Mitchell McLeod bolts into Wellington Lions

Mitchell McLeod gets his pass away for OBU in pre-season in March this year. Photo: Andy McArthur. 

• By Steven White

“It’s fair to say if you had asked me at the start of the year it would have been a bit of a shock,” the understated Mitchell McLeod told Club Rugby in conversation this week.

The word ‘bolter’ is a fairly loose throwaway term in team and squad selections, but with fifth year Victoria University Architecture Masters student Mitchell McLeod it’s a fairly apt description.

Last week the Wellington Lions released McLeod’s name as one a few so far in advance of the full squad release for this year’s National Provincial Championship, prompting many to take note.

After all, McLeod has only made a handful of starts at halfback for the Old Boys University Billygoats this season.

McLeod is understudy at OBU to already established Wellington Lions halfback Kyle Preston, and he will presumably fill a similar role for Wellington in the NPC. Another OBU inside back, first five Callum Harkin, has also been revealed ahead of the full squad naming which happens after the Jubilee Cup final at Porirua Park on July 27.

Lions Assistant Coach Ryan Piper said this about him:

Mitchell’s a young, exciting talent, and his signing for us was around work ethic, and a diverse skill set. We’ve been really intentional about our decision to source local talent from our clubs this year, and Mitchell is coming in off the back of an impressive season with a strong OBU side.”

At the start of this year McLeod was a world away from rugby.

“I took a year off rugby in 2023 to take up the opportunity of a university exchange for six months in Eindhoven [Netherlands].

“Once that finished, I got an internship in Copenhagen [Denmark] so I went there for another six months.”

McLeod returned to Wellington at the start of this year and re-joined OBU, the club he had played for as a Colts player in 2020 and 2021 and Premier and Premier 2 teams in 2022.

“I was playing between those teams in 2022 and made my debut for the Premiers against Petone at the start of the season.”

He played five Premier matches in 2022 between rounds one and 10, twice at fullback, once at first-five and twice off the bench. He missed the latter part of that season with a hamstring injury, which was also a catalyst for making plans for his overseas experience the following year.

On Premier debut at fullback in round one of 2022. Photo: Caroline Lewis. 

Re-joining the Billygoats in pre-season this year was a no-brainer.

“I love the culture of the club, plus I got to link up again with several guys I have previously played with.”

Kyle Preston was away at the start of this season and McLeod was chosen at halfback in pre-season games and impressed and then played as the starting number nine in the first two rounds against Johnsonville (41-37) and Wainuiomata (55-12).

McLeod playing for OBU this past weekend against Tawa. Photo: Andy McArthur. 

“I [then] got called into the Wellington High training performance squad, so I thought that maybe I would have a good look at the Centurions teams for the end of the club year.

“I then got an opportunity to go down to Christchurch and play for the New Zealand Universities team, along with a few of my OBU teammates. I started the first game but got concussed and played the first half only.”

NZU won both matches against Japan Under 20’s 66-38 and 43-31 in Christchurch. McLeod scored two tries in the first match. He was joined in the varsity team by fellow Goats Jack Riley, Harry Irving and Louie Calvert. The New Zealand Universities was founded in 1908 and have won 241 of 323 matches. Their most notable successes were beating the 1956 Springboks (22-15) and 1977 British & Irish Lions 21-9. Many legendary All Blacks like Ron Jarden (145 tries in 134 first-class matches) and 1987 Rugby World Cup-winning captain David Kirk have represented the New Zealand Universities.

McLeod spent the next few weeks, which was most of the back end of the Swindale Shield, unable to play, although he was still training with the Lions HP squad over this time.

His return game was round 13 against Norths (95-0), afterwards OBU being presented with the Swindale Shield as first round winners, and against this past week against Tawa in a 30-31 loss.

McLeod gets his pass away for OBU in round 2 this past April against Wainuiomata. Photo: T-Paul Gale. 

His background back home in the Hawke’s Bay was as a halfback, but when he was in the OBU Colts especially, he was playing first five and fullback.

He played most of 2021 for the OBU Colts but was sidelined with injury in the dramatic 100-minute Colts Division 1 final that saw OBU emerge from atrocious conditions on the worst day of the year to beat Petone 25-21 following five lead changes and a stalemate at fulltime.

McLeod was educated at St John’s College, Hastings. “I spent two and a bit seasons in the First XV, and I was captain in year 12 and then vice-captain in year 13. Our school plays in the Central North Island competition and we had some pretty tough games. We struggled a bit, but the saving grace is we were still playing good teams, so we still played some good rugby.”

In his final year at St John’s in 2019, the team had a volunteer couple who came in as coach/managers, Ritchie and Rochelle Williams, who helped the team break a then eight-year losing streak.

For their efforts, Parents of the players nominated them for an ASB Good as Gold Award and $10,000 saying: “As a tight community we want to pull together and not only show this them how much they mean to us, but we want every New Zealander to know how lucky we are to have them in our lives.”

The All Blacks Cooper brothers, Matt and Greg, went to St John’s College, as did former Wellington halfback Neil Sorenson who played 106 matches for Wellington between 1982-89.

McLeod also played cricket for the St John’s First XI as a bowling all-rounder.

He played limited representative rugby in Hawke’s Bay, playing for a HB Saracens U18 team – like the Centurions in Wellington – against Heartland U18 opposition.

Growing up in Hawke’s Bay, McLeod’s junior club was Hastings Rugby & Sports.

His selection is perhaps not such a surprise given his older brother Connor McLeod is a current first-class player. He was at Otago in 2019 and then Hawke’s Bay between 2020-22 and now at the Southland Stags since 2023.

Connor is also a halfback – so they might get to play against each other, although Connor sustained an ACL knee injury whilst playing for the Highlanders Development team earlier this year so has been out of action.

Their father Ross McLeod also played 59 first-class games for Manawatu (1986), New Zealand Universities (1986) and Hawke’s Bay (1988-95) as a first five. Their uncle Ian was a flanker for the Magpies in 1989.

Back to current rugby, the Jubilee Cup.

McLeod said that the Billygoats were naturally disappointed to lose this past Saturday at the death to a Tawa side with a strong set of forwards and playing to their strengths, but they hope to regroup to host the Upper Hutt Rams on Saturday.

Mcleod played in the 48-22 win over the Rams at Rugby League Park two months ago. “It feels like it will be a different team. Towards the end of that game our fitness showed, and we were able to run them off their feet a bit, but I am not sure how much that is going to play into it this time.”

Old Boys University v Upper Hutt Rams, Rugby League Park. 2.45pm