McHugh to play 300th game

Star loose forward Mark McHugh charges the ball up field against Marist. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Star loose forward Mark McHugh charges the ball up field against Marist. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
Top qualifier Marist will play Star on Rugby Park and Blues will play the Eastern Northern Barbarians at Les George Oval in the Galbraith Shield tomorrow.

A mainstay of the successful Star club over the past 18 years has been Mark McHugh.

The long-serving No8 is bringing up his 300th game in the blue and white hoops tomorrow.

The blockbusting 36-year-old played three seasons for the Southland Stags in the mid-2000s and one season for Taranaki.

McHugh also had a season playing professionally in Ireland.

He has played in 10 Galbraith Shield finals, winning five - the most recent in 2015.

After a dismal 2016 season McHugh felt obliged to continue playing in 2017 and led Star to the final against Marist.

McHugh took up a player and coaching role with the premier team in 2018 alongside Jason Harrison and Mark Tinnock.

McHugh was also co-coach of the Southland under-18 team last year.

This year Craig Pullar and Chris McIlwrick joined the Star coaching team and McHugh has been doing most of his talking on the field.

Marist beat Star 42-19 last week in the last round-robin match but Star has the firepower to reverse that result.

Star has loose forward Jordan Stewart back from suspension this week to stop rampaging Marist No8 Pasilio Tosi in his tracks.

Blues required one competition point from its match last week against the Barbarians to secure its finals spot but ended up winning 22-12.

Both sides are looking forward to the rematch tomorrow.

In the Ack Soper Shield, top qualifier Wyndham will play Te Anau and Edendale will host Midlands.

Midlands looks to be peaking at the right time after beating Wyndham 31-24 last week, Wyndham's first loss of the season.

Midlands Coach Dayna Cunningham was pleased with the commitment his team showed.

"With three minutes remaining Wyndham had us under extreme pressure but our guys dug deep to hold on."

Cunningham took his team down to Rowena Jackson Retirement Village, in Invercargill, to visit Ack Soper on Monday night.

"We wanted the boys to see that he's not just a name on a shield, he's a real bloke who contributed a lot to rugby.

"He was an All Black who played over 100 games for Southland and joined his father as a life member of the union.

"It was good for our boys to acknowledge him for his services to the game and I'm hoping it might've tweaked something in them, encouraged them to try and win Ack's shield."

Midlands knows it has a job in front of it at Edendale tomorrow.

The Magpies have beaten Midlands three times already this year and will be smarting after losing to Riversdale 25-22 last week.

Division one and two teams are playing their final round-robin matches tomorrow.

 - John Langford 

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