BEFORE DYLAN FAWSITT left home for the US in 2014, he stood up at the going-away party they held for him at the community centre in his parish, Piercestown in County Wexford.
All around him were people who loved him and had invested time in him.
Fawsitt cleared his throat and made a promise.
“I will go to America and I will play for the United States,” he told them, despite not even being qualified for the US at that stage.
Fawsitt had just spent two years shining at hooker for St Mary’s in the AIL, having initially come through with Greystones RFC and then as a boarder in Blackrock College in Dublin, where he won the 2009 Leinster Schools Senior Cup as a back row.
There was no opening for him with Leinster, but 24-year-old Fawsitt still had a burning desire to make it as a professional rugby player.
He decided to go to Life University near Atlanta to do a Master’s degree in sports science and play rugby, the plan being to follow in AJ MacGinty’s footsteps. The out-half was a year away from qualifying for the US via the old three-year residency rule.
MacGinty’s father, Alan senior, the former Blackrock principal, was instrumental in Fawsitt deciding to go down the same route. And that night in the community centre, Fawsitt spelt out his conviction that he would make a success of it.
His hurling and football team-mates from St Martin’s, the GAA club Fawsitt represented with pride right up until he left for the States, were all there. Wexford hurling legend George O’Connor was among Fawsitt’s mentors in the club.
Neighbours and friends were gathered around him. As was his family.
His parents, Siobhan and Brian, gave him everything growing up. They moved from Greystones down to Wexford when Dylan was 10 and even though they “hadn’t a pot to piss in at one point,” his dad drove him back up the road to Wicklow every single weekend to play for his beloved Greystones.
“He’d work six days a week,” said Fawsitt last week in Chicago, where he spent the last two seasons playing Major League Rugby for the Chicago Hounds.
“He had one day off a week, but he drove me up and down no matter what, even if he had a few pints the night before. He knew I loved it so much, and he dedicated that time to me.”
His younger sister, Megan, has been totally supportive of him too. She has been Dylan’s “biggest fan” throughout his time in the States.
They all listened as Fawsitt made a promise he kept. He made his debut for the US in 2018 against Brazil and won a total of 29 caps before making the difficult decision to retire from Test duty last year.
Fawsitt at the final whistle of the 2009 Leinster Schools Senior Cup final. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
It was a decision that caused him anguish, but it was right for him, his wife Alyssa, and their two young kids, Liam and Rose.
Fawsitt has also been dubbed the GOAT of the MLR, having become the first player to reach 100 appearances in the league’s history last season. When he reached that milestone back in February, two of his best friends - Andy Kealy and Brendan Boyle – flew over to Chicago to watch him. They all played for Greystones together for the first time at the age of six.
Fawsitt is a hugely popular figure in American rugby, but he doesn’t know if there will be another chapter next season.
After two years in Chicago, he and his family recently moved to the Jersey Shore on the East Coast, where Alyssa is from. She runs a recruitment firm in New York and they needed to be back near her family.
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“It takes a village,” said Fawsitt when he was back in Chicago for the weekend of Ireland’s game against New Zealand, with lots of his old friends in town.
Fawsitt has finished up with the Chicago Hounds and though he has received offers from other clubs, he is at a crossroads right now.
“I don’t know if I’m going to continue to play or not yet,” said Fawsitt. “I’m not sounding those alarm bells yet, but right now I’ve stepped away completely and have turned down offers just to concentrate on getting my family in the right place.”
Whatever about his future in the club game, stepping away from Eagles duty last year was seriously tough.
“I had to put my family first,” he said. “It’s extremely hard, especially when I’m at the top of my game. I’m 35, but I feel 25. I take such pride in what I do and how I look after my body, and how I train.
“So to step away from the Eagles was a really, really tough decision, especially when I worked so hard to get that number one spot and I want to repay the United States so much for everything they’ve done for me.
“Like, I am fucking blessed here. It’s been a hell of a ride, you know, falling in love, having kids, and being able to play the sport I love, and make a living off it.
“It’s just been a bloody dream.”
If this is to be the end of his playing days, Fawsitt reckons that he might go into finance or sales, but he will remain involved in rugby. He’s coaching with the Old Blue club in New York, as well as Monmouth in New Jersey, and a few universities.
