Raffi Quirke's Newcastle career gets off to false start after injury setback

Newcastle Red Bulls boss Dan McFarland has confirmed that England scrum-half Raffi Quirke has been ruled out of the season opener against reigning Gallagher PREM champions Northampton Saints at Franklin’s Gardens on Friday night.

RugbyPass understands that Quirke, who moved from Sale Sharks this summer, has damaged knee ligaments and that the club have started to search for a potential replacement.

The news will be a blow to Quirke, who suffered a string of hamstring and wrist injuries during his time with the Sharks and hoped a move to the North East would kick-start his stalled international career.

Quirke, 25, was called into the England squad for a Nations Championship clash with Argentina in the summer after Alex Mitchell suffered a hamstring injury and won the last of his two caps, scoring a try in a win over the Springboks in November 2021.

McFarland confirmed to RugbyPass on Monday afternoon that Quirke, who played in a pre-season game against Glasgow Warriors 10 days ago, won’t be available to face the Saints but stopped short of saying how bad the injury was.

“Raffi is currently not available yet. That’s absolutely true. We haven’t released an injury update, but Rafi won’t be considered for selection this week.

“I’m not going to say at the moment (the extent of the injury). If that’s all right, but he won’t be available this week,” said the new Red Bulls boss on his weekly media call.

McFarland did confirm, however, that his three new Argentinean signings, tight-head Francisco Moreno, lock Franco Molina and full-back Benjamín Elizalde, plus scrum-half Simón Benitez-Cruz, have all arrived in the North East after international duty.

And they will be available to face Saints, and the news that Benitez-Cruz is fit will be a boost given Quirke isn’t available and it appear that he won’t be for the immediate future.