Cork’s Ben Mitchell was recently named in the 33-man United States squad for their training camp in advance of a series of matches against Romania, Portugal and Georgia in August. When the 6ft 7in secondrow stands proudly for The Star-Spangled Banner on his first cap for his adopted country, he will have completed a rare journey to international rugby.
Mitchell’s rise to international recognition is a story about refusing to accept limitations on your talent. He started his rugby apprenticeship at home with Youghal Rugby Club and Midleton College as a talented centre and fullback relatively far from the big rugby nurseries of Cork.
Mitchell’s size, strength and handling ability got him noticed at UCC before he was encouraged by coaches to move into the second row two years into his college career. Only then, after consistently impressing in the All-Ireland League (AIL), did Mitchell realise that he might have an opportunity at making a living from the game.
“Yeah, I suppose it was pretty late, like, a lot later than guys normally would consider a pro career. It was probably around my third year during college, so I would have been 21, and that’s only two years’ playing as a secondrow, but I was starting to play really good rugby in the AlL with the team. That’s when my coaches at UCC at the time were like, look, you could go on and probably play at a higher level if you want to, if you keep progressing at the rate you are.
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“And it was about then when there was a bit of interest coming from Munster who were reaching out and sort of inquiring and taking a look and there was also a little bit of interest from Pau in France too. Unfortunately, nothing ever happened with either of them, but I knew that there was interest from professional teams. So that was about the time when I realised I could probably really make a career out of this.”
The road to professional rugby is lined with challenges and obstacles. Perhaps your skill set doesn’t fit with the coach’s playbook, there are too many players ahead of you in your position, or maybe you don’t possess the huge mental strength needed to win a contract. Mitchell understood the challenges of the game better than most. He was born without fingers on one hand. He never made excuses. To him, it was and is irrelevant. Mitchell let his significant talent on the field do the talking for him.
“There was never any moment in my life where I was like, I can’t do this or I can’t do that. I’ve never known anything different. I’ve never had the mindset where I just can’t do something. I was born without any fingers on my left hand. So basically, I just have a palm. I think I was about 18 months old when I had complex surgery. Basically, it was a toe to hand transplant. I had that done really young and then just sort of lived the rest of my life.
“To me it’s irrelevant. I guess some people would sometimes be like, that’s amazing, fair play to you. But for me, I don’t even think about it. I don’t consider myself any different than anyone else. It’s great if it inspires, say, like a younger kid or something, that’s great, but to me, I’m no different to anyone.”
Mitchell’s life as a young student in Cork was great. He was playing free-flowing rugby at college, with an emphasis on playing what was in front of him and enjoying long summers with his friends working in the States. Like most young Irish students, he had done the pilgrimages to Boston and Santa Barbara but decided in his third summer to try the beautiful Colorado city of Aspen after being encouraged by a friend of the family. The move to the mountains changed Mitchell’s life and put him in contact with the late Springbok and Ulster player Pedrie Wannenburg, who was coaching professional rugby in Austin, Texas.
“It was 2016, and I just loved it over there. I was playing rugby for the local club there in Aspen having fun, just on the classic J1 summer. I went home and played an AIL season in between, but came back out for the second summer, got out there and there were rumblings of the Major League Rugby starting.
“By chance, one of the ex-Aspen players saw me playing in Aspen and he had a friend who happened to be Pedrie Wannenburg, who was involved with the Austin team in the league. I sent them a highlights tape and told them I was super keen to stay in the States. And yeah, thankfully it worked out and I had an offer from them. I had heard really great things about Austin and Pedrie was really great at the time. I decided to commit to that, then I went home after that summer and got my visa sorted. And by the end of the year, I was over to Austin to start my first year in professional rugby.”
Mitchell has played in Major League Rugby since its first season in 2018, becoming one of its most respected and talented players. He started with the Austin Elite, moved to the San Diego Legion before arriving at his current club, the Seattle Seawolves this season.
The 2031 Rugby World Cup will take place in the United States, and having a professional league in the country is an essential part of growing the game in terms of quality and fan base. Mitchell has had a front-row seat watching the development of rugby in the country, playing against everyone from superstars of the game such as the former Wallaby Matt Giteau to raw former college American football players. The standard of opposition can certainly fluctuate in the league.
It’s incredibly exciting. It’s like the stuff you dream about when you’re a kid. If someone had told me when I was a kid that I would have had a chance to play rugby for the States, I would never have believed it
“It’s variable. But saying that the standard has gone up a lot since the first year, it’s kind of improved pretty much every year. It’s probably actually flatlined a little bit in the last two or three years. It was sort of progressing nicely. The jump from year one to year two was really high, and then it was the same two to three. And then year four, there was that ridiculous Los Angeles Giltinis team and I don’t think there’s probably been a team as good as that since. They had ridiculous names like Matt Giteau and Adam Ashley-Cooper on the team sheet and there was an endless list of top guys that were playing there.
“Most of the younger American players that would have been in the league the first couple of years might have been quite raw. Well, they’re six years into full-time training and now they’re really good rugby players. And the quality of the international guys in the league has gone up over the years. There are obviously quite a few good Irish players, but there are a ton of National Provincial Championship players from New Zealand, and those of similar levels in, say, Australia. So, yeah, it’s become a really good standard of rugby.”
Today, Mitchell’s life is firmly rooted in the United States. His fiancee is from Aspen and he will settle in the country after his rugby career is over. He has been eligible for the Eagles since the end of 2020, and representing the United States internationally has been something that he has been determined to achieve. Growing up in Cork and running around in the back garden with two Munster-mad parents, his dreams were once focused on playing at Thomond Park and maybe even the Aviva. Today his dream is different.
“It’s incredibly exciting. It’s like the stuff you dream about when you’re a kid. If someone had told me when I was a kid that I would have had a chance to play rugby for the States, I would never have believed it. But now that I’m over here, living over here and this is what I consider my home now. I can’t wait to hopefully get capped in the summer. Equally, it’s obviously not a sure thing yet. I’ll have to compete with three other second rowers for a position. But, I’m really excited to get stuck into camp in July.”
Mitchell is settling into life in Seattle. After the sunshine of San Diego and Austin, he is slowly getting used to more of an Irish style of climate. The league has enabled him to travel across the US and given him friendships from around the world. He has open invitations to stay at family homes from Fiji to France. Most importantly, he is grateful to his adopted country for its ethos of opportunity. His rugby career is a testament to the fact that anything is possible with hard work and talent.
“A big thing about the States is that there’s so much opportunity and there’s sort of like this attitude that everyone has that anything’s possible in terms of your career and the quality of life that you can have. There’s a really positive outlook on life here and I love that. I think I could have made it elsewhere but would it have been harder? I think it’s a bit easier in America for a lot of different reasons, but I think the mindset thing is a big one. Everyone’s got the same mindset where anything’s possible.”
When Mitchell finally makes his international debut, the clubhouses at Youghal and UCC will be filled with former team-mates, coaches, family and friends who were there at the start of the journey. Once the whistle sounds, Mitchell will not be easily shifted from the Eagles shirt. He will play the game as he always has – relentlessly.
