Newcastle Red Bulls embrace Red Bull model ahead of Premiership opener

Newcastle Red Bulls are approaching the new Premiership season with the risk-taking style associated with their Red Bull owners and begin the campaign with a trip to champions Northampton Saints on Friday night. The club, reborn as 'Red Bulls 2.0' under new head coach Dan McFarland, arrive after a summer overhaul of personnel.

Red Bull completed their takeover at Kingston Park in August 2025, leaving little time to prepare for last season and contributing to Newcastle finishing bottom for a fourth successive Premiership campaign, with just two wins in 18 games. That scramble to regroup has been followed by a major recruiting drive and structural changes ahead of the new season.

Dan McFarland has been appointed head coach after working in Japan as forwards coach at Kobelco Kobe Steelers and returns to England to lead the project. He said: "It couldn't be set up any better for a spectacle for us," McFarland said. "The team starting at the back of the grid against the team on pole position. "For us, it's a massive challenge and exactly the sort of thing a Red Bull team would relish going after, something that's hugely tough but really exciting to be involved in."

Newcastle brought in 25 new players over the summer, creating a selection and cohesion task that McFarland admits is significant. He described the role as akin to building "basically being a start-up" when explaining why the post appealed to him: "One of the reasons this was so attractive was trying to pull something together from scratch, basically being a start-up," he said.

The club used a pre-season trip to Red Bull's headquarters in Salzburg, Austria, to help the enlarged squad bond and to integrate them into the wider organisation. McFarland outlined how that backing differentiates the venture: "Outside of Japan, big corporations don't get involved in rugby clubs," said McFarland. "It's very rare, to have that backing but it's also the way Red Bull go into these kinds of ventures. It's not a feeling of 'let's see how it goes'. It's in with two feet and 'we've deliberately chosen you, Newcastle, because we believe we can do special things with you'. "That is pretty special and they back it up with the support, the opportunities they offer for collaboration at different levels within the organisation - it could be for athlete performance teams, elite athletes and definitely in marketing."

Newcastle face a difficult opening schedule: after Northampton they host Leicester Tigers and then travel to Exeter Chiefs in the opening three-week block of Premiership fixtures. McFarland compared the task to a recent Red Bull publicity event involving Max Verstappen: he likened starting at the back and trying to move through the field to Verstappen racing behind 100 amateur drivers in a go-kart race at Silverstone earlier this month, and said: "We look at it like this, we're starting at the back of the grid and we've got all these teams ahead of us," he said. "Let's see if we can pick them off and we're going to have fun trying to do it."

Newcastle's immediate focus is the Premiership opener at Northampton Saints on Friday night, followed by the home fixture against Leicester Tigers and the trip to Exeter Chiefs in the next two weeks. The new ownership, the coaching appointment and the summer recruitment provide the confirmed framework for that opening block of fixtures.