Newcastle Falcons strengthen to avoid a Premiership dogfight

Dean Richards is working on building a star team rather than a team of stars as he looks to put Newcastle back on the Premiership map.
The former England and Leicester No.8 wants to fashion a side that can ultimately flourish at the highest level.
While he admits the late May finish to the season has not helped recruitment, Richards is well in advance of where London Welsh were at this time last year.
Rory Clegg, who Richards signed from Newcastle when he was in charge of Harlequins, will shortly be joining and will compete at No.10 with Joel Hodgson and Phil Godman.
In the forwards, trusty Premiership performers, hooker Scott Lawson (London Irish) and Fraser Mackenzie (Sale) will add more firepower, and Andy Saull is set to provide a dynamism to the back row.
Saull will link up with two former Saracens teammates, wing Noah Cato and Andy Powell, both of whom signed this year and have played a considerable part in Newcastle’s push for promotion.
Richards said: “We’ve got a vision of where we want to be in three years’ time. We don’t want to be languishing at the bottom of the Premiership. It’s all about getting the foundations right and we’ve started to do that, in rugby terms and within the community.
“I think people have bought into that and decided this is a place where they want to be and we’ve made a number of exciting signings.”
One thing is certain all the new arrivals will have to buy into the team culture that Richards is slowly but surely creating at Kingston Park.
“I love rugby because everyone is reliant on each other in a team from your Tomaszczyks to your Gopperths and Hudsons and Hufangas; you can’t have individual stars,” he said. “Getting a blend together which actually achieves something, as we’ve done this year, gives you a great deal of satisfaction.
“It was interesting when the Championship (Dream) Team came out: I was pleased that we didn’t have too many (four) in it because it has been a team effort and that has probably the thing that has delighted me the most this year.
“Everyone has stuck together; they have gone out drinking together and enjoyed each other’s company and we’ll continue to do that next year.”
Two members of Newcastle’s inaugural Premiership- winning side, Rob Andrew and Dean Ryan, were among the 7,651-strong crowd – said to be the club’s biggest for four years – to see the Falcons lift the Championship trophy.
With a born winner at the helm like Richards, allied to the financial support of owner Semore Kurdi, a return to those heady days of 1998 cannot be discounted. But the no-nonsense 49-year-old is not one for bold predictions.
“I’ve not thought once about going back to places like the Rec and Welford Road; it’s just nice to win something as a group and hopefully we can carry on improving next year,” he said.
“We’re going in the right direction and the culture is starting to shape up, but it’ll take time.
“I’m not going to say we’re going to finish first, second, fifth, eighth or 12th or whatever.
“All I’ll say is we’ll give it our all. Hopefully, it won’t be a case of just surviving.”
JON NEWCOMBE