Newcastle

The Newcastle Falcons may be one of only two professional rugby union teams in North East England, but they're also one of the country's finest. After all, the Newcastle Falcons Rugby team has one Premiership title and four domestic cups to their name and they currently represent the city of Newcastle in the English Premiership.

Read on to learn even more about the Newcastle Falcons Rugby team. On this page, you'll find all the latest Newcastle Rugby news and the upcoming Newcastle Falcons Rugby fixtures.

The Newcastle Rugby team was first formed in 1877 when the team was based in Gosforth and was known as the Gosforth Football Club. Since then, the Newcastle Rugby team has been known by many different names. In 1882, the team merged with the Northumberland Football Club and assumed their name until 1887. However, the team then reverted back to Gosforth FC until 1990, when the name was changed to Newcastle Gosforth. Then, when the team became professional, they became Newcastle Rugby Club for one season. Finally, in 1997, the team name changed to the Newcastle Falcons and they've retained this name ever since.

Since the team first appeared in the Premiership in 1997-98, the Newcastle Falcons Rugby team have competed in the Premiership every season except for two. However, on both occasions the team has been relegated to the RFU Championship, they have won the division at the first attempt and have been promoted as champions. Plus, since 1975-76, the Newcastle Rugby side has also won the Anglo-Welsh Cup on four occasions.

Over the years, several notable former international players such as Jamie Noon and Maxime Mermoz have played for the Newcastle Falcons Rugby team. However, the side's most famous former player is ex-England fly-half Jonny Wilkinson, who played 182 times for the Newcastle Falcons between 1997 and 2009. During this period, he scored more than 2,000 points for the Newcastle side and was capped for England almost 100 times. Famously, Wilkinson kicked a winning drop-goal in the 2003 Rugby World Cup final when only 26 seconds of extra-time remained.