U18s at home to Leicester on Saturday

Thursday 04 January 2024 Written by: Mark Smith

Come and watch the next generation of Newcastle Falcons players on Saturday when our Under-18s team hosts Leicester Tigers at Kingston Park.

The 2pm kick-off sees free entry for all supporters, with the East Stand Tap & Tackle bar open for drinks and refreshments as the Future Falcons enter their main block of games for the season.

Coach PJ Butler said: “Being able to play on the main pitch at Kingston Park is absolutely massive for us as an academy, and I know the lads get a huge amount out of it.

“There’s a sense of spectacle for the players in knowing they’re at a Premiership match venue, and then also for the crowd to come down and see the next generation of lads coming through is really positive.

“The players really feel like they’re part of Newcastle Falcons, and the feedback we get from the crowd is that they enjoy coming along.

“It’s free to get in, it’s a good level of rugby and the bar is open, so it’s a great day out for people who love their live sport.

“We try and play a good brand of rugby, they’re normally entertaining games and a number of these guys could well be playing for the first team in the next couple of years.

“We’ve seen this season with the likes of Ben Redshaw playing for the first team – he was in our Under-18s this time last year – and then guys like Oli Spencer and Louie Johnson, to name just a couple, were playing at this level within the last couple of seasons.

“Newcastle as a club have always placed a lot of emphasis on bringing players through our academy, and it’s been particularly evident this season. These guys are the future of the club, and I would urge any Falcons supporters to have a look along and see who we have knocking on the door.”

Explaining the season structure following a four-month gap between games, Butler said: “There were two rounds in the summer but we had a bye week in one of those, so we targeted our pre-season programme to the one game that we did have.

“We’ve re-booted it since there with things like the lads coming in for a camp during the October half-term, and we’ve been building it up again over the past month or so.

“Saturday’s game kicks off the start of our main block of games spread over a couple of months, and it’s great to have that regular contact with the players.

“Age-grade rugby is cyclical by nature so you can never quite say which are the bigger teams, but you would tend to say Leicester are one of the bigger academies with historically a very good record at this level.

“They didn’t have the best start to their summer campaign but we’re not reading too much into that, because it was a long time ago in the context of this weekend’s game.”

Newcastle Falcons U18s v Leicester Tigers U18s (Saturday, 2pm, Kingston Park)

15 Tom Katory (Dame Allan’s, Morpeth RFC)

14 Oli Stanley (Barnard Castle School, Darlington RFC)

13 Osea Navuso (Richmond Sixth Form College, Darlington RFC)

12 Josh Farley (Gosforth Academy, Novocastrians RFC)

11 Huw Lloyd (Gosforth Academy, Carlisle RUFC)

10 Junior Newton (Sedbergh School, Darlington Mowden Park)

9 Joe Davis (Barnard Castle School)

1 Harvey Headlam (Hartlepool Sixth Form, Stockton RFC)

2 Ryan Shaw (Gosforth Academy, Morpeth RFC)

3 Finn Kennedy (Carlisle RUFC)

4 Patrick Hogg (captain, Durham School, Blaydon)

5 Aaron Nokes (Gosforth Academy, Percy Park)

6 Jacob Butterill (Sedbergh School)

7 Charlie Turnbull (Sedbergh School, Percy Park)

8 Reuben Parsons (Gosforth Academy, Upper Eden)

Replacements

16 Ollie Forster (Dame Allan’s, Novocastrians RFC)

17 Chris Kelly (RGS Newcastle, Northern)

18 Elvis Kitenge-Fuki (Gosforth Academy, Novocastrians RFC)

19 Harry Wildridge (Yarm School, Billingham)

20 Will Mallatratt (Durham School, Durham City)

21 Reuben Dyer (Gosforth Academy, Kendall RUFC)

22 Rory Linkleter (Gosforth Academy)

23 James Bent (Gosforth Academy, Penrith RUFC)

NEWCASTLE FALCONS UNDER-18S FIXTURES

Sat Sep 2: v Midlands Central (L 45-14)

Sat Jan 6: v Leicester Tigers (Kingston Park, 2pm)

Sun Jan 14: v Sale Sharks (Heywood Road, 1pm)

Sat Jan 20: v Midlands West (Kingston Park, 2pm)

Fri Feb 2: v Yorkshire Academy (Kingston Park, 8pm)

Sat Feb 10: v Northampton Saints (Franklin’s Gardens, 4.30pm)

Sun Feb 18: Finals day (Kingsholm)