He’s hugely passionate about grassroots rugby and would love to see investment from the top level of the world game into that level of the American system.
“The sleeping giant, all that sort of craic, it’s kind of getting old now,” said Fawsitt, “because it’s not getting there as fast as we want.”
Fawsitt playing for New York at the Life University campus in 2020. Alamy Stock Photo
Alamy Stock Photo
He has made a home in the US, but none of it has been handed to him. Fawsitt made that vow in 2014 because he knew he had the discipline and work ethic to play for America. He has never lacked in self-belief.
Yet he has had to dig in through tough times in the States. No one in US rugby is on big bucks. Fawsitt had stages where he was walking dogs and washing cars to earn cash. He had moments where he wondered whether it was all worth it.
But that desire to make the best of himself always won out.
“I can do anything if I set my mind to it,” said Fawsitt. “Yeah, things have to fall your way, but hard work is truly rewarded.
“You make your own luck when you grab the bull by the horns and go for it. I couldn’t come off the field and look at my team-mates or my parents or my wife, who sacrifices the most, if I hadn’t done the work. There are no days off.”
The fact that Fawsitt ran a 4.39 Bronco test says plenty about his work ethic. He’s a converted back row but spent endless hours honing his lineout throwing, which was complicated by tendon issues in one of his hands. He never looked for excuses.
Having come through Life University, he played for the Ohio Raptors in America’s first-ever professional league, the short-lived PRO Rugby. That only lasted a season and then Fawsitt headed for New York thereafter.
He pitched up at the Old Blue club, where an Irish-American called Brian Murphy took him under his wing, put him up for eight months, and helped him to settle in the city.
Fawsitt became a stalwart for Rugby United New York, also known as the Ironworkers, and was a central figure as they eventually won Major League Rugby in 2022. That was an emotional occasion for Fawsitt.
“I remember I rang my Dad when we got into the final and I said, ‘Dad, I need you. I ain’t doing this without you.’ The problem was that flights were three grand.”
A contact in Old Blue was able to help out and bring that cost down to €900, so Fawsitt’s father was there when they beat Seattle in the final at New York’s Red Bull Arena.
“He was with me for the whole thing,” said Fawsitt. “Like, he was on session after with us. He was with us for every fucking minute. He was actually keeping me out because he was loving every bit of it!
“Things like that, I’ll never forget.”
He’ll never forget playing against Ireland either.
That was in November 2018 in Dublin. Fawsitt came off the bench at the Aviva Stadium on a day when two of his best friends from school, Jordi Murphy and Andrew Conway, were on the other side.
“Michael D Higgins is there before the game and he’s saying to me, ‘Welcome home,’” said Fawsitt.
Fawsitt with his sister, Megan, and mother, Siobhan. Tommy Dickson / INPHO
Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO
“You know, you’re just trying to be present for a rugby match, you’re trying not to get caught up in the emotion.
“I can even feel now that I’m getting a bit emotional thinking about it, being able to represent my family and being able to represent the United States at home. It was a bloody dream. It really was.”
There are lovely photos of Fawsitt with his mother and sister after that game. It meant a huge amount to them, having lost him to the States four years before.
But at that stage, they had already realised that he was meant to be in the US.
Fawsitt got a sense of that when he met Alyssa just three months after first moving there.
He was flying back to Ireland to play a game for St Mary’s and she was going abroad for the first time in her life to visit a friend. They weren’t even sitting beside each other on the flight, but chatted on the walk from the plane to the baggage carousel in Dublin Airport.
Her bag didn’t arrive and Fawsitt pretended his hadn’t either, even as it went around and around while they spoke. No numbers were swapped but they had each other’s names and when Fawsitt got into his dad’s car outside the terminal, he went straight onto Facebook.
“I said, ‘Dad, this is the girl I’m going to marry,’ and he goes, ‘You haven’t slept.’
“We got to my gran’s and I told her the same thing. They thought I was delirious from not sleeping.”
But he was right.
“Now she’s my wife and the mother of my two kids and we’re living a bloody great life in New Jersey,” said Fawsitt.
