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Newcastle make ex-Wasps lock their third signing for 2023/24

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Adam Davy/PA Images via Getty Images)

Ex-Wasps forward Tim Cardall has become the third new Newcastle signing for next season following last week’s announcement of Scottish pair Kiran McDonald and Murray McCallum. The Melbourne Rebels lock will join Falcons on a two-year deal. The 6ft 6in, 19-stone 26-year-old Englishman is currently playing in Super Rugby for the Australian franchise, having spent four seasons with Wasps.

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Cardall said: “Newcastle is a great city and it is somewhere I’m really looking forward to moving to. I have played at Kingston Park a few times for a number of teams and I know it’s a hard place for an opposition to come, so I’m looking forward to being on the other side of that.

“As a club, I was really impressed with how Dave Walder and the other coaches presented it to me. They are a team that plays with a lot of physicality and have a very good set-piece, and this is what excited me about moving to the Falcons. To have the opportunity to work with guys like Scott MacLeod as a lineout coach is something I’m also really looking forward to.”

Newcastle boss Walder added: “Tim was performing well at Wasps prior to their problems at the start of the season, and we are glad to have been able to add him to our squad. He has got an outstanding attitude, he knows the Gallagher Premiership and we will be watching closely to see how he goes if he gets an opportunity for Melbourne Rebels during Super Rugby prior to joining us in pre-season.”

Cardall played for England U18s and began his professional rugby journey in Northampton Saints’ senior academy, going on to spend two seasons at Nottingham while studying for a sports science and coaching degree at Nottingham Trent University.

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During this time he played in the same England Students side as future Newcastle teammates Ben Stevenson and George Wacokecoke, with his current stint in Australia seeing him being coached by former Falcons, England and Lions lock Geoff Parling. “I’m loving my time in Melbourne so far, playing a different style of rugby and experiencing different cultures,” said Cardall.

“To be able to get the chance to come out and play some games in Super Rugby is something I’m really excited about, and I’m grateful for the opportunity the Rebels have given me after what happened with Wasps last year. Joining Newcastle, I would like to bring some skills in the loose and some knowledge around set-piece as well as a high work rate around the field.

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“I know a few of the boys at the Falcons. As well as Ben and George from our England Students side I also played with Kiran McDonald and Seb de Chaves at Wasps, and I know Adam Radwan from playing sevens. Being able to re-connect with those guys will be great, I’m also looking forward to meeting new teammates and making new connections.”

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Jon 8 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

This is the problem with conservative mindsets and phycology, and homogenous sports, everybody wants to be the same, use the i-win template. Athlete wise everyone has to have muscles and work at the gym to make themselves more likely to hold on that one tackle. Do those players even wonder if they are now more likely to be tackled by that player as a result of there “work”? Really though, too many questions, Jake. Is it better Jake? Yes, because you still have that rugby of ole that you talk about. Is it at the highest International level anymore? No, but you go to your club or checkout your representative side and still engage with that ‘beautiful game’. Could you also have a bit of that at the top if coaches encouraged there team to play and incentivized players like Damian McKenzie and Ange Capuozzo? Of course we could. Sadly Rugby doesn’t, or didn’t, really know what direction to go when professionalism came. Things like the state of northern pitches didn’t help. Over the last two or three decades I feel like I’ve been fortunate to have all that Jake wants. There was International quality Super Rugby to adore, then the next level below I could watch club mates, pulling 9 to 5s, take on the countries best in representative rugby. Rugby played with flair and not too much riding on the consequences. It was beautiful. That largely still exists today, but with the world of rugby not quite getting things right, the picture is now being painted in NZ that that level of rugby is not required in the “pathway” to Super Rugby or All Black rugby. You might wonder if NZR is right and the pathway shouldn’t include the ‘amateur’, but let me tell you, even though the NPC might be made up of people still having to pull 9-5s, we know these people still have dreams to get out of that, and aren’t likely to give them. They will be lost. That will put a real strain on the concept of whether “visceral thrill, derring-do and joyful abandon” type rugby will remain under the professional level here in NZ. I think at some point that can be eroded as well. If only wanting the best athlete’s at the top level wasn’t enough to lose that, shutting off the next group, or level, or rugby players from easy access to express and showcase themselves certainly will. That all comes back around to the same question of professionalism in rugby and whether it got things right, and rugby is better now. Maybe the answer is turning into a “no”?

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john 11 hours ago
Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?

But here in Australia we were told Penney was another gun kiwi coach, for the Tahs…….and yet again it turned out the kiwi coach was completely useless. Another con job on Australian rugby. As was Robbie Deans, as was Dave Rennie. Both coaches dumped from NZ and promoted to Australia as our saviour. And the Tahs lap them up knowing they are second rate and knowing that under pressure when their short comings are exposed in Australia as well, that they will fall in below the largest most powerful province and choose second rate Tah players to save their jobs. As they do and exactly as Joe Schmidt will do. Gauranteed. Schmidt was dumped by NZ too. That’s why he went overseas. That why kiwi coaches take jobs in Australia, to try and prove they are not as bad as NZ thought they were. Then when they get found out they try and ingratiate themselves to NZ again by dragging Australian teams down with ridiculous selections and game plans. NZ rugby’s biggest problem is that it can’t yet transition from MCaw Cheatism. They just don’t know how to try and win on your merits. It is still always a contest to see how much cheating you can get away with. Without a cheating genius like McCaw, they are struggling. This I think is why my wise old mate in NZ thinks Robertson will struggle. The Crusaders are the nursery of McCaw Cheatism. Sean Fitzpatrick was probably the father of it. Robertson doesn’t know anything else but other countries have worked it out.

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FEATURE Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby? Will the Crusaders' decline spark a slow death for New Zealand rugby?
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