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Newcastle make a Pollard, Ford understudy their sixth new signing

New Newcastle signing Kieran Wilkinson (Photo by Patrick Khachfe/Getty Images)

Steve Diamond’s recruitment drive at bottom club Newcastle has taken another step towards the 2024/25 season with the recruitment of Kieran Wilkinson, the former England age-grade out-half who has shadowed Handre Pollard and George Ford in recent years.

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The Falcons are rooted to 10th and last place in the current Gallagher Premiership campaign, but the capture of Wilkinson is the club’s sixth signing ahead of what will be their first full campaign with Diamond at the helm following last January’s sacking of Alex Codling.

A statement read: “Leicester Tigers fly-half Kieran Wilkinson will join Newcastle Falcons in the summer, with the 24-year-old arriving on a one-year deal. Wilkinson started for the Tigers in Friday’s home victory over Georgia’s Black Lion, kicking 100 per cent from the tee in the 21-13 triumph.

“Capped by England at U20s, 18s, and 16s levels, the Kirkham Grammar School graduate made his senior breakthrough with Sale Sharks, whose former director of rugby Steve Diamond is delighted to be reunited with him at Newcastle.

Wilkinson becomes the Falcons’ sixth confirmed signing for next season, following the announcements of Gloucester wing/centre Alex Hearle, Edinburgh prop Luan de Bruin, Sale flanker Cameron Neild, and England Students props Callum and Connor Hancock.

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Bath
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“The players who are coming here in the first instance are lads that I know, and who understand how I work,” explained Diamond.

“Kieran is worldly-wise for his age, and even though it looks like he hasn’t played much rugby in the last two years you have got to remember he has been learning every day from George Ford at Sale and Handre Pollard at Leicester.

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“He has been sitting behind two world-class 10s and is coming here with a viewpoint to push on and get himself in our first team. Kieran has that hard-working attitude that I demand, and he is a good player.

“He has got a strong kicking game, he controls the play and he is a good kid. I like what he brings to an environment, I’m really pleased to be able to bring him in – and it’s also not a bad surname for a fly-half at Newcastle!”

Wilkinson added: “I’m really excited about joining Newcastle. It’s a great club, some of my heroes when I was a kid played up there and I have always had a soft spot for them.

“It’s a fantastic city as well, so on and off the field I’m really pumped about getting up there in the summer and helping get the club back up to where it should be.

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“I have not played too much rugby because we have obviously got Handre Pollard, and as you would expect from a two-time World Cup winner he has got the No10 shirt nailed down. That is obviously frustrating in one sense because as a player you want to be involved in games.

“But on the same token, it has been great just to learn from him every day in training and see how he goes about everything. I feel like I will be a better player for having had that experience, and I have now got this great challenge up at Newcastle to get my teeth into.

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“I’d like to think I bring an attacking mindset to the game. The players I enjoy watching are the likes of Finn Russell, Marcus Smith and, back in the day, Danny Cipriani. I’m not saying I play exactly like those kinds of guys, but I like to be creative and to get the attack firing.

“In terms of working again with Steve, he signed me as a teenager for Sale and I have got massive respect for the way he goes about things.

“He is the perfect man for the job up at Newcastle and I’m really looking forward to playing under him. It’s a new set-up, new players and a massive opportunity, so I’m buzzing to get up there.”

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J
JW 3 hours ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Ok, managed to read the full article..

... New Zealand’s has only 14 and the professional season is all over within four months. In France, club governance is the responsibility of an independent organisation [the Ligue Nationale de Rugby or LNR] which is entirely separate from the host union [the Fédération Française de Rugby or FFR]. Down south New Zealand Rugby runs the provincial and the national game.

That is the National Provincial Championship, a competition of 14 representative union based teams run through the SH international window and only semi professional (paid only during it's running). It is run by NZR and goes for two and a half months.


Super Rugby is a competition involving 12 fully professional teams, of which 5 are of New Zealand eligibility, and another joint administered team of Pacific Island eligibility, with NZR involvement. It was a 18 week competition this year, so involved (randomly chosen I believe) extra return fixtures (2 or 3 home and away derbys), and is run by Super Rugby Pacific's own independent Board (or organisation). The teams may or may not be independently run and owned (note, this does not necessarily mean what you think of as 'privately owned').


LNR was setup by FFR and the French Government to administer the professional game in France. In New Zealand, the Players Association and Super Rugby franchises agreed last month to not setup their own governance structure for professional rugby and re-aligned themselves with New Zealand Rugby. They had been proposing to do something like the English model, I'm not sure how closely that would have been aligned to the French system but it did not sound like it would have French union executive representation on it like the LNR does.

In the shaky isles the professional pyramid tapers to a point with the almighty All Blacks. In France the feeling for country is no more important than the sense of fierce local identity spawned at myriad clubs concentrated in the southwest. Progress is achieved by a nonchalant shrug and the wide sweep of nuanced negotiation, rather than driven from the top by a single intense focus.

Yes, it is pretty much a 'representative' selection system at every level, but these union's are having to fight for their existence against the regime that is NZR, and are currently going through their own battle, just as France has recently as I understand it. A single focus, ala the French game, might not be the best outcome for rugby as a whole.


For pure theatre, it is a wonderful article so far. I prefer 'Ntamack New Zealand 2022' though.

The young Crusader still struggles to solve the puzzle posed by the shorter, more compact tight-heads at this level but he had no problem at all with Colombe.

It was interesting to listen to Manny during an interview on Maul or Nothing, he citied that after a bit of banter with the All Black's he no longer wanted one of their jersey's after the game. One of those talks was an eye to eye chat with Tamaiti Williams, there appear to be nothing between the lock and prop, just a lot of give and take. I thought TW angled in and caused Taylor to pop a few times, and that NZ were lucky to be rewarded.

f you have a forward of 6ft 8ins and 145kg, and he is not at all disturbed by a dysfunctional set-piece, you are in business.

He talked about the clarity of the leadership that helped alleviate any need for anxiety at the predicaments unfolding before him. The same cannot be said for New Zealand when they had 5 minutes left to retrieve a match winning penalty, I don't believe. Did the team in black have much of a plan at any point in the game? I don't really call an autonomous 10 vehicle they had as innovative. I think Razor needs to go back to the dealer and get a new game driver on that one.

Vaa’i is no match for his power on the ground. Even in reverse, Meafou is like a tractor motoring backwards in low gear, trampling all in its path.

Vaa'i actually stops him in his tracks. He gets what could have been a dubious 'tackle' on him?

A high-level offence will often try to identify and exploit big forwards who can be slower to reload, and therefore vulnerable to two quick plays run at them consecutively.

Yes he was just standing on his haunches wasn't he? He mentioned that in the interview, saying that not only did you just get up and back into the line to find the opposition was already set and running at you they also hit harder than anything he'd experienced in the Top 14. He was referring to New Zealands ultra-physical, burst-based Super style of course, which he was more than a bit surprised about. I don't blame him for being caught out.


He still sent the obstruction back to the repair yard though!

What wouldn’t the New Zealand rugby public give to see the likes of Mauvaka and Meafou up front..

Common now Nick, don't go there! Meafou showed his Toulouse shirt and promptly got his citizenship, New Zealand can't have him, surely?!?


As I have said before with these subjects, really enjoy your enthusiasm for their contribution on the field and I'd love to see more of their shapes running out for Vern Cotter and the like styled teams.

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