Diamond asks Newcastle to latch onto football buzz

Steve Diamond compares rugby union and football with 'Coronation Street and Hollywood'

Newcastle Falcons consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond wants his players to latch onto the feelgood factor swirling around the city generated by the exploits of the football team.

Five days after Newcastle United won the Carabao Cup at Wembley to end a 56-year wait for a trophy, the Falcons welcome Sale Sharks to Kingston Park on Friday (19:45 GMT).

Newcastle are bottom of the Premiership and face an uncertain future with the club up for sale, but Diamond knows this is a real showcase to appeal to local supporters and potential investors.

"It's a great time to have a game because the Six Nations has just finished so rugby has been in the shop window," said Diamond.

"And Newcastle as a city is buzzing after the football team won the League Cup last weekend. It's a great opportunity for us to latch onto that feelgood factor."

Football is king in Newcastle, although rugby union can get in on the act.

But Diamond understands that the best way to help the situation is if the Falcons can become more of a force on the pitch.

And they will hope for a decent crowd in the Premiership's 'northern derby' against a Sale Sharks team that includes five of the seven players they had in the England squad for the Six Nations.

"Like in Manchester, football and rugby it's like Hollywood compared to Coronation Street," added Diamond.

"We're soap actors and they're Hollywood stars. You can't really compare the two.

"But there is a fair swing of supporters who come to Kingston Park who also watch Newcastle United, so this is an ideal location to generate a crowd.

"But we've got to be winning games. You can't just do that by being competitive, you have to be winning.

"When Newcastle finished fourth a few years ago, they were averaging around 9, 10,000, so the people are here."

Murray McCallum joined Newcastle Falcons at the start of last season

'Nowhere near as bad as Worcester'

Newcastle have won just two of their 11 Premiership games and sit six points behind Exeter in ninth.

But on the playing front, life got slightly easier with the news that Ealing Trailfinders, runaway leaders of the Championship, do not meet the Premiership entry criteria, so there would be no play-off with them at the end of the season.

However, off the field, Newcastle have frozen recruitment for next season as they seek financial help, whether in the form of a short-term loan or new ownership of the club.

It is a time of uncertainty as outsiders worry if the club will go the same way as Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish.

Prop Murray McCallum was at Worcester when they went under and has just signed a new two-year contract at Kingston Park.

And the 29-year-old Scot is assured that the situation at his current club is nowhere near how it was at Sixways.

"We genuinely saw the bailiffs turning up," he told BBC Look North. "It's nowhere near that here.

"It plays on the mind as much as anyone. Job security is job security. The rugby world post-Covid is an interesting place.

"But we just need to turn up to work every day, put a smile on our face and put our head in the spokes."