“They’re going to be confrontational, they’ll make it tough, and we are excited for that”: Ex-Falcon, Darren Fearn previews Newcastle (A)
8th November 2024
“They’re going to be confrontational, they’ll make it tough, and we are excited for that”: Ex-Falcon and Knights forwards coach, Darren Fearn previews Newcastle Away.
Fearn has spent a lot of his rugby career in and around the Newcastle rugby scene. Living in the city, being part of Newcastle Falcons during his playing career and currently DOR at Newcastle University.
The ex-front row is part way through his first season as a coach at Doncaster Knights. He said: “yeah I’m loving it, it’s a really good group. Good group of players, really good group of staff.”
It’s a good environment to work in, there’s a there’s a clear vision and plan with what we’re going after, and naturally, these things take time. We’re seeing strides each week, moving forward and yeah, I’m really enjoying being here.”
As he looked ahead to this weekends clash with his former club and city of residence, he explained: “So Newcastle itself, I moved there. I’m Yorkshire born and bread and very proud of that but I moved to the North East when I was 17, 18.”
And apart from when I’ve signed for clubs elsewhere, I’ve always lived up there. My two girls were born there, so it’s got a special place in my heart. And then as a club, I loved my time there. There’s some really good people still involved, I’ve coached a lot of the lads who are playing for them in some capacity in the past. I’m looking forward to it.”
Fearn explained how he feels about facing the Newcastle squad: “I think they’re very open around what you expect when you go to Kingston Park. It’s very vocal, they’ll want to make it an awkward place to go.”
They like that underdog mentality, obviously that’ll be flipped this week, with them probably being the bookies favourites. They’re going to be confrontational, but they’ll make it tough and we are excited for that.”
And from what I understand that they’re going to be going strong this week, which is brilliant. It’s brilliant for northern rugby as well, it’ll be a good derby.”
After a narrow defeat to Sale Sharks in the cup last week, Fearn shared where he thinks the team are at: “As I alluded to before, it’s a new group and you start to see different people take the field.”
It’s obviously not hidden that there’s been a pretty hefty injury list, which has been great on the one front, because people who maybe thought they wouldn’t get as many minutes early doors have, and they’re clearly making progressions each week, and that’s really exciting. And we saw a glimpse of that on Friday evening.”
It was it was a great night at Castle Park, like the support was brilliant. It was a really good atmosphere, and there was definitely some stuff to to take forward into this week. There’s some stuff that we’re going to go after, and we’ve done that this week so we’ll see how we go on Sunday.”
Falcons v Knights kicks off at 3pm on Sunday the 10th of November. You can follow live updates on X. Follow us on X here!
Newcastle Falcons will then return to us during the second block of the Premiership cup (February). You can secure your ticket for this NOW! And, you can get both of our remaining cup home games for just £20! GET TICKETS.
