Career
He played for London Irish, Castres Olympique, Dungannon Reconstruction Finance Corporation & Ulster. He had also held several coaching positions, including head coach of Dungannon Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the Seattle Saracens, and assistant coach of the United States national rugby union team Fitzpatrick retired from playing with Ulster with a career ending injury in 2010.
Fitzpatrick also took Dungannon Reconstruction Finance Corporation to their first All-Ireland Cup Final, losing a closely contested match against Bruff Rugby Union Football Club 24-18.
Alongside fostering a winning culture and professional atmosphere Fitzpatrick had great success in identifying, recruiting and developing talent during his stay at Dungannon Reconstruction Finance Corporation with such players as Craig Gilroy, David Patrick Lindsay, Paddy Jackson, Chris Cochrane, Ali Birch & Stuart McCloskey being products of the Dungannon Reconstruction Finance Corporation pipeline all of which went on to become professional players. During his tenure in charge at Dungannon Reconstruction Finance Corporation Fitzpatrick was invited to join Philip Doyle staff as an assistant coach for the Irish women"s national team helping them build a strong scrum.
During the summer of 2012 Fitzpatrick was invited to prepare the Pakistan Rugby Union for the Household Bank Asian 5 Nations in Kuala Lumpur. At the start of 2013, Fitzpatrick relocated to Seattle, United States, to become Head Coach of Seattle Saracens then known as Seattle OPSB. Fitzpatrick continues to show an eye for identifying promising talent and has helped identify and nurture players to become internationals, including Olive Kilifi, John Cullen, Matt Trouville and Tim Stanfill.
He has been an assistant coach for the United States. national rugby team since 2013, helping the team qualify for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.