Mercurial outside back Ben O’Donnell has signed a one-year contract extension with the Safeguard Global ACT Brumbies until the end of the 2025 season.
O’Donnell, 29, first joined the club in September 2022 after a three-year spell in Ireland with Connacht, having previously represented the Australia Sevens team 95 times, winning Australia Sevens Player of the Year in 2018.
He has gone on to make eight appearances for the Brumbies, scoring five tries in the process, after suffering a serious injury in April 2023 against the Hurricanes that ruled him out for a year.
O’Donnell was delighted to put pen to paper on a new deal that keeps him in the nation’s capital, thanking the coaching staff for their support while revealing his goals of playing more minutes in the upcoming Super Rugby Pacific competition.
“I’m over the moon to sign on for another year with the ACT Brumbies,” O’Donnell said.
“It’s almost a year ago when I started talking to the coaches about extending my deal and I’m grateful to them for giving me another year. I missed most of last season due to injury, so I’m looking to bounce back next season and give my best to the team.
“It was a long start to last season for me. I’ve been through it with the ACL injury before, they’re always slow and tough to recover from, so I was stoked to get back on the field and get some minutes in the latter stages of last season.
“My goals for 2025 are to secure a starting spot and go deeper into the Super Rugby competition with the boys. We’ve been to the semi-finals three years in a row, so we need to make a final now and make all our hard work count.
“We’ve got an unreal squad retained from last year and we’ve picked up a couple of nice additions from the (Melbourne) Rebels. It’s a really exciting time for us.”
ACT Brumbies head coach Stephen Larkham praised O’Donnell’s skillset and the value he brings to the club on inking his new deal.
“It has been great to see Ben put multiple performances together this year. He has shown how good a rugby player he is,” Larkham said.
“Added to this Ben has all the right attributes to be a Brumbies player, hard-working, intelligent, respectful and very competitive. We are very excited to have him on board for next season.”
O’Donnell made his debut for the Brumbies in March 2023 against the Queensland Reds at the GIO Stadium, before suffering the anterior cruciate ligament injury in Wellington the following month.
The Sydney-born outside back recovered to play for the Brumby Runners in a match against Hong Kong China a year later, before returning to Super Rugby Pacific action in our away win against the Waratahs at Allianz Stadium. He went on to play a crucial part in the team’s push towards the semi-finals.
O’Donnell, who can play either on the wing or at centre, also spent time with Hawkes Bay in the NPC in New Zealand in the off-season, scoring four tries in 10 appearances, including two highlight reel dot downs against Northland.
O’Donnell said: “Luckily, Stephen (Larkham) was happy enough for me to go overseas and play for the Magpies in the NPC, which was an unreal experience and a really tough competition. I was stoked to be able to get a full season in without any hiccups.
“Those tries were put on a dime by the Kiwi boys, I just needed to dive on them! The commentators were asking if I was an AFL player but I put it down to my cricket background!”
ACT Brumbies first fixture in the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific competition is in Suva, Fiji on Saturday 15th February against Fijian Drua before returning home to the GIO Stadium against Western Force on Saturday 22nd February.
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