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Newcastle lock down 'talented young player' Matavesi to new deal

Joel Matavesi, Newcastle Falcons. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Newcastle Falcons are have locked down one of their most promising players, Joel Matavesi.

Matavesi is yet to earn an international cap and is eligible for both England and Fiji.

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Joel’s dad Sereli was the first Fijian to play for Camborne and Cornwall after his arrival in the 1980s, and his brothers Josh and Sam have also made their mark in the game.

Sam recently signed for French Top 14 giants Toulouse, having returned to the international fold last November helping Fiji to their famous win over France in Paris.

Now Joel Matavesi has agreed a new one-year contract with Newcastle. The 22-year old is a former Exeter Chiefs academy player, who also spent time with the Ospreys.

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The centre has helped Newcastle Falcons’ A-Team to win the Premiership Rugby Shield’s Northern Conference this season, director of rugby Dean Richards saying: “Joel is a talented young player who shows a lot of promise.

“He is a good ball-player with a lot of attacking ability, and we will continue to look to bring the best out of him during his time with us.”

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Matavesi said: “I’m loving my time up here so far. I’ve come on loads, I want to continue to do so and this is the right environment for me to keep on learning.

“Working with coaches like Dave Walder and Mark Laycock has really helped me – I just want to keep improving and to show it on the pitch whenever I get the chance.”

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Nickers 1 hour ago
The changes Scott Robertson must make to address All Blacks’ bench woes

Hopefully Robertson and co aren't applying this type of thinking to their selections, although some of their moves this year have suggested that might be the case.


The first half of Foster's tenure, when he was surrounded by coaches who were not up to the task, was disastrous due to this type of reactionary chopping and changing. No clear plan of the direction of travel or what needs to be built to get there. Just constant tinkering. A player gets dropped one week, on the bench the next, back to starting the next, dropped for the next week again. Add in injuries and other variations of this selection pattern, combined with vastly different game plans from one week to the next and it's no wonder the team isn't clicking on attack and are making incredibly basic errors on both sides of the ball.


When Schmidt and Ryan got involved selections became far more consistent and the game plan far simpler and the dividends were instant, and they accepted bad performances as part of building towards the world cup. They were able to distinguish between bad plans and bad execution and by the time the finals rolled around they were playing their best rugby as a team.


Chopping and changing the team each week sends the signal that you don't really know what you are doing or why, and you are just reacting to what happened last week, selecting a team to replay the previous game rather than preparing for the next one and building for the future.

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