He will forever be known for the score that was not awarded during the 2007 Rugby World Cup final against South Africa when his left foot went into touch before he grounded the ball and Television Match Official Stuart Dickinson ruled ‘no try’.

Mark arrived at the 2007 RWC as a full back, starting against the USA after playing there in the final RBS 6 Nations match against Wales at the Millennium Stadium and against France in August. That game in Marseille marked a return to international action for the Sale Sharks player who missed the 2007 summer tour to South Africa to fully recover from a left calf injury.

By the third RWC game against Samoa he was back in his more familiar wing position and subsequently played against Tonga. He was not considered for the quarter final against Australia because of a left hamstring strain but returned for the final.

Born in a rugby league town Workington, he played mini rugby from the age of five to eight at Netherhall and then Dudley Kingswinford in the Midlands before his parents moved to soccer-mad Crewe and he opted for football at St Thomas Moore High School. At 17 he took up rugby again and the converted left back hasn’t given a backward glance since.

Splitting his time between a sports science degree at Manchester Metropolitan University, Sale U21s, Sale Jets and Altrincham Kersal, who took him under their wing, Mark blossomed.

He toured Argentina with England in 2002, playing in the midweek victory against the Pumas A, and went to the Churchill Cups of 2003 and 2004 in North America. He scored five tries in ten matches for England A, including a hat-trick against Scotland at Northampton in March 2003, before winning a senior call up.

One of the few players in Premiership history to notch over 50 tries, he started the third Test for the British and Irish Lions in New Zealand in 2005.

He scored nine tries in 12 Guinness Premiership matches for Sale this season – his best league return since season 2004-5.

Did you know?

Mark owes his name to Antonio Cueto, who sailed from Santander, Spain, about 100 years ago and ended in the north west of England. He travelled in search of work, found it in Cumbria and settled in the small Cumbrian town of Maryport outside Workington.

Mark is part of the third generation of the English branch of the family, and inherited genes that came with a thirst for the sporting life. Frank Cueto, his great-uncle, played rugby league for Warrington. Frank later joined the RAF and was killed in World War II.

Mark has Alsager Comprehensive teacher Lindsay Purcell to thank for getting him back into rugby 12 years after his own father Frank had taken him down to Netherhall. He press-ganged Mark into the annual game against a team from Holmes Chapel and he scored a couple of tries. “Mark had pace, power, a thumping hand off; his lines of running were excellent and he had fantastic hand-to-eye coordination. He just didn’t drop the ball. This was a kid who had hardly played the game and I thought, ‘He’s a natural’.”