Vive le David, king of tries
The Mead for speed lives long in memories of Gold Coast fans
HE has just had his Titans try-scoring record broken but for David Mead, his newest challenge is in another ballpark altogether.
The popular speedster is in his second English Super League season at the Frenchbased Catalans Dragons, with whom he won the Challenge Cup final at Wembley last year.
Mead and his family – that has now expanded to four with the arrival of son Coven in February – are working on getting up to speed with the native language, especially given the barriers it presented early on.
“Our very first night we arrived in Perpignan, I decided to go drive through McDonald’s to order three different meals for my wife, child and I,” the 30-year-old recalled.
“After I paid, they gave me the bag and it had two barbecue sauces and an apple juice.
“I’m proud to say since then my French has improved and I can order a proper meal now.”
Having first burst on to the scene representing his Papua New Guinea homeland at the 2008 World Cup, Mead debuted for the Titans the following year and proceeded to score 67 tries across eight years and 147 appearances for the club.
When pressed on his favourite moment in Titans colours, Mead couldn’t go past his maiden NRL try, scored in a home win over the Warriors.
“I remember getting an intercept and just hearing everyone cheering, which was pretty cool. It’s something you envision growing up as a kid so when it happened I was pretty happy,” he said.
And as for his long-time teammate Anthony Don breaking his record last Sunday night?
“Boogs is an outstanding player and more importantly a great person,” Mead said.
“I think if you were to ask anyone who knows him they would have a very positive opinion of him.
“(Breaking the record is) a great achievement for him because he is someone who never gave up on his dream to play NRL.”