'We didn’t feel it was right' - Newcastle Red Bulls explain Christian Wade call

Newcastle Red Bulls have named their team for Saturday’s EPCR Challenge Cup opener away to Lyon, with head coach Alan Dickens clarifying why new recruit Christian Wade has not yet been selected.

The PREM strugglers are winless after six rounds of their domestic season and head to France looking for what head coach Alan Dickens hopes will be a spark.

The Matmut Stadium trip opens a four-game pool schedule, with the top four booking a spot in the last 16. George McGuigan leads a reshuffled side after the Leicester loss, with Boeta Chamberlain taking over at full-back, Harrison Obatoyinbo coming in on the left wing and Tom Gordon restored to his usual blind-side role.

Dickens, a two-time Challenge Cup winner with Northampton Saints, said: “It’s a competition I really like, and it will be useful for us in terms of injecting some momentum into our league season.

“I won the Challenge Cup once as a player and once as a coach, and it’s a trophy in its own right, so we want to go for it.

“It will help develop the competition within our squad as guys are challenging each other for selection, and it should be a good game over in Lyon. Like ourselves, they’ve not had an easy start to the league season and they’ll be looking to change their fortunes, and it’s always a great atmosphere when you go over to these French grounds.”

With backs and attack coach Stephen Jones starting work this week and former England flyer Wade joining the training ranks, Dickens added: “Stephen has got outstanding calibre and will add a lot to our game, so we look forward to seeing how that develops over the coming weeks and months.

“Christian has started training with us but we didn’t feel it was right to chuck him straight into a game, having just come off the back of a rugby league season. He’s a very diligent professional and has looked after himself really well, and then just around the environment he’s a great character who has brought the energy we all know him for.

“His time will come over the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime we’ve got a good group heading over to Lyon and I’m excited to see how we go.”

Newcastle Red Bulls:  15 Boeta Chamberlain, 14 Oli Spencer, 13 Alex Hearle, 12 Ethan Grayson, 11 Harrison Obatoyinbo, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Adam Brocklebank, 2 George McGuigan (captain), 3 Murray McCallum, 4 Oscar Usher, 5 Jamie Hodgson, 6 Tom Gordon, 7 Tom Christie, 8 Amanaki Mafi.

Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Connor Hancock, 18 Micky Rewcastle, 19 Finn Baker, 20 Cameron Neild, 21 Simón Benítez Cruz, 22 Cameron Hutchison, 23 Stefan Coetzee.