Young Gun: Simon Hammersley – Newcastle full-back
Joining from National League Two North Hull Ionians over the summer, Hammersley, 21, planned to use the first few months of his professional career getting up to speed with the Premiership's physical demands.
But an injury to staring full-back Alex Tait and some fine displays in pre-season have resulted in Hammersley being propelled into the starting XV.
Four full Premiership games followed where he regularly topped the metres gained and defenders-beaten stats before an imposed break to let his body recover from this frantic four weeks.
“The start of the season has gone a lot better that I could ever imagine,” he told The Rugby Paper. “It was a big step up from anything I'd played. I remember facing Northampton at Kingston Park with the likes of Samu Manoa, Luther Burrell and Courtney Lawes. It was by far the most physical game I've ever played in.
“Dean was pleased with how I played, especially in attack, but we both agreed to have a rest after a busy month of September. My body took a bit of a battering in those first four weeks so I had a full week off where I did a lot of rehab.
“Since then, Alex has come back from injury and my game time has gone down so I've just got to keep working hard and hopefully another opportunity will arise and I can try to make the No.15 shirt my own.”
Hammersley was born and raised in Hull and he started playing at the age of five at Hull Ionians. Twelve years later, he was running out for the first team and after leaving Hymers College he enrolled at Durham University to study economics.
That is where he came to the attention of the Falcons when, in his second year, he won the BUCS National title and represented England Students against Portugal.
He said: “Playing at university level was just great. It's a very expansive game where kicking is not the primary option and you just run the ball as much as you can. It was a perfect game for me really.
“I never thought about a professional rugby career to be honest. Like every kid I dreamed about it but I thought the ship had sailed not being involved with any academy or being picked at age group representative level.
“My first ever involvement with a professional set-up was last year when the Falcons invited me to train with them. They then offered me a deal which I couldn't really turn down.”
