The Otago Whalers standoff engineered a convincing 34-0 win over the Southland Rams to claim the South Island Championship title at the North Ground on Saturday.
It was not his first trip to the winner’s circle this year.
Incredibly, it was his fourth title, and he is chasing a fifth this Saturday when the Whalers play the Auckland Vulcans in the National Championship final.
The winner of that game earns promotion to the Premiership.
You would not bet against Haugh arranging another victory.
He has basically helped win everything he has been involved with this year.
Dunedin club rugby fans will recall fondly how he set up a shock 26-20 win over Taieri for Southern in the premier final with a stunning chip, chase and angled run to the line.
He did not quite get there, but a teammate was on hand to finish off.
Haugh was also a key cog during the South Pacific Raiders’ successful campaign to win the club rugby league senior title.
Astonishingly, he played in two games on the day of the club rugby league final.
Earlier that day, he helped the Southern Bush Pigs win their semifinal in the under-85kg National Club Cup.
The Bush Pigs went on to claim the crown the following week.
Haugh is not the only multiple winner in the Whalers’ camp — there are quite a few of them. But he is the only one striving for five.
"One more to go next week," Haugh said.
"If we win that, we get promoted to the Premiership next year which will be pretty exciting stuff.
"Hopefully I can cap off a good season by playing some golf."
He is probably good at that as well. He is certainly an ace with the oval ball in his hand.
Just the suggestion of a gap is enough for the slight man to slip by a defender. He is in possession of a tremendous skip pass and his spiral punt is a weapon.
The Rams certainly could not deal with it. He kindly targeted the Southland fullback with a series of testing up-and-unders, and it proved a very productive tactic.
He mostly ran, though, and played a part in the opening try to Lawrence Ualesi.
Centre Sione Fa’aoso and second-rower Israel Otunuku both barged their way over to help the Whalers to a 18-0 lead at the break.
The visitors had plenty of opportunities to reply but must have fumbled the ball when in striking range at least half a dozen times during the course of the game.
The Whalers really stepped up their defensive effort, so can take some credit for the Rams’ error rate.
But, by and large, handling let the Rams down.
They showed good character not to give it away during the second half. But the Whalers had too much firepower.
Sam Wyber made a big impact from the bench and netted himself a try. Wingers Kiardyn Hatch and Piliu Tavake also got on the score sheet.
Forward Champ Betham made some thundering tackles, and Haugh and Jordan McEntee pulled all the right levers in the halves.
That pair will be key on Saturday when Whalers press for further glory.
South Island final
The scores
Otago Whalers 34
Lawrence Ualesi, Sione Fa’aoso, Israel Otunuku, Sam Wyber, Kiardyn Hatch, Piliu Tavake tries; Mackenzie Haugh 5 con
Southland Rams 0
Halftime: Whalers 18-0.
