Mark Blair is an Irish former rugby union player, who played lock professionally for Edinburgh, Ulster, RC Narbonne and the Border Reivers.
However, he sustained an ankle ligament injury playing five-a-side football in the summer, arrived unfit, and began the season for Ulster behind part-timer Murtagh Rea.
He eventually won a starting spot in the second row alongside Gary Longwell[1] playing in eight successive wins on the way to Ulster's victory in the 1999 Heineken Cup Final.
He had signed for three years, but left after a single season after the new coach objected to him going home to attend his brother's wedding.
[3] He set up a property development company with his brother-in-law,[8] and worked for the IRFU Exiles programme until 2017.