Newcastle Falcons’ Under-18s kick off their Academy League season on Saturday when they travel to face Leicester Tigers.

A four-game northern group culminates in finals day at Gloucester, with Under-18s lead academy coach PJ Butler excited for the new campaign.

He said: “The chief purpose is to develop boys towards professional contracts and ultimately performing for Newcastle Falcons’ first team, and we’ve definitely got a number of guys who can do that.

“We’ve got a good group, and we’ll have 19 players who will be making their academy league debut this weekend. In terms of how they’re going to do, we’ll find out over the next five weeks, but they’ve trained well and there’s a lot of promise in the squad.”

Saturday’s 4pm kick-off has been moved from Loughborough University to Leicester Forest RFC, and will be followed by a development fixture at 6pm.

“The development team will be mainly under-17s with a small handful of 18s, and it’s a great opportunity to see a lot of guys in action,” said Butler, with this year’s season structure having been tweaked.

“Everything is compressed into one block this year in terms of the Under-18s league, and with there being fewer academies now there are only four regular-season games leading into finals week.

“The competition started last weekend but we had our bye week, and with the way the weather was there was only actually one game took place in the northern group, with Leicester beating Yorkshire.

“We’ve trained every Monday and every Thursday apart from Boxing Day, so our preparation has been pretty good. We had an internal training session last weekend with some full-contact blocks, just to start getting the lads into the swing of it with us having the bye week.

“Having not seen the other teams play it’s hard to say who will be the main sides to beat, but Leicester had a good win over Yorkshire last weekend and you’d expect them to be up there. They’ll be tough on their own patch but we’ve actually beaten them over the last couple of seasons, and it’s a great opportunity for us.”

Falcons season ticket holders, seasonal hospitality guests and all under-18s can once again get free entry into Under-18s home games, with general admission priced at £5.

Butler said: “The people who come and watch the Under-18s always tell us they enjoy it, and for Falcons supporters it’s a chance to see some of the stars of the future during the early part of their journey.

“Our main purpose is developing those guys who are going to push on and compete for our first team, but at the same time it’s important for us to have some success on the field at Under-18s level as well, and for the whole group to thrive and benefit from their time here.

“We’ve got a good mix of players from schools and colleges throughout our region, both in the state and independent sectors. Our ACE programme at Gosforth Academy will naturally attract a lot of the talent from the state system, which works really well, but the great thing in our region is that there is quality all over the place, so we cast a wide net.

“We’ve got a good spread, which I think is healthy for the sport, and we’re excited about seeing them on the field once the games get underway.”

NEWCASTLE FALCONS U18S FIXTURES

(Home games in capitals)

Sat Jan 11: v Leicester Tigers (4pm)

SAT JAN 18: V NORTHAMPTON SAINTS (1PM)

Sun Feb 2: v Sale Sharks (3pm)

SAT FEB 8: V YORKSHIRE (1PM)

Sun Feb 16: Finals day (Kingsholm, Gloucester)