| McLinden playing for Harlequins in 2007 | ||||||
| Personal information | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | July 7, 1979 Canberra, ACT, Australia |
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| 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 |
| 1998–04 | Canberra Raiders | 165 | 65 | 0 | 1 | 261 |
| 2005–08 | 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, ACT) is an Australian 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.
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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.
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]
He played 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.
Just before the 2009/2010 Super 14 season he retired from the game due to medical advice.
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