Shawn Mackay (31 May 1982 – 6 April 2009) was an Australian

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In it ...

player with the Canberra based

Brumbies The ACT Brumbies (known from 2005–2022 as simply the Brumbies) is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), The team competes in Super Rugby and named for the brumby, feral horses whi ...

in the Super 14 competition. He was the son of former

Eastern Suburbs Eastern Suburbs may refer to: Places *Eastern Suburbs (Mumbai), India *Eastern Suburbs (Sydney), Australia **Eastern Suburbs railway line, Sydney, Australia Sports clubs ;Association football *Eastern Suburbs AFC, Auckland, New Zealand * Eastern ...

rugby league Rugby league football, commonly known as just rugby league and sometimes football, footy, rugby or league, is a full-contact sport played by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular field measuring 68 metres (75 yards) wide and 11 ...

player John Mackay.

Career

Mackay began playing rugby as a 6-year-old for the Clovelly Sea Eagles, alongside great friend and former

Wallabies A wallaby () is a small or middle-sized macropod native to Australia and New Guinea, with introduced populations in New Zealand, Hawaii, the United Kingdom and other countries. They belong to the same taxonomic family as kangaroos and so ...

vice Captain

Morgan Turinui Morgan Turinui (born 5 January 1982 in Sydney) is an Australian rugby union footballer who currently is a rugby commentator for Stan Sport and Channel Nine in Australia. Early life Turinui was educated at the Sydney school of Waverley College. ...

. Mackay and Turinui attended St Anthony's in Clovelly and

Waverley College , motto_translation = Virtue alone ennobles , location = 131 Birrell Street , city = Waverley, New South Wales , country = Australia , coordinates = , type = Independent early learn ...

together. He was the best man at Turinui's wedding and godfather to his son Felix. These two great mates played together in the

First XV, along with Mackay's fellow

teammates Stephen Hoiles and

Patrick Phibbs Patrick Phibbs (born 16 October 1981) is an Australian Professional Rugby Union player currently based in Reading with London Irish. Career Phibbs played his junior Rugby with Randwick DRUFC in the Sydney club competition. He represented Austr ...

. Mackay signed with the

Sydney Roosters The Sydney Roosters are an Australian professional Rugby League Football Club based in the Eastern Suburbs (Sydney) and parts of inner Sydney. The club competes in the National Rugby League (NRL) competition. The Roosters have won fifteen Ne ...

in the NRL in 2000, and won a Premiership with their Jersey Flegg side in 2002. He returned to rugby union in 2004 with the

Australian Sevens The Australia Sevens is an international rugby sevens tournament that was first played in 1986. Currently hosted as the Sydney Sevens, the event is part of the World Rugby Sevens Series. The tournament was held in Brisbane, in Adelaide, and o ...

, and became the Captain of the team in 2005 through until 2008. He was the team captain at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Mackay signed with the Waratahs in 2006 and won 6 state caps for the NSW side. In 2007 he played with the

Melbourne Rebels The Melbourne Rebels is an Australian professional rugby union team based in Melbourne. They made their debut in SANZAR's Super Rugby tournament in 2011. They were the first privately owned professional rugby union team in Australia, until 2017 ...

in the

Australian Rugby Championship The Australian Rugby Championship, often abbreviated to the ARC and also known as the Mazda Australian Rugby Championship for sponsorship purposes, is a now-defunct domestic professional men's rugby union football competition in Australia, which ...

. Mackay signed with the

for the 2009 Super 14 season and won 2 caps for the Canberra club. He played with Randwick for 4 seasons, and joined the University of Queensland at the completion of the 2008 Sevens calendar. Mackay coached the Australian women's Sevens team to the Oceania title in 2008. The team was undefeated and they qualified for the inaugural women's IRB World Cup 7s tournament. The team would go on to win the inaugural event in March 2009. Cheryl Soon, the team's captain, affectionately called Mackay "one of the girls". Mackay had said to the side that if Sevens became an Olympic Sport then he would have returned to coach the side.

Death

Mackay played for the Brumbies in their 35–14 loss to the

Sharks Sharks are a group of elasmobranch fish characterized by a cartilaginous skeleton, five to seven gill slits on the sides of the head, and pectoral fins that are not fused to the head. Modern sharks are classified within the clade Selachimorp ...

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on 28 March 2009. At 4:15 am, 29 March 2009, a mere 3 hours and 45 minutes before the season opening F1 race in his native Australia, Mackay and 15 Brumbies teammates left a Durban nightclub. While crossing the road to board the team bus, Shawn was hit by the driver of an armed response vehicle. He suffered a badly broken leg, along with head and spinal injuries. One of the first people to attend to Mackay was

prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...

Jannie du Plessis Jan Nathaniel du Plessis (born 16 November 1982 in Bethlehem, Free State) is a South African rugby union player, who plays as a prop for in the French Top 14 and the Lions in Super Rugby. He played for the in the Currie Cup and the in Super ...

, a practising doctor, who was with the Brumbies group at the time. Du Plessis contacted emergency services and helped Mackay breathe while awaiting their arrival. Mackay was stabilised and taken to St Augustine's hospital in Durban and placed into a medically induced coma. Mackay died from a cardiac arrest caused by a blood infection following surgery on 6 April 2009. A Minutes Applause was held in Mackay's honour for the Brumbies emotional homecoming against the Stormers on 11 April 2009. The Brumbies won the game 17–10. Shawn's longtime friend

scored the match winning try in the 60th minute. "That one was for Macca," said Phibbs. Mackay's funeral was held on 15 April 2009 at Mary Immaculate Church in

Waverley Waverley may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Waverley'' (novel), by Sir Walter Scott ** ''Waverley'' Overture, a work by Hector Berlioz inspired by Scott's novel * Waverley Harrison, a character in the New Zealand soap opera ''Shortland Stree ...

. Seven jerseys were placed on his coffin to recognize his rugby career - the Clovelly Sea Eagles, Waverley College, the Roosters, Randwick, the Melbourne Rebels, the Australian Sevens and the Brumbies. Celebrant Father Lucas profoundly said: "He might not have had a full life, but it sounds to me he was full of life." The Brumbies dedicated the 2009 Super 14 to Shawn. The number 18 jersey, that he wore in the match against the Sharks, was retired for the remainder of the season.

References

External links

Brumbies profile
- Mackay's family thanks Brumbies, 11 May 2009 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mackay, Shawn 1982 births 2009 deaths Australian rugby union players ACT Brumbies players Road incident deaths in South Africa Infectious disease deaths in South Africa Pedestrian road incident deaths Rugby sevens players at the 2006 Commonwealth Games Australia international rugby sevens players Male rugby sevens players Commonwealth Games rugby sevens players for Australia Deaths from sepsis Rugby union players from Sydney People educated at Waverley College