'He sold me the dream': Pat Lam on his time at Newcastle

Bristol Bears boss Pat Lam will take a happy stroll down memory lane on Friday night when he returns to Newcastle for the first time since they were taken over by Austrian energy drinks giants Red Bull last summer.

Lam was one of a host of big-money Sir John Hall signings when he joined Newcastle in January 1997, on a two-and-a-half-year contract to bolster their hopes of promotion to the First Division.

Then the 28-year-old captain of Western Samoa , who had impressed in the 1995 World Cup, was playing for Auckland and then the Crusaders in the Super 12s, then within a year, they won promotion and claimed their only Premiership crown to date.

Lam has very vivid memories about how the move came about and being sold the dream by boss Rob Andrew.

“I tell you what, Rob Andrew is a very clever man. I was on tour with Samoan in 1996, and we played at Oxford University. I wasn’t playing the game, but Dean Ryan and Steve Bates were in their Newcastle adidas jackets.

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24 Apr 26

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“Someone mentioned they want to talk to me and just want to check out if you’re looking at coming to the UK? And, I said, I am talking to a few clubs. The following weekend, we played Ireland in Dublin.

“After the match, we went back to the hotel. The Burlington, and Rob Andrew is there having a beer. He comes over and has a chat, and then asks Brian Williams if he could fly me over on a down day to show me Newcastle.

“Rob took me through probably the best parts of Newcastle to St. James Park. I asked is this our ground? He goes, ‘No, but the owner owns this,’ and sells the dream. We’re going to play here one day.

“So I did my medical in there, and it’s all flash and everything. And eventually, we drove through a nice part of Newcastle again and ended up at Kingston Park. And I thought this was okay. I remember there was temporary seating.

“But he sold me the dream. They were in the second division. We put together a big squad, Doddie Weir, Alan Tait, Dean Ryan and Gary Armstrong, all these guys that I knew and played against.

“So I thought this sounds good. So the next thing was to sell it to my wife, and we came up, and we absolutely loved it. It was one of my favourite places in the country, not just there, but also in Northumberland.

“They took me down to the beach. I couldn’t believe there were white sand beaches there. But I went into the water, and I couldn’t go further than past my ankles. It was freezing,” he laughs.