Steve Diamond happy to play the waiting game over Williams and Wade

Liam Williams will not face a reunion with his former club, Saracens, when they visit the Newcastle Red Bulls at Kingston Park on Friday night.

The Red Bulls’ latest member of Diamond’s Dirty Dozen arrives in the North-East on Wednesday and will join his team-mates for training on Thursday, but he will not be considered for selection.

Instead, Red Bulls boss Steve Diamond has hinted that the Wales and Lions star will make his debut in the long trip to Exeter Chiefs on Saturday week.

“He comes tomorrow. We will get him and his wife bedded in, child and dog, and everything else. He will be training with us on Thursday or Friday. So he will become available next week.

“He is 34, so we have to look after him. He will be like a tube of toothpaste. We just need to squeeze him gently to get the most out of him over the next 12 months.

“He isn’t coming to play 30 games. He needs to play 15 or 20 games for us. I met him on holiday in the summer and we had a bit of a chat and he has got a great mental attitude which will rub off on a lot of the lads,” he said.

Diamond has also revealed that the Red Bulls will have to wait even longer to see another new boy, Christian Wade, in action, with the second-highest try-scorer in PREM Rugby history, not due to join the club until December.

Wade, despite not playing for Wigan Warriors since June, will be given an extended break when his short-term contract runs out after the Super League Grand Final.

“No, he isn’t playing, but the Wigan lads will be getting themselves in order for the Grand Final, hopefully. Chris didn’t have a break between the rugby union and rugby league seasons.

“So we’ve agreed that after the rugby league season, he can have five weeks off. Player welfare is always important. He is a finely tuned athlete.

“We want him to score these eight tries (to get to 100) in the next year or two. So we will get him here and ready for action in December,” added Diamond.

Diamond has also taken steps to manage expectations and believes his side will still face challenges this season despite the investment from energy drinks giants.

“Newcastle will be punching above its weight. I hope. But we will still be hard-pressed to trouble the top six or top eight this season in this transitional period.

“That’s not for any other reason than a young side that I inherited and kept, and the dirty dozen, so we speak, that I have brought in and who are coming to do a job for us and are full of enthusiasm to do that job.

“We are in the very embryonic stages of building a club, and let’s be frank. We have come from seven or eight years of underinvestment, relegation, bottom of the league and Covid.

“Now the light at the end of the tunnel is upon us. That Red Bull sun is burning bright for us. We have got to do it very sensibly and in a fashion that suits the whole community and rugby en masse.

“Red Bull coming into here isn’t just for Newcastle. It just shows their intent of where they want to take the sport and to shift more tickets on Tuesday than we did for the cup game (Harlequins), just shows their skillset off the field.”