Newcastle have wings clipped by Leicester but look to play long game

Investment from Red Bull and scrapping of relegation give breathing-space for English rugby union’s northern light to develop a playing style ‘that doesn’t send people to sleep’

One of the key features of grown-up team sports the world over – in other words, all of them apart from football – is the separation of the professional game from the amateur. This means that at some point in the hierarchy there is a level from which a team cannot be relegated.

Rugby union in England is in the midst of a long, torturous attempt to join the grown-ups, which is not easy given the total dominance in the prevailing culture of football, but it has recently taken the most politically charged step away from the madhouse by closing its top tier. This leaves only rugby in France still rooted in the ways of football.

As with the French, English rugby wants more teams in the north. Hence the pressure on Newcastle, not only the club most obviously advantaged by an abolition of relegation, not only a lone union outpost catering to the northernmost quarter of England, but now the beneficiaries of the kind of investment from Red Bull that aims to grow in the longer term, rather than seek immediate results for fear of oblivion.

“They’re an energy-drink company,” said Dan McFarland, newly installed director of rugby, after their first home game of the season, against Leicester, on Saturday night. “They have a genuine belief that it’s an opportunity for giving people wings and developing something special in the northeast.”

Had a system determined by the random contingencies of what happens on a pitch in any given season still been in place, Newcastle would, at best, be playing musical chairs, probably with another team from west London, where the graveyard is so crowded with famous old clubs who have tried and failed to find enough air down there. But the flipside of the breathing space in a closed league is the onus on you to prove your worth. Newcastle have long since become the Prem’s answer to Italy in the Six Nations.

Most people want them to thrive, not only because of the strategic importance of a healthy professional club in the far north of England, but also for fear of a reversion to something more unstable and insane should they fail to make the most of their chance. Since Red Bull invested on the eve of last season, there have been a few notable signings, but the focus has been on developing the project, the academy in particular.

The problem with that, of course, is the relentless poring over the fortunes of the first team, as we earnestly seek evidence of a meaningful shift in the usual narrative of defeat after defeat. The result from Saturday was familiar.

This was an eminently winnable fixture. Leicester travelled north with some obvious gaps in their team, particularly in the front five, where injuries have ravaged. Newcastle hit the ground running, as if they sensed the opportunity. If the aim of the venture is to confer wings, the change of nickname from Falcons to Bulls might be considered unfortunate, but it was to the left wing they sent the proceeds of one early raid, where Obi Ene, on his debut, stepped his way to the line for the game’s first try, after only three minutes.

A full house of 10,000 felt as if this could, indeed, be their time. Of Newcastle’s notable signings, most have been in the back row where Tom Christie has been joined by fellow Kiwis, Hoskins Sotutu and Max Hicks. Sotutu, an All Black eligible for England, has attracted most of the interest, but the early running for signing of the season has been made by Hicks, a rangy back-five forward whose break, developed by each of his mates in the back row, paved the way for that score and much else besides.

You could not move at Kingston Park for reference to the concept of energy. Newcastle continued throughout in the same vein, but the concept of composure was to prove more elusive and the bounce of the ball fickle. Instead, it was a familiar figure from these parts, Adam Radwan, whose try proved decisive in Leicester’s 17-5 lead at the break.

Newcastle introduced a less-heralded Englishman into the back row in the second half, and Ollie Leatherbarrow was a bundle of, well, energy, playing key parts in both of the Red Bulls’ second-half tries. In the end, though, the telling score for Leicester in their 24-19 win came from a simple tapped penalty by Will Hurd, from which the prop ran through and over two front-row opponents visibly exasperated by their mistimed tackles.

So a familiar tale of encouragement and frustration for that team in a closed league constantly scrutinised for signs of improvement. “We want to play a brand of rugby that doesn’t send people to sleep,” said McFarland, giving the energy theme a different spin. “We want to move the ball and get our exciting individuals into the game.”

In this 30th season, younger followers of the Premiership might not realise the first was won by Newcastle. The Falcons had wings then, but they flew too far, too soon. The Red Bulls hopefully now will have time to find their feet. They are not going to win edition 30, but they are here to stay.