There will be a familiar face in the ranks of Tonna RFC when they line up against Crumlin in the WRU National Shield final at the Principality Stadium later this month.
That said, not every rugby follower may be able to put a name to the chap who’s set to figure at blindside flanker for The Ton in the game on April 30. Craig Mitchell once played prop for Wales, winning 15 caps, one of them at the 2011 World Cup. He came up against New Zealand great Tony Woodcock early in his Test career and his first start in a red jersey saw him oppose the Popeye-esque England star Andrew Sheridan.
But Mitchell stepped back from professional rugby last summer and returned to the club that he represented at youth level. If that wasn’t radical enough, he also cuts a streamlined figure these days, having lost weight, and has changed his position.
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“Craig has been doing a great job for us as a blindside wing forward,” said Tonna chairman Gary Knight. “If you look at him now, he’s nowhere near the stamp he was when he played prop for Wales, the Ospreys, Cardiff, Dragons, Exeter and others. He’s fitter than he’s been in his career. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone in such good condition.”
It’s been some journey for Mitchel l, who led a Wales U19s team that included Ken Owens and Bradley Davies and won his first cap at senior level against Canada in 2009. He was also part of the Warren Gatland squad that reached the World Cup semi-finals in 2011, with Mitchell starting in the 81-7 win over Nambia. His final Test appearance came two years later, against Japan in Tokyo.
Rewind close on a decade earlier and the whisper from a Neath RFC insider was that they had a prop coming through who resembled Duncan Jones around the field and Adam Jones in the scrums. The legendary king of sporting hype Don King might have thought twice about describing any young prop in such terms.
But Mitchell went on to play well for The Gnoll club and then for the Ospreys, with his highlights including a significant role when they lifted the Rabo Direct PRO12 trophy in 2010. Adam Jones' presence at the region meant he had to depart in search of regular rugby, however, with subsequent years seeing him take in spells with Exeter Chiefs, Cardiff, Dragons, Angouleme, Newcastle Falcons, Yorkshire Carnegie and Cornish Pirates during a much-travelled career.
At Exeter, Mitchell helped the club to a fifth-place finish in English rugby's top-flight in his first season, only for injuries to hamper him thereafter.
Through it all, he kept in touch with Tonna. Now the 35-year-old is giving something back to the Division 3 West Central C club.
“He’s been outstanding," said Knight. "We are totally amateur, but he’s brought a professional ethos and way of doing things into our set-up.
“ Without being big-headed, he’s told us what he’s learned in rugby over the years and it’s rubbed off. The coaching staff have bought into it and so have the players.
“We also have Jonny Thomas, who played around 100 games for Aberavon before returning to us, having started his rugby with Tonna. He’s a loosehead prop and, as with Craig, he’s brought experience with him. He can play anywhere in the front row."
Tonna could be on for a league and shield double, with the club currently heading their division with three games left to play. They lost their first game of the campaign against Rhigos but were not long in moving up there gears. Over the league campaign, they have piled up 376 points from eight outings at an average of 47 points a game. There have been 57 tries, with just seven conceded.
But it’s the trip to Cardiff to contest the National Shield final that’s particularly exciting all connected to the club. Indeed, on the day it could be a case of will the last one out of the village please switch off the lights.
“The village is bouncing,” said Knight. “We’re taking nine supporters’ buses up to Cardiff, plus one for the players, coaches and officials, and some people will presumably be making their own way across.
"Tonna is a small place, with just a couple of thousand people here, so it’s a big deal for us. We’ve been going for the best part of 135 years and this could be the best day the club has had.”
Knight continued: “We have a good side this year and are well-placed in the league. We are not taking anything for granted and know there’s still a lot to do, but to be going well in two competitions at this stage of the season means a huge amount.
“Now we have to keep it going until the end of the campaign. If we can carry on playing well, that would be great.
“What we are especially proud of is that the squad has 100 percent come through the system — our juniors and youth, every single one of the boys. We haven’t been buying people in. I guess that’s a feather in our cap. There are some clubs who spend on players, but we don’t pay a penny. The boys have a few pints after the game; that’s about it.
“Financially the club is solvent because there’s such a good social side. The place is used six days a week, with events of some kind or other at weekends, and we see ourselves as a hub for the village, with people using the club for parties and such like, which pays for the rugby and issues like ground maintenance, where we spent £20,000 to £30,000 every year on our ground. The money goes into that rather than into players’ pockets.
“We are an amateur club and we all enjoy it.”
Sounds like a real Welsh rugby success story - and one a World Cup player is clearly proud to be part of.
