Newcastle Red Bulls 2025/26 preview

Published on 23 September 2025 at 17:00

Newcastle Red Bulls

Last season's finish: 10th

Director of rugby: Steve Diamond

Captain: George McGuigan

Star player: Amanaki Mafi

Young player to watch: Ollie Leatherbarrow

The club formerly known as the "Falcons" has a very different feel about it now - and a new look! The arrival of Red Bull to Newcastle has energised the club and the wider rugby community. Their arrival has given Newcastle the ability to actually make some signings in order to compete with the other 9 clubs. Unfortunately, the lateness of the company's acquisition of Newcastle has meant the the clubs lost stalwarts like Callum Chick, who was club captain, and Jamie Blamire. They join a long list of former Falcons who have left for more fruitful opportunities across the Prem. Max Pepper and Ben Redshaw are exciting prospects who also left the club this summer. In previous seasons, the club has lost the likes of: Guy Pepper (Bath), Phil Brantingham (Saracens) and Adam Radwan (Leicester). These departures have led to a dearth of quality within the squad which has resulted in 10th place finishes in the past 2 seasons.

Since the arrival of Red Bull, they have been able to make a few signings. Most of whom have joined on 1-year-deals, which indicates that Red Bull are using this season to stabilise before building for the long term next summer when they have had the ability to plan. Steve Diamond, whose position is not guaranteed beyond this season, has already stated that the club are looking at 13 England players that will be out of contract at the end of this season so next summer could be very exciting for the northerners.

In the meantime, Newcastle have made some big signings. Freddie Clarke was very unlucky to not be offered a new deal by Gloucester and will bring serious Prem experience to the second row for Newcastle.Fergus Lee-Warner has also signed this summer from the Western Force but has spent time in England with Bath. They will be joined in the pack by hooker Hame Faiva and no.8 Amanaki Mafi. Mafi is 34-years-old but will still bring a physical presence to the team that Newcastle have not been able to afford until this season. Mafi will be joined in the back row by Tom Christie. Christie, who signed from the Crusaders in New Zealand, is a player that will bring a high work rate to the back row that will balance nicely with Mafi's power.

Steve DIamond has also added across the back line. Boeta Chamberlain has joined to play fly half and Stefan Coetzee will play at fullback. The South Africans are smart additions, who won't have required Newcastle to spend too much money on them, which shows that Red Bull are going to be strategic about how they build this team going forward. The headline signings in the back line are Christian Wade and Liam Williams. Wade will join the club in December after he finishes his time with the Wigan Warriors. Liam Williams has signed in the past couple of days having left Saracens at the end of last season. The Welshman is well-suited to Newcastle given his abilities in the air and in the kicking game more generally. Friday nights in Newcastle just got a whole lot harder for opposition teams.

One interesting factor this season is the possibility of relegation. The Falcons, as they were at the time, have managed to finish bottom-of-the-table on a consistent basis without facing the ultimate consequence. This has been due to no team being able to come up from the 2nd division. Until this season, Doncaster and Coventry have been the only sides with a reasonable hope of being eligible for promotion but have failed to deliver on the pitch. Instead, Ealing have won the league and appear to have no interest in building the infrastructure to go up. The Jersey Reds have also won the league but were unable to secure funding, due to uncertainty created by those in charge of English rugby, and thus went under. This year the Worcester Warriors are back, and with a good team. If they win the newly-renamed "Champ rugby", which they are capable of doing, Worcester would play a 2-leg playoff against 10th in the Prem - most likely Newcastle.

This would create some legitimate jeopardy for the Red Bulls. However, there have been rumblings that relegation could be scrapped for a period of up to 5 years in order to create some financial stability in the top flight. Importantly, this wouldn't necessarily stop teams getting promoted and thus expanding the league back up to 12 teams. That would be a sensible move, and one that wouldn't cut off growth anymore than those at the top of the English game already have. It would also render the entirety of my previous paragraph entirely redundant, but that's potentially good news for Newcastle.

Notable ins:

Boeta Chamberlain - Freddie Clarke - Tom Christie - Christian Wade

Notable outs:

Jamie Blamire - Callum Chick - Max Pepper

Squad

(Including some senior academy players)

Hooker

Hame Faiva - Ollie Fletcher - George McGuigan

Prop

Eduardo Bello - Adam Brocklebank - Luan de Bruin - Elvis Kitenge-Fuki - Callum Hancock - Murray McCallum - Richard Palframan - Mark Rewcastle

Lock

Finn Baker - Freddie Clarke - Tim Cardall - Sebastian de Chaves - Jamie Hodgson - Fergus Lee-Warner - Adam Scott - Oliver Usher

Back row

George Bolam - Tom Christie - John Kelly - Tom Gordon - John Hawkins - Ollie Leatherbarrow - Freddie Lockwood - Amanaki Mafi - Cameron Neild - Ruben Parsons - Charlie Turnbull

Scrum half

Simon Benitez Cruz - Joe Davis - James Elliott - Sam Stuart

Fly half

Boeta Chamberlain - Brett Connon - Junior Newton

Centre

Sammy Arnold - Rhys Beeckmans - Max Clark - Connor Doherty - Ethan Grayson

Wing

Joel Grayson - Nathan Greenwood - Alex Hearle - Harrison Obatoyinbo - Christian Wade

Fullback

Louis Brown - Zach Kerr - Elliot Obatoyinbo - Oliver Spencer - Sam Waugh - Stefan Coetzee - Liam Williams

Possible XV and bench

1.Luan de Bruin 2.Hame Faiva 3.Richard Palframan 4.Freddie Clarke 5.Fergus Lee-Warner

6.Freddie Lockwood 7.Tom Christie 8.Amanaki Mafi 9.Simon Benitez Cruz 10.Boeta Chamberlain

11.Alex Hearle 12.Sammy Arnold 13.Connor Doherty 14.Harrison Obatoyinbo 15.Stefan Coetzee

Bench

16.Byron McGuigan 17.Adam Brocklebank 18.Edaurdo Bello 19.Sebastian de Chaves