By Jon Geddes

FORMER North Sydney Bears NRL star Mark Soden has made an extraordinary comeback to the field  – playing alongside three of his sons in a subbies rugby game on Saturday.

The 54-year-old “Papa Bear,” who played 180 games for the Bears between 1988-99, teamed up with his sons Joe, 29, Charlie, 27, and Lewi, 23, in the Terrey Hills Wolves team that recorded their first win of the year beating Epping 22-0 at Terrey Hills Oval in the Halligan Cup.

One of the feelgood rugby stories of the season was a very special moment for the proud dad and his boys –  a unique experience that they will treasure forever.

Adding to the occasion Soden’s wife Lisa was on the sideline after originally saying she wasn’t going to watch, no doubt fearing that it wouldn’t end well.

“To be out there with my boys was one of the most special moments of my life,” Soden told Rugby News.

“At one stage we were standing together in the backline and then we walk off together.”

The invitation to have a run with the Wolves was one that the tough-as-teak former rugby league halfback and hooker could not resist.    

“Lewi has been playing with them all year and he said ‘it’s been a dream of mine to play on the same footy field as you. Do you want to come and play’,” Soden said.

“I said ‘OK, I will have a five-minute cameo’.

“Then we started warming up and I did the numbers and there were only 15 of us and I went ‘no, here we go’,” he laughed.

 Soden ended up playing virtually the whole game as a roaming fullback wearing the No.20 jumper.

LEAGUE CONVERT HAS A BALL

THE only other rugby game Soden had previously played was in a fifth grade outing for Manly when he was enticed to have run by his former Bears’ teammate and ex-Marlins’ star Matty Skene.

“I loved it, it was just good fun, it was just being in a team again and the club is terrific,” Soden senior said after the game.

 “I rang my mate who is a rugby nut and asked what were the rules for stealing the ball?

“He said unlike league you can just take the ball. I said ‘thank you’ and got three steals in tackles.”

And none of the Epping players revved up the veteran in the opposition team.

“I gave them a hard time, the only one sledging was me,”  Soden said.       

And even losing some bark from his forehead after making a tackle could not dampen Soden’s enthusiasm.

What makes Soden’s “comeback” even more amazing is that he underwent a shoulder reconstruction last Christmas, a result of the wear and tear his body endured in his 12 years on the frontline with North Sydney.

“The muscle came off the bone and they had to reattach it,” he said. “That was my fourth serious shoulder operation.”

And this week he has an appointment with a specialist to have his fifth surgery on the other shoulder.

Soden seems to have got the itch back and is considering  pulling on the boots again with the Wolves and this time also alongside his eldest son Sam, who was disappointed he was not available to join the rest of the clan on the weekend.       

He is also planning to contact his former North Sydney teammate Les Kiss, who has just been appointed coach of the Queensland Reds, seeking a train and trial contract.