Rugby rebirth beats life on the beat

By CHRIS RATTUE

Mark Cooksley has hardly missed a beat on the field since he emerged from what many predicted would be rugby oblivion for the lengthy lock.

Had it not been for the intervention of new Chiefs coach John Mitchell, Cooksley might have been walking a police beat instead of playing rugby.

After seasons dogged by injuries, a "form slump" - as Cooksley himself puts it - and being dropped by Waikato and largely ignored by Chiefs coach Ross Cooper last season, things were looking more down than usual for someone who towers over most of his fellow citizens.

The 29-year-old Cooksley has long intended to join the police when his rugby career is over. With his sporting career apparently declining, he took the first steps, including the medical to join the Porirua training school.

But squad cars can wait for the moment, rugby squads are still beckoning: Mitchell made him one of the surprise selections in his 2001 Chiefs squad.

"A lot of people don't get given a second chance. John has given me that," he says. "He has put a lot of faith in me, and I've got to deliver for him ... pay him back."

Cooksley is extending a career that only really happened by chance.

He broke his neck diving into a pool when he was eight, was left in a neck brace for six months and was told by doctors that he had narrowly escaped being a quadriplegic.

As a result, he was not allowed to play rugby for many years and had no interest in the game. He played soccer instead until, at 16, he followed a couple of mates to training at Manurewa High School - and ended up in the first XV.

Cooksley's height undoubtedly played a part in the coach's enthusiasm, although why he should have been springing up at such a rate was a mystery.

His father is an average 1.8m, although his mother is moderately tall at 1.78m. Cooksley's sister is just 1.63m, and the only sign of real height he has found anywhere was a grandmother's brother at 1.88m.

Yet at a shade over two metres tall (around 6ft 8in the old money) and around 125kg, Cooksley is often referred to as the biggest All Black.

"A freak," he laughs.

"There's no one else in my immediate family over six feet tall."

His career has also been dotted with firsts that belong in the strange but true column. He was the first All Black to be "substituted" in a test when coach Laurie Mains told him he had a leg injury during the test against the Lions at Athletic Park in 1993 and sent on Ian Jones, in the days before replacements were permitted.

Two years later, he became the first All Black to be shown a yellow card in a match in France after punching the French Selection hooker, Herve Ghuraud. Trouble was, the card system did not apply to international rugby at the time, something the Irish referee Gordon Black was unaware of.

They were footnotes in a 21-game, nine-test All Black career that had faded and, until Mitchell's arrival from England, Cooksley's representative career seemed to be going the same way.

"I didn't want to leave New Zealand, and when I did call it quits I wanted to be on the top of my game and not basically kicked out the back door," says Cooksley at his home in the Hamilton suburb of Flagstaff, where he lives with his wife, Glenys, and three-year-old son, Ryan.

"Missing out on Waikato was a real disappointment. Playing for them was a big part of my life.

"When John came back I didn't know he was going to coach a Super 12 side, but obviously he hadn't come back here just to coach the Waikato Bs."

"I decided the best thing was to play for the Waikato Bs, and I found John's coaching really exciting to play under."

Mitchell helped Cooksley - who first emerged with the Counties team in 1990 - with technical aspects such as his body position, learning the Mitchell defensive patterns and, most important, getting much fitter.

The Chiefs squad was split into groups which trained five nights a week for two months for either a triathlon, decathlon or boxing match.

Cooksley started boxing with the front-rowers but was switched to the decathlon squad - he jokingly claims he had an unfair reach advantage.

He has benefited as much as anyone from the training regime, judging by the way he launched his frame around in wins over the Reds and Blues.

Where this will lead to remains to be seen, but his ambitions include regaining a place in the All Blacks.

"You've got to have something to reach for," says the man who can reach further than most.