“Tell you this, one chapter might be closing, but the next one is looking pretty good.”
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'Michael D Higgins is saying, 'Welcome home.' It was a dream'
BEFORE DYLAN FAWSITT left home for the US in 2014, he stood up at the going-away party they held for him at the community centre in his parish, Piercestown in County Wexford.
All around him were people who loved him and had invested time in him.
Fawsitt cleared his throat and made a promise.
“I will go to America and I will play for the United States,” he told them, despite not even being qualified for the US at that stage.
Fawsitt had just spent two years shining at hooker for St Mary’s in the AIL, having initially come through with Greystones RFC and then as a boarder in Blackrock College in Dublin, where he won the 2009 Leinster Schools Senior Cup as a back row.
There was no opening for him with Leinster, but 24-year-old Fawsitt still had a burning desire to make it as a professional rugby player.
He decided to go to Life University near Atlanta to do a Master’s degree in sports science and play rugby, the plan being to follow in AJ MacGinty’s footsteps. The out-half was a year away from qualifying for the US via the old three-year residency rule.
MacGinty’s father, Alan senior, the former Blackrock principal, was instrumental in Fawsitt deciding to go down the same route. And that night in the community centre, Fawsitt spelt out his conviction that he would make a success of it.
His hurling and football team-mates from St Martin’s, the GAA club Fawsitt represented with pride right up until he left for the States, were all there. Wexford hurling legend George O’Connor was among Fawsitt’s mentors in the club.
Neighbours and friends were gathered around him. As was his family.
His parents, Siobhan and Brian, gave him everything growing up. They moved from Greystones down to Wexford when Dylan was 10 and even though they “hadn’t a pot to piss in at one point,” his dad drove him back up the road to Wicklow every single weekend to play for his beloved Greystones.
“He’d work six days a week,” said Fawsitt last week in Chicago, where he spent the last two seasons playing Major League Rugby for the Chicago Hounds.
“He had one day off a week, but he drove me up and down no matter what, even if he had a few pints the night before. He knew I loved it so much, and he dedicated that time to me.”
His younger sister, Megan, has been totally supportive of him too. She has been Dylan’s “biggest fan” throughout his time in the States.
They all listened as Fawsitt made a promise he kept. He made his debut for the US in 2018 against Brazil and won a total of 29 caps before making the difficult decision to retire from Test duty last year.
It was a decision that caused him anguish, but it was right for him, his wife Alyssa, and their two young kids, Liam and Rose.
Fawsitt has also been dubbed the GOAT of the MLR, having become the first player to reach 100 appearances in the league’s history last season. When he reached that milestone back in February, two of his best friends - Andy Kealy and Brendan Boyle – flew over to Chicago to watch him. They all played for Greystones together for the first time at the age of six.
Fawsitt is a hugely popular figure in American rugby, but he doesn’t know if there will be another chapter next season.
After two years in Chicago, he and his family recently moved to the Jersey Shore on the East Coast, where Alyssa is from. She runs a recruitment firm in New York and they needed to be back near her family.
“It takes a village,” said Fawsitt when he was back in Chicago for the weekend of Ireland’s game against New Zealand, with lots of his old friends in town.
Fawsitt has finished up with the Chicago Hounds and though he has received offers from other clubs, he is at a crossroads right now.
“I don’t know if I’m going to continue to play or not yet,” said Fawsitt. “I’m not sounding those alarm bells yet, but right now I’ve stepped away completely and have turned down offers just to concentrate on getting my family in the right place.”
Whatever about his future in the club game, stepping away from Eagles duty last year was seriously tough.
“I had to put my family first,” he said. “It’s extremely hard, especially when I’m at the top of my game. I’m 35, but I feel 25. I take such pride in what I do and how I look after my body, and how I train.
“So to step away from the Eagles was a really, really tough decision, especially when I worked so hard to get that number one spot and I want to repay the United States so much for everything they’ve done for me.
“Like, I am fucking blessed here. It’s been a hell of a ride, you know, falling in love, having kids, and being able to play the sport I love, and make a living off it.
“It’s just been a bloody dream.”
