'It’s not close': Dan McFarland on where Newcastle are falling short

Dan McFarland, the Newcastle Red Bulls head coach, wants his new-look team to “do more physical damage” as they hunt a first Gallagher PREM win of the season at Exeter Chiefs, who are also winless after two rounds.

Red Bulls came close to knocking over Leicester Tigers, but defensive frailties saw them fall 24-19 at home as the rebranded club attempts to integrate the 25 new players who have arrived at Kingston Park.

McFarland said: “We need to be getting off the line in defence and smoking guys and we are seeing bits and pieces of that, but on both sides of the ball, we need to be doing more physical damage. It’s not close to where we want to be.

“We have to be getting shoulders into ribs and be moving bodies at the breakdown. Judging where we are on this journey is difficult and I don’t want to put any limits on what we are capable of. We do set benchmarks to find out where we are and it is a week-to-week thing.”

Flanker Max Hicks was one of the Red Bulls’ leading ball carriers and is showing why he will become a major asset to the team after joining from Perpignan.

Fixture

Gallagher Premiership

Exeter Chiefs

07:00

11 Oct 26

Newcastle

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McFarland added: “He has good speed and is a good ball carrier and we haven’t seen the best of him by any stretch of the imagination.

“I see a lot of growth in him as a player and with his long levers he is an offload threat and it’s important you can break the line by getting the ball free. Tall guys are particularly important. He is quick and explosive and that is where his power comes from.

“We were held up over the line against Leicester and punched holes through the middle and didn’t get the ball to the spaces, and a lot of that is getting used to each other. We want to score tries but we also want to be competitive and we should have won that game against a powerful Tigers team.

“Exeter are more structured than us, there is less risk, and they had the best defence in the league last season. I watched their defeat by Gloucester and they were off their game, and they had the bit between their teeth at Bath and could easily have won that match.”