'Relegation threat won't affect Falcons recruitment'

Newcastle Falcons have lost five games in a row in the European Challenge Cup and Premiership

Newcastle Falcons consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond does not expect the threat of relegation to hinder the rebuilding of his squad.

More than 25 players are out of contract this summer, but as yet, none of those have signed a new deal with the club.

And Diamond does not believe that a potential relegation play-off against against the Championship winners will significantly alter his plans.

"My contracting of players who are already here will be irrelevant of promotion or relegation," he said.

"If there is relegation, and we did go down, we'd be expected to come straight back up."

Newcastle are bottom of the Premiership, with the team finishing in that position set to contest a two-legged play-off with the winners of the Championship to decide who plays in the top flight next season.

However, the situation is complicated. The team who finishes first in the Championship must meet the strict criteria to be able to play in the Premiership and the deadline for submitting applications is next week.

Coventry, the team in second, have announced that they are applying, but Ealing Trailfinders, the side 12 points above them at the top, have not said anything publicly about their intentions.

And if the criteria are not met by the Championship winners, there will be no play-off at the end of the season.

This means Newcastle must wait before things become clearer.

"Once the decision is made of who can come up and who can't, how I will gear the season, is if there are three or four clubs in the mix to come up, then I'll be working on a mindset of strengthening the squad slightly and making sure we can win two games against whichever Championship side it is," said Diamond.

"I'm an advocate of promotion and relegation. If we get ourselves in a play-off, so be it, we'll crack on."

After a strong run of five wins in six games up to the end of November, Newcastle have lost their last five in the European Challenge Cup and the Premiership.

But Diamond believes that he is building a culture around Kingston Park that will make the majority of players want to stay.

"Rugby is a strange place at the minute," he said. "Three teams are no longer with us and there are quite a lot of players unemployed.

"A lot of the players here enjoy the environment, they know where we're trying to get, we have had big hiccups during games but the atmosphere in the building is good, it's vibrant and healthy and honest and that's what a lot of lads like.

"What I can guarantee is game time. They all want to play. They won't get that at many other clubs."