If this is to be the end of his playing days, Fawsitt reckons that he might go into finance or sales, but he will remain involved in rugby. He’s coaching with the Old Blue club in New York, as well as Monmouth in New Jersey, and a few universities.
He’s hugely passionate about grassroots rugby and would love to see investment from the top level of the world game into that level of the American system.
“The sleeping giant, all that sort of craic, it’s kind of getting old now,” said Fawsitt, “because it’s not getting there as fast as we want.”
He has made a home in the US, but none of it has been handed to him. Fawsitt made that vow in 2014 because he knew he had the discipline and work ethic to play for America. He has never lacked in self-belief.
Yet he has had to dig in through tough times in the States. No one in US rugby is on big bucks. Fawsitt had stages where he was walking dogs and washing cars to earn cash. He had moments where he wondered whether it was all worth it.
But that desire to make the best of himself always won out.
“I can do anything if I set my mind to it,” said Fawsitt. “Yeah, things have to fall your way, but hard work is truly rewarded.
“You make your own luck when you grab the bull by the horns and go for it. I couldn’t come off the field and look at my team-mates or my parents or my wife, who sacrifices the most, if I hadn’t done the work. There are no days off.”
The fact that Fawsitt ran a 4.39 Bronco test says plenty about his work ethic. He’s a converted back row but spent endless hours honing his lineout throwing, which was complicated by tendon issues in one of his hands. He never looked for excuses.
Having come through Life University, he played for the Ohio Raptors in America’s first-ever professional league, the short-lived PRO Rugby. That only lasted a season and then Fawsitt headed for New York thereafter.
He pitched up at the Old Blue club, where an Irish-American called Brian Murphy took him under his wing, put him up for eight months, and helped him to settle in the city.
Fawsitt became a stalwart for Rugby United New York, also known as the Ironworkers, and was a central figure as they eventually won Major League Rugby in 2022. That was an emotional occasion for Fawsitt.
“I remember I rang my Dad when we got into the final and I said, ‘Dad, I need you. I ain’t doing this without you.’ The problem was that flights were three grand.”
A contact in Old Blue was able to help out and bring that cost down to €900, so Fawsitt’s father was there when they beat Seattle in the final at New York’s Red Bull Arena.
“He was with me for the whole thing,” said Fawsitt. “Like, he was on session after with us. He was with us for every fucking minute. He was actually keeping me out because he was loving every bit of it!
“Things like that, I’ll never forget.”
He’ll never forget playing against Ireland either.
That was in November 2018 in Dublin. Fawsitt came off the bench at the Aviva Stadium on a day when two of his best friends from school, Jordi Murphy and Andrew Conway, were on the other side.
“Michael D Higgins is there before the game and he’s saying to me, ‘Welcome home,’” said Fawsitt.
“You know, you’re just trying to be present for a rugby match, you’re trying not to get caught up in the emotion.
“I can even feel now that I’m getting a bit emotional thinking about it, being able to represent my family and being able to represent the United States at home. It was a bloody dream. It really was.”
There are lovely photos of Fawsitt with his mother and sister after that game. It meant a huge amount to them, having lost him to the States four years before.
But at that stage, they had already realised that he was meant to be in the US.
Fawsitt got a sense of that when he met Alyssa just three months after first moving there.
He was flying back to Ireland to play a game for St Mary’s and she was going abroad for the first time in her life to visit a friend. They weren’t even sitting beside each other on the flight, but chatted on the walk from the plane to the baggage carousel in Dublin Airport.
Her bag didn’t arrive and Fawsitt pretended his hadn’t either, even as it went around and around while they spoke. No numbers were swapped but they had each other’s names and when Fawsitt got into his dad’s car outside the terminal, he went straight onto Facebook.
“I said, ‘Dad, this is the girl I’m going to marry,’ and he goes, ‘You haven’t slept.’
“We got to my gran’s and I told her the same thing. They thought I was delirious from not sleeping.”
But he was right.
“Now she’s my wife and the mother of my two kids and we’re living a bloody great life in New Jersey,” said Fawsitt.
“Tell you this, one chapter might be closing, but the next one is looking pretty good.”
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Chicago Dylan Fawsitt Ireland Irish Abroad The butcher USA