Big-name signings to make sure Red who will be hoping Bulls fly high again

Paul Rees begins his summer series reviewing the Prem season, with the focus this week on Newcastle Red Bulls

RED BULL may have given the Falcons their wings back, but flying high takes time. New owners but the same old story as Newcastle finished bottom of the Premiership for the fourth consecutive season.

The club’s story, though, is not about what has just passed but what is to come. Seldom has a squad been so overhauled during the close season with 23 players signed and 26 released.

It is not just the name that has changed with Newcastle Falcons becoming Newcastle Red Bulls but the whole character of a club that has spent most of the decade with a wage bill that is half the salary cap and endured an inability to hold on to players of promise, like Guy Pepper and Ben Redshaw, or ones who had won a handful of England caps, Callum Chick, Jamie Blamire and Adam Radwan, and had to go elsewhere for the chance of more.

Radwan, who joined Leicester halfway through last season to revive his England prospects, a move that allowed Newcastle to reduce their wage bill at a time when it was not clear whether the then owner Semore Kurdi would find anyone to buy the club from him, remarked that a difference between the two clubs was the resources the Tigers enjoyed that allowed, for example, more one-to-one coaching.

That will now change and if last season was messy in terms of administration with Steve Diamond being released as director of rugby after one league match and his interim replacement Alan Dickens departing before the end of the campaign, stability should follow.

Dan McFarland has been appointed head coach and brings with him not just experience but some direct knowledge of the English club game: he was born in Oxfordshire and played for Morley, Richmond, Stade Francais and Connacht before starting his coaching career in Galway before stints with Ireland at various levels below the national side, Glasgow, Scotland (under Gregor Townsend) and Ulster where he was head coach for six years before joining the management team at Kobelco Kobe Steelers.

Newcastle’s recruitment has been overseen by Neil McIlroy, who started work in the autumn, while Townsend, the Scotland head coach, has been offering advice in his capacity as a consultant for Red Bull while his former international colleague, Jonny Petrie, is the club’s managing director.

Four Scottish players are among the recruits for next season and there is speculation that Townsend will be given a permanent role after next year’s World Cup. When Dickens was released early from his contract in March, just before the Red Bulls biggest match of the season against La Rochelle in the last 16 of the Challenge Cup, he said he was told by Townsend in a phone call.

Stephen Jones, the former Wales and Lions outside-half, became the third coach to take charge of the side, but after La Rochelle’s 26-18 victory at Kingston Park, it was more a case of the engine blowing up than the wheels coming off with four successive heavy league defeats that saw 41 tries and 259 points conceded before a remarkable comeback against Sale earned a second Prem victory and provided a potential glimpse of what was to come.

“There is talk that Gregor Townsend will be given a permanent role after the World Cup”

“I know that in sport you want a quick fix, but that does not always happen,” said Jones. “What I know is what is going on in the background and the hard work being put in. Things are progressing at great speed and the future is hugely exciting. What’s on the horizon for us is great.”

It needs to be because while Newcastle were protected from the consequences of failure this decade because of the effective lack of promotion from the Championship, there are likely to be consequences of underperforming sides when the Prem turns into a franchise operation, which is expected to happen by the end of the decade, and expands.

At least Newcastle, so long as Red Bull remain involved, will have no concerns about meeting the minimum spend requirement, but now they will be able to properly prepare for the future. Last summer, Diamond was largely restricted to signing players on one-year contracts because the club could not look beyond that point and most were coming to the end of their careers.

Some, like the No.8 Amanaki Mafi and Freddie Clarke paid off, but Liam Williams made three appearances before suffering an injury that ended his career. Christian Wade has been given another year in his quest to break the Prem’s try scoring record and two of the players who stood out, scrum-half Simon Benitez Cruz and flanker Tom Christie, signed longer deals.

New man: Dan McFarland has been appointed head coach

Record chaser: Christian Wade scoring for Red Bulls

Cruz, the Argentina international, will be joined next season by Sale’s England international Raffi Quirke. It will provide the level of competition needed in all positions but Quirke will also be an option on the wing where he has featured for the Sharks.

