarians in 1987. The core of this team formed the 1987 World Cup winning All Black side and included up-and-coming youngsters such as Va'aiga Tuigamala, Michael Jones and Craig Innes.
Mark played two seasons for Bay of Plenty before moving to Auckland to play for the prestigious Ponsonby club, helping them win the Auckland Gallaher Shield in his first year with them. He failed to break into the Auckland squad, with stiff competition from five players with international honours, including Gary Whetton, Robin Brooke and Richard Fromont, but played for Auckland Colts and Auckland B. He gained recognition for his ability in age group rugby, gaining selection for the New Zealand Under-19 team in 1987 and the New Zealand Under-21 team in 1989, beating the Welsh and Australian teams along the way. With a couple of club championships under his belt, he travelled, playing for Blagnac in France in 1989 and 1990. After a stint for the Western Suburbs club in Wellington and games for Wellington B he moved to the Massey club in the North Harbour province, repeating his first year performance with Ponsonby by helping Massey win the North Harbour club championship in his first year with them. He immediately rose to prominence in North Harbour, gaining selection for the 1st Division side in 1993 and playing 48 games for them until leaving after the 1996 season. Mark's mauling and scrummaging skills complemented well the lineout skills and mobility of his locking partner Ian Jones, enabling North Harbour to be competitive with a light and inexperienced forward pack. In his first year with North Harbour they made the semi-finals against Auckland and in 1994 played the final against Auckland in the bitterly contested "Battle of the Bridge" After some excellent performances in the Super 10 competition, Mark looked destined for higher honours. Injury robbed him of an All Black trial in 1994, but he played in the 1995 and 1996 All Black trials. Highlights in 1995 included selection for the North Island team, a game for a New Zealand XV against Canada and a game for the Barbarians against the All Blacks in the build-up towards the World Cup. He was enlisted in the early All Black training squad for the World Cup in South Africa. |
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| The advent of Super 12 in 1996 left Mark again facing stiff competition for a locking berth in his local Waikato Chief's team. With the Chiefs able to call upon four locks who had played for the All Blacks, Mark found himself in demand from the Canterbury Crusaders. In the changing world of rugby professionalism with its sometimes conflicting loyalties, Mark found a niche with the Crusaders, proving a loyal grafter for the Canterbury team, whose brand of enterprising rugby based upon a solid and uncompromising forward pack, suited Mark's style of rugby. Adapting quickly to the new game where mobile and lighter locks are favoured, Mark earned a reputation for being one of the best maulers and scrummagers in the game in New Zealand and developed a fitness level that saw him beating many loose forwards to the breakdown, earning him a Man-of-the-Match award in South Africa.
A switch to Wasps in 1997 saw him well positioned to develop a solid foundation for the Wasps forward pack and transfer his southern hemisphere knowledge of how to play the new style of rugby where highly developed basic skills of ball winning, retention and handling form a solid platform from which to play the exciting, attacking and free-flowing modern game. The skills and knowledge Mark brought to the team led to him being made captain in the 98/99 season. Here he led them to victory in Wasps first ever win in the Tetley's Bitter Cup. This was also the first time an overseas captain had lifted the cup at Twickenham. In the 99/00 season Mark worked alongside Lawrence Dallaglio in the vice captain's role ensuring a consecutive Cup victory and re-qualification for the European Cup. Mark has recently returned to New Zealand and is currently Captain of the Bay of Plenty Steamers. For the latest information see the Steamers' website www.boprugby.co.nz Welcome | Things to do | Our people | History | Places to stay | Business & services | Clubs & organisations | Educational opportunities | Arts & crafts | Horticulture |
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