Newcastle confirm intake of 7 rookies including 17-year-old sensation

Scotland’s 17-year-old U20 Six Nations player of the Championship nominee Jake Dalziel is one of seven players who will join Newcastle Red Bulls on full-time rookie contracts for next season.

The fly-half, son of Scotland and British & Irish Lions forwards coach John, made his Scotland U20 debut at the beginning of the Six Nations, marking his debut against Italy with a try and the player of the match accolade.

The 1.95m playmaker, who won’t turn 18 until August, will join the club from Melrose in Scotland alongside Charlie Dinneen (fly-half/full-back), Will Graham (hooker), Harry Hawkins (wing/centre), Euan Oakes (back-row), Nathan Rickerby (prop) and Alfie Warwick (wing).

On top of the seven rookie contracts, Oliver Ashton (centre) and Jack Nesbitt (hooker) will join on university scholar agreements, while summer trials have been offered to Charlie Evans (back-row) and Oliver Green (centre).

“The rookie contract is a full-time standardised contract across all of the clubs for two years which gives the players a good opportunity to live as a full-time professional, and we have seven lads coming to us on that basis,” said pathways and academy director John Fletcher.

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“A number of them are considering university. Most of them have offers which we are working through at the moment, and then slightly different to that are our two university scholar contracts for Oliver Ashton and Jack Nesbitt. Those two lads are going to university, their playing programme will have university rugby as its priority and they’ll train and play with us around those commitments.

“In addition we also have Charlie Evans and Oliver Green spending a couple of months on trial with us over pre-season. They have both demonstrated some ability and we want to have a look at them in a professional environment.”

Head of academy James Ponton added: “We had a strong Under-18s cohort this season and it has been difficult selecting which players to contract on a full-time basis, but we’re really excited about this year’s intake.

“The increased number of players joining our senior academy is a reflection of the ability within the group, and we’ve really bolstered our resources as an academy to give the guys the appropriate level of coaching and infrastructure in supporting them coming through.

“It feels new and different to how the senior academy has worked before, with having such a big group, but we’re looking forward to it.

“As well as increasing our coaching and support staff we’re also looking at getting the guys out playing more rugby alongside their programmes here, be it clubs, universities or a combination of both. We’re strengthening those links all the time in putting the players’ development at the forefront, because playing regular rugby is incredibly important for them.”