Warrior ‘Mitch’ calls time out after battles bravely fought
The disappointment of missing out this year has been tempered by the fact that there's likely to be very little rugby anyway, with the Covid-19 crisis affecting all sport around the world.
South Coast Warriors stalwart Chris Mitchell has hung up his rugby boots after a series of injuries forced him to take stock.
Over the years he has sustained numerous blows to the body, with the list of damages including broken ribs, concussions, a torn pectoral muscle, torn tendons, and the most recent, a tearing of the meniscus that effectively forced the decision.
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He’s only 32 years old but has racked up an impressive 140 games or so for the rugby club in the past 10 years, and that excludes representative rugby for Southern KwaZulu-Natal and the Wildebeests.
The disappointment of missing out this year has been tempered by the fact that there’s likely to be very little rugby anyway, with the Covid-19 crisis affecting all sport around the world.
Chris started out as a fiery blond-haired scrapper, sniping around the scrum in his number-9 jersey, inspiring the forwards (read ‘whipping them into a frenzy’) all the while delivering crisp service to the backs.
Later in his career, with exactly zero of the fire diminished, he couldn’t resist joining the scrum, first as a flank and then as hooker.
‘Mitch’ has always been tough. What choice did he have, growing up in a rugby family and having the famed statesman Douglas Mitchell as a great-grandfather.
“My father’s brothers, Gary and Wayne, both achieved success in rugby. Gary played prop for the Duikers and Wayne hooker for Natal, as the Sharks were known back then, so rugby without a doubt flows strongly in our blood.”
His number one fan though, has been his ‘old man’ Craig, who has watched pretty much every match from junior school, then at Glenwood High and on to the Warriors.
It was from him that Chris undoubtedly inherited his knack for getting into, and narrowly escaping, life-threatening situations.
As a toddler, he once got lost on the family farm for a few hours.
On another occasion, he was bitten by a puff adder, miraculously survived, and still has the scars from the operation to show for it.
As he has bulked up over the years, more so recently, the scarred skin has become taut to the point of being painful at times, but he can handle it.
In terms of the rugby, he has enjoyed the physical aspect of the game on the field and the camaraderie off it.
“It’s about knowing you can smash each other around for 80 minutes and then enjoy a cold beer with teammates and opponents afterwards,” he said.
He’s tried to behave, with the massive portrait of Douglas in the clubhouse serving as a reminder of what the family name means, but this has not always been possible, and Mitch has never been too far away when a fracas has broken out on the field. Mitch an instigator? Never.
In all seriousness, he said he has been immensely proud to be part of the Warriors club, which plays its home games at Douglas Mitchell Sports Ground, and has always done his best to hold the family name high.
Towards the end, he captained the team, when long-time skipper and 8th-man Juan van den Berg ‘kind of’ retired.
He said that winning league and the Dewar Shield in his first year of being captain was one for the books.
“I was lucky to have a strong side to captain and that made things a lot easier,” he said.
While making him captain was a little like asking the fox to guard the hen house, he rose to the challenge remarkably well.
“It felt good knowing I had 14 guys on the field who had my back and respected my decision making,” he said.
He made special mention of Van den Berg, who was his captain on his debut, and is still around, now more a coach/off-the-bench player.
“Prop Lourens Stapelberg and wing/fullback Marcell Sass have also been alongside me from the beginning of my career to the very end,” he said.
Mitch added that many players and coaches had played a part in his career and for that he was grateful.
“Too many to mention but they know who they are,” he said.
The good news is that there is another Mitchell in the rugby pipeline, with son Kela Craiglen already showing signs of being a future Warriors.
“The second name is a combination of his two grandfather’s first names, my dad Craig obviously and my wife Shay’s father’s name Glen,” he said.
“He’s only 15 months old so can’t say what position he’ll play just yet!”
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