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Like many players before him, Sean McNulty cut his teeth as a rugby player on the pitches at Rockwell College outside Cashel.

It was here that, following in the footsteps of his uncle who captained the school's Senior Cup team in the 80s, Sean fell in love with the game.

“I absolutely loved it, especially in those first couple of years. I wasn't any good. I was brand new to the game, but you’d have 60 of your classmates down after school every day. 
So it was it was just really good fun.

“It was probably only when I was going into maybe transition year that I had a bit of a growth spurt and that’s where it kicked on in terms of Junior Cup and Senior Cup appearances.”

Sean says he owes a lot of his development to Mark Butler, the head coach at Rockwell at the time, who he says “brought rugby to a new level” at the school. Mark was the brains behind six Senior Cup final appearances in as many years during Sean’s time there.

His latter teenage years were also spent training and developing his game with the Munster under 18s, 19s, and 20s, experience that would see him kick on into the Leinster A set-up and earn some playing time in their British and Irish Cup campaign.

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2019 is where Sean’s rugby career takes a unique and exciting turn...

“After my time in the Leinster Academy, I wasn’t getting a senior contract renewal, so I was just looking at my options abroad and it was around that time where the MLR was just starting to take off.”

Founded in 2017, with its inaugural season taking place a year later, Major League Rugby is a relatively new concept in the landscape of American sport, and one in which Sean McNulty has been ever-present.

His stateside career started with a contract at the Boston-based New England Free Jacks. Although Sean spent his first MLR season on loan at Rugby United New York (RUNY) in the city he had lived in until he was ten years old.

His second season as a New England player also saw him spend little time in Boston.

“So the second year I was at Boston was cut short by Covid-19. We only played four or five games. 
Then back home in Ireland, during the lockdown, Los Angeles announced a new team.

“It was actually my brother, Harry, who plays rugby sevens was looking at his options and he started chatting to LA and we thought ‘how how amazing would it be to play together?!’ So we both ended up going to LA that season managed to win the MLR championship. One of the highlights of my career has been playing with my brother and winning a championship.”

After a season in Seattle and another in San Diego, Sean has found a new home in Miami, Florida, and is enjoying regular gametime with the newly formed Miami Sharks.

“An opportunity arose to come to Miami as part of a new team and I just thought about taking a punt.

“Being in a new team in an established league can be difficult at times, but it gave me the opportunity to play really big minutes.

“
And on the back of that, I got selected to play for the US Eagles national team this season. So it’s been a move that I’ve loved. I love living here. 
I love the boys and it's such a vibrant city. It's been great fun off the pitch as well.”

The Sharks, adorned in a neon-styled pink and blue kit that pays homage to the 1980s TV series hit Miami Vice, play their home games at the AutoNation Sports Field where Major League Soccer side Inter Miami CF train.

Sean’s appetite for adventure and in his words “following the sunshine” has seen the 29-year-old play for six different MLR sides across six seasons, a true journeyman in every sense of the word.

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