Despite spending the season at the bottom of the table, Newcastle enjoyed some sell-outs. The opening match of the campaign, against Harlequins in the Prem Rugby Cup, attracted more than 9,000 to Kingston Park and they were rewarded with a 26-14 victory and a feelgood factor that did not hint at Diamond’s departure little more than two weeks later.

The clash against Saracens was one of four 10,210 capacity crowds. The Red Bulls, who had ended a 24-match league losing streak against Sarries 10 months before, made a fast start with Alex Hearle scoring a try in the opening minute and the visiting flanker Nathan Michelow receiving a red card for a dangerous tackle in the build-up.

But Saracens had come loaded, their line-up including the returning Owen Farrell, and they took a grip on the game despite their numerical disadvantage before wing Noah Caluori announced himself with a spectacular individual try shortly after coming on as a replacement.

Defeats to Exeter, Sale, Northampton and Sale followed, although the Red Bulls won at Franklin’s Gardens in the Prem Cup. It was the Challenge Cup that was to offer salvation, victory at Lyon and at home to the Lions followed by a third over Perpignan that ensured a home draw in the last 16 despite the defeat at the Dragons in the final round.

Potential: Newcastle celebrate victory over Sale in May

PICTURES: Getty Images

Coach: Stephen Jones

Overseas aid: Simon Benitez Cruz and, below, Tom Christie

The achievement made the departure of Dickens all the more surprising. La Rochelle took an early lead but Newcastle fought back to nudge their way in front with 20 minutes to go before the Top 14 side and previous Champions Cup winners sealed victory with a late try.

Newcastle then seemed to go on holiday early before finding themselves beached against Sale after going 35-10 down. The Sharks were hardly brimming with confidence going into the game having lost five of their last six matches following the break for the Six Nations, but the Red Bulls cut loose to score seven tries, the final one by Hearle in the final minute for his hat-trick.

“Next season will be a wonderful challenges with players and coaches of quality coming in,” said Jones. “When we get together as a coaching group, we will be discussing how we want to play, what our DNA and identity are and how best we can bring everything together. We have got to make sure we are clear on our vision and alignment.”

INS AND OUTS

Hoskins Sotutu, below. is one of the headline signings as the Red Bulls march into the future with a squad shake-up.

The 14-cap New Zealand No 8, who qualifies for England because he last played for the All Blacks four years ago and his mother is English, has signed a three-year deal at the prime age of 27.

He will join fellow Kiwi Tom Christie, who arrived in the northeast last November and quickly made an impact in a struggling side, in the back row contingent.

And another New Zealander is on his way, Hurricanes wing Fehi Fineanganojo, although his departure prompted calls for the New Zealand union to buy the uncapped 23-year old out of his Newcastle contract.

Fineanganojo has had an outstanding season in Super Rugby and was the top try scorer in the competition with 16 but the union has no plans to make Newcastle an offer to keep him.

“Hoskins Sotutu, the New Zealand No. 8 with 14 caps, is one of the club’s headline signings”

His Hurricanes team-mate, prop Pouri Rakete-Stones, is also on his way to Kingston Park along with Northampton’s tight-head Elliot Millar-Mills and Fiji centre Joji Nasova.

The Red Bulls have recruited a number of players with Premiership experience. Full-back Josh Hodge arrived from Exeter earlier this year and joining him from Sandy Park will be centre Will Rigg and second row Rusi Tuima. Props Tom West and James Harper have been recruited from Northampton and Sale respectively, Scotland centre Chris Harris returns from Bath having first played for Newcastle in 2014, scrum-half Raffi Quirke and wing Obi Ene have been enticed from Sale, second row Cam Jordan from Gloucester, hooker George Turner from Harlequins, lock Cam Jordan from Gloucester and centre Brandon Jackson arrives from Saracens.

Newcastle have agreed contract extensions with 14 players while among the 26 leavers are Eduardo Bello, Elliott Obatoyinbo, Tom Gordon, Freddie Lockwood and Sam Stuart.