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Wayne Smith | February 09, 2008
HIS Western Force team-mates might have been celebrating walking off the ground as winners against the Queensland Reds in Perth on Thursday night but for Lachlan MacKay merely being able to walk off at full-time was cause enough to pop the champagne.
Almost from the moment the former Waratahs five-eighth made his one and so far only Test appearance, against the All Blacks in Auckland in 2005, MacKay has been blighted by injury.
That was the year the Force triumphantly announced him as one of its star foundation season signings, but 2006 and 2007 came and went with MacKay able to make it on to the field for only three of 26 Super 14 matches.
He lasted barely 38 minutes of the Force's debut match against the Brumbies on February 10, 2006, before sustaining a grade three medial ligament tear that caused him to miss all but the final two rounds of the competition that year.
No sooner was MacKay back, than he tore a groin muscle playing for the Perth Spirit against a touring Japanese side, an injury that would linger through 2007, flaring up again when he attempted a return during the Australian Rugby Championship last year.
And just to remind MacKay that absolutely nothing could be taken for granted, he strained his hamstring two weeks ago.
All of which explains why he was overjoyed merely to survive his 25 minutes against the Reds in the Force's final pre-Super 14 trial at Members Equity Stadium on Thursday without his body failing him again.
"Just walking off was a dream," said MacKay yesterday.
"Fingers crossed, but my body is finally starting to feel OK."
He is still only 25 but the two years the locusts ate have taken a heavy toll of his career.
The pin-up boy on the verge of an exciting Test career who made his debut at Eden Park against the All Blacks is now the hungry bench player, blocked for a start at five-eighth by Matt Giteau and at inside centre by Scott Staniforth.
MacKay, however, has come to terms with the new reality.
"Gits has got the 10 jersey sewn up and same with Scotty at 12, so my role is to back them up," he said.
"If something opens up, that's great, but, after all the injury I've had, I wouldn't wish that on anyone."
Even allowing for the fact that the Reds had rested key players Chris Latham, Morgan Turinui, Hugh McMeniman and Stephen Moore by early in the second half, the Force dealt with the virtual full-strength Queensland outfit with surprising ease.
The post-match whisper coming out of Perth was that the Reds did not look match-fit, despite having played earlier trials against NSW and the Blues.
Force captain Nathan Sharpe wasn't buying into such dismissive talk and pointed to the fact that his former team did do a lot of chopping and changing as the match progressed.
"The game was a lot faster than our Melbourne trial against the Crusaders," Sharpe said.
"What we'll take a fair bit of confidence from, as we head off to South Africa next Tuesday, is that we have a lot of depth on our bench. A lot of the young blokes did very well, especially James Stannard, who filled in very well at halfback when Matt Henjak pulled out at the last minute with a groin strain.
"And, although James O'Connor was only given 15 minutes or so at the end, he went very well by any standards, let alone for someone who is only 17."
The Reds will have powerhouse winger Digby Ioane back from knee injury and available for selection next Friday against a Highlanders side that dispelled the theory it would struggle without All Black front-rowers Carl Hayman and Anton Oliver by demolishing the Blues 42-21 in a trial yesterday in Dunedin.
MacKay grateful for finishing well | The Australian
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Lachlan MacKay
Originally Posted by Ecky
CHEERLEADERS ROCK!!! 
Reckon the only reason he takes it off is coz it gets in the way during games!
