David Ferguson: Four-time winner Stark rooting for first club to strike blow for the west

The Scotland winger was a key part of Melrose's first cup final appearance, in 1997, and went on to win the final with Glasgow Hawks and Boroughmuir (twice) over the next four years. The great irony is, having been born in Irvine and raised in Ayr, the one team he would have dearly loved to win a cup with was today's first-time finalists.

"But that was not an option then," said Stark yesterday as he reflected on his now sepia-tinged cup memories. "People always used to call me a mercenary, but it wasn't like that," he protested. "I first left Ayr because they were down the divisions and the proof that joining Boroughmuir was the right move came when I got into the Scotland team later that year.

"Then when the game went professional I was good friends with Bryan Redpath and Craig Chalmers in the Scotland team, so when they suggested I come to Melrose I liked the idea of us all improving as players together at club level to become better at international level.

"Melrose had won the league the year before and with a back line in 97/98 of Redpath, Chalmers, Graham Shiel, Scott Nichol, myself and Mark Moncrieff, and Rowen Shepherd, and a forward pack that included the likes of Carl Hogg and Craig Redpath – who would go on to build this Ayr team to what it is now – it maybe wasn't a surprise we won the double.

"But after that Jim Telfer (then SRU Director of Rugby] said he wanted guys like me, who played for Glasgow, to move to a club in our district and that was when I joined Hawks. They were a new club in Division Two, but we won the league and cup that year.

"After I finished pro rugby I went back to Boroughmuir because we lived less than a mile from Meggetland and I had fond memories of the club. And, lo and behold, we became the first club to get to the cup final two years on the trot, and so win it twice in a row. So I'm not that big-headed that I'd say I was the difference for all those sides, but I wouldn't agree that I was a mercenary either!"

That second occasion and his fourth and final win, when 'Muir defeated Melrose 39-15 in 2001, has particularly poignant memories for Stark, however. It was to be his last rugby match, he scored his final try with the last act of the game, and his brother Alan was there to share in the celebrations. Alan was killed less than five months later when he was run down by a truck.

"Yes, that final probably means more to me than any of them, because Alan was there and it was my final game," agrees Stark, "but, in a purely rugby sense, they all were special.

"A cup final always is – it is special for football teams getting to Hampden Park, for the players, their families and the club's supporters, and it is just the same for rugby clubs, especially for players who don't get the chance to play at Murrayfield at any other time in their career.

"But, to be honest, I can't believe that that first final was 13 years ago. Nah. Couldn't have been. Really? 13! Though, when you think about it, the guys I played with at Ayr will be there for this one – only we're all the next generation now and will be there as supporters. But 13. Really?"

Stark was always famed for his youthful spirit, and it is clear in this conversation after weekends spent at Aintree and Ayr racecourses – Stark now runs a sports hospitality business – that little has changed, even if he has been happily married for eight years to Tracey and is now a father of two girls.

The excitement felt around Ayr and Ayrshire rugby at a first cup final expedition has evidently been caught by the former Scotland winger and he will be on one of the 12 buses booked up by the club and heading east today.

He added: "Melrose always made the cup final a great family day and there is a similar feeling with Ayr. I think it's good for rugby in Scotland to have someone from down the west coast in the main cup final for the first time, if you exclude the city boys of Hawks.

"And the big thing for me now with what Ayr have achieved is that it means boys no longer have to leave the area like I did to experience rugby success. The team has been helped by a few Antipodeans in recent seasons, and some are key men this weekend, but there is a great youth structure building now and I'd even say that if we had the money in Scottish rugby a pro team in Ayrshire would be a possibility.

"But this weekend is just about enjoying it. Part of me wishes I was there with them, my home club, but commonsense says I'm better with my old Ayr team-mates in the stand, and in the bar afterwards. I can't lose of course as one of my old clubs will win!"

Former Melbourne Storm chief executive Brian Waldron has resigned from his role with new Super 15 franchise the Melbourne Rebels.

Waldron was accused by John Hartigan, the chairman and CEO of News Limited, who own the Storm, of being "the architect of the whole shooting match" after the Storm were yesterday stripped of their 2007 and 2009 NRL Premiership titles for breaching salary cap regulations.

Waldron joined the Rebels as chief executive earlier this year in what was hailed as a major coup for rugby union, but his position has now become untenable. The controversial administrator offered his resignation to the Rebels hierarchy during a conference call at an emergency board meeting yesterday.

Hartigan said yesterday: "It's early days, but he appears to be the architect of the whole shooting match. We don't want people like that in sport."

Former Manly Sea Eagles manager Pat Wilson has been named acting chief executive officer.