Mark Davenport — Victorian Masters Rugby

Player: Mark Davenport aka Jumper

Position: Ex Back , Now Anywhere in the Forwards

Team: Maroondah Rugby Club

5 Nations team: Old Blacks 45s Co-Captain with Nigel Aiken

Mark ,Kiwi born but Australia is now Home.

Played School Boy rugby on the left wing /fullback and his idol then was the great Beegee Williams.

1st Xv player for Taradale High School ,Hawkes Bay Schoolboy trialist and a move down to Tawa in Wellington Mark played for the 1st XV in his last years of School

Freak accident helping out friends in a factory with a Forklift , Forklift won, crushed his big toe and it had to be amputated!So for a Kiwi no more Jandals!.

Played 2 years Social rugby at Canterbury University once back on track and then moved to Wellington to play Seniors for Hutt Old Boys where Mark (Cowboy) Shaw was to become the Seniors captain.

2 years in Sydney and playing Senior rugby for Waverley Rugby Union Club where he played with the likes of Owen Finnegan before another rugby opportunity from Wales came beckoning.

After 2 ½ years in Swansea and Cardiff he flew back to Sydney to trial out at Randwick and life changed for him on December the 12th 1994.

3 stories high Mark was running around the roof balcony , sidestepped over an Irish girl who flipped him onto the Balcony and unfortunately his balance tipped him over the edge and he ended up falling 3 stories head first onto a parked car.

He sustained life threatening injuries, Aorta tear, Punctured lung, broken ribs , broken jaw, broken pelvis , torn Urethra , small and large intestine damage, spleen removal , head injuries, kidney damage and was put into an induced coma for 19 days.

Waking up on January the 1st 1995 in Intensive care he was to stay in Hospital for a further 3 months to recover from his injuries and to this day praises the Doctors and Nurses at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick for saving his life. During this period, he lost his gall bladder and had a colostomy bag reversal.

Having to learn to walk again and lots of various rehab he was released after 3 ½ months weighing 47 kilos, ½ the body weight he was when admitted.

Back to New Zealand to recover with his Mother he lived in Wanaka for a year to recover and restart his life.

Met his ex wife in 2006, married in 2007 and his greatest achievement , Haylee Davenport was born in 2009.

During 2009 he was tempted down to the Maroondah Rugby Club to play touch and introduced himself as Markie Mark and ended up putting the boots on again playing Fullback and lasted 3 games when at the Melbourne University the cricket pitch won and he twisted his knee and blew out his ACL and meniscus. Another hospital visit he had a full knee reconstruction 2 weeks before the birth of his daughter! After Ray found out about Marks flying over a Balcony he was then known as “Jumper” , as Markie Mark wasn’t cool enough for the team ,not a nickname he loves but its stuck now!

Definitely believes you need to Live life to the fullest, and focus on the positive.