Newcastle Red Bulls: Sale game is 'battle of North' even though Sharks 'really' midlands

Newcastle Red Bulls boss Dan McFarland says his side has their sights set on breaking their duck for the season and becoming Kings of the North by beating Sale Sharks on Friday night.

The Red Bulls and Harlequins are the only two teams in the Gallagher PREM without a win this season, and the four bonus points they took in the opening three games are keeping them off the foot of the table.

They are five points behind the Sharks in seventh place, who, like the six teams above them, won two games and lost one in the first block of games before last week’s break for European competition.

In May, Newcastle secured a dramatic last-gap 45-42 win over the Sharks after coming back from 35-10 down to win only their second game since January 2, giving them bragging rights, and it’s something McFarland wants permanently.

“First and foremost, we’ve got to focus on our strengths and what we’re trying to achieve. But at the same time, we’ve got to acknowledge that they are a big physical team, and it’s something that they’ve prided themselves on for the last number of years.

“We also acknowledge that they’ve developed from a more forward-oriented team into one with real threats out wide. But the key focuses around us at the moment are developing a team.

“We’re not at a stage where we want to spend too much time on the opposition, but we also recognise the kind of team that Sale are. It’s a big fixture, isn’t it? It’s Derby Day. It’s a battle for the North.

“Even though they’re really Cheshire, which is sort of the Midlands, it is a battle for the North, and it’s one where Sale, over the last number of years, have had a primacy and deservedly so.

“Alex and the guys over there have built a team that’s a very distinctive identity. They’ve challenged up at the top of the league on a number of occasions. They’ve recruited incredibly well this year.

“We’re also proud of whom we represent and where we come from. And, as I said at the beginning of the year, we’re starting at the back of the grid, but our eyes are firmly on picking people off ahead of us.

“And, you know, in the battle for the North, we want that ascendancy. We don’t have it at the moment, but we want it,” said McFarland.