Mark McLinden
Personal information
Nickname	Marty, Mirrors
Born	July 7, 1979 (1979-07-07) (age 30)
	Canberra, Australia
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight	83 kg (13 st 1 lb)
Playing information
Rugby league
Position	Fullback, Five-eighth, Halfback
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
1998–2004	Canberra Raiders	165	65	0	1	261
2005–2008	Harlequins RL	72	28	0	1	113
	Total	237	93	0	2	374
Representative
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2001	NSW Country	1	0	0	0	0
Rugby union
Club
Years	Team	Pld	T	G	FG	P
2009–	Reds	3	1	0	0	5
As of October 18, 2008
Source: RLP SL Stats

Mark McLinden (born 8 July 1979 in Canberra, Australia) is a professional rugby union and rugby league player.

Mark McLinden plays for the Queensland Reds, in the Super 14. He previously played Rugby League for the Canberra Raiders in the National Rugby League and Harlequins Rugby League in the European Super League.

McLinden's usual position is full-back. Mark has played much of his career at half-back, and with the arrival of Great Britain international Test full-back Chris Melling at the London club he has played several games of the 2007 season in the halves.

Contents 1 Rugby league career 1.1 Super League Career 2 Rugby union career 3 References 4 Video Links 5 External links

[edit] Rugby league career

Mark McLinden played his early rugby at West Belconnen Warriors in the Canberra District Junior Rugby League.

While attending Hawker College, McLinden played for the Australian Schoolboys team in 1996 and 1997.^[1]

In 1998, McLinden signed to play in the NRL for his local team Canberra Raiders. Following an impressive debut season, Mark was named NRL Rookie of the Year ^[2] and won the Raiders' player of the year award.

He also received representative honours with selection for the Australian Junior Kangaroos squad to play tests against New Zealand.

During his 7 seasons at the Canberra Raiders, McLinden made 165 appearances, featuring in 5 play-off series.

[edit] Super League Career

Mark McLinden signed for the London Broncos in November 2004^[3] and was appointed team captain following on from Jim Dymock.^[3] During the 2005 season, his first in Super League, Mark showed his versatility by appearing at hooker, half back and full back.

In the 2006 season, with his club now operating as Harlequins Rugby League, Mark was the club's leading Super League try scorer with 14 tries from 17 appearances. His season was, however, disrupted by a persistent back injury which required an operation in late 2006.^[4]

The 2007 season saw McLinden return from injury. However, he was replaced as captain by England international Rob Purdham.^[5]

McLinden signed a three-year extension to his contract to keep him at Harlequins until the end of the 2009 season. However, in 2008 he suffered from a long debilitating illness which caused him to lose a lot of weight. As a result he barely featured in Super League and he was released at the end of the year.

Before his switch to rugby union he was offered to play for the Ireland national rugby league team at the 2008 World Cup but declined in favour of Super 14 pre-season training.^[6]

[edit] Rugby union career

He is now playing rugby union for the Queensland Reds. He scored his first Super 14 try in his side's 22-3 win over South Africa's Cheetahs at Suncorp Stadium.

[edit] References

[edit] Video Links

• BBC Video

[edit] External links

• Quins RL profile
• Seven stitches in my eyelid
• Life with London
• Triple drama for Harlequins squad

v • d • e Queensland Reds squad Forwards Coutts • Daley • Hunt • Holmes • Edwards • S. Faingaa • Hardman • Horwill • Humphries • Simmons • Byrnes • McMeniman • Higginbotham • Luafutu • Houston • Taylor • Braid Backs Genia • Lucas • Barnes • Cooper • Fetoai • Turinui • A. Faingaa • Hynes • Ioane • Va'aulu • Connor • McLinden • Davies • Coach Mooney