A product of the Stirling County youth programme and the Scottish Institute of Sport, Mark has played in all three age groups for Scotland. He had two years in the under-18 squad, captaining the team in 2000-2001.
The following season he was in Scotland's under-19 squad in the IRB/FIRA world junior championship in Italy, and in the past season he started only as back-up scrum half behind Chris Cusiter for the Six Nations’ under-21 tournament.
However, he took over when Chris was injured against Wales at Henley in the opening game of that age group's World Cup, and he went on to play as starting scrum half in Scotland’s four other matches.
Mark won a scholarship which took him to Australia for a six month stint with Northern Suburbs in Sydney