New Orleans Gold & John Sullivan

The New Orleans Gold Rugby Club signed Mystic River John Sullivan for the 2018 Major League Rugby season. He is a versatile player, who has played all three back-row positions, as well as wing and full-back.

John is from Orchard Park, New York. He went to Orchard Park High School and began to play rugby his sophomore year for the Orchard Park Rugby Club. He also ran indoor track that year.

After high school, John enrolled at St. Bonaventure in 2011and pursued their 5 years BBA/MBA program. He majored in accounting and minored in economics for the undergraduate degree, and graduated in 2015. At the conclusion of the fifth year, he obtained an MBA in 2016. For his 5 years at the University, he played rugby.

His rugby honors at St. Bonaventure University include All-Empire Conference first side fullback his sophomore year and with the same honors at wing his junior year. His Senior year and his 5th year in Graduate School, he was selected to the second side All Rugby East Conference at outside center and at No. 8, respectively. In 2016 he was also a Collegiate All American honorable mention.

While in college, John also played rugby sevens with the Columbus Rugby Club/ 1823 Sevens during the Summers of 2013 and 2014.

After obtaining his graduate degree, John played rugby with the Mystic River Rugby Club during the 2016-2017 seasons as an outside center, No. 8 and flanker. His performance also gained him recognition with the club for the 2016 Rookie of the Year Award.

John’s rugby sevens play also brought him to the Las Vegas Invitational in 2016 where he played with Stars Rugby 7s where the team became Shield Champions. He also played with them at the Rugbytown 7s that August. To conclude that year’s sevens season, he played with the Northeast Academy at the New York 7s and the Barbados 7s. The team left both tournaments as Cup champions.

In 2017, he also went to the Las Vegas Invitational with the Northeast Academy, where the team finished in 5th/6th place. Then he played with Mystic River in the 2017 Northeast Summer club sevens competition.

At the end of the Summer, he again went to the Rugbytown 7s and played with Negro y Azul, where they finished in 6th place.

Comments

John is excited about playing professional rugby. He indicated that “My goal is to play the best rugby I can and become the best player I can. MLR is going to let me do that, so I’m pumped to have this opportunity, and I can’t wait to move down to New Orleans and get started.”

He also reflected on his rugby experiences saying that “Playing the sport I love has given me so many opportunities to make a lot of great friends and travel all over the country.