{"id":538483,"date":"2025-10-30T22:06:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-30T22:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/538483\/"},"modified":"2025-10-30T22:06:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T22:06:27","slug":"scotland-winger-graham-is-backing-a-red-bull-revolution-at-newcastle-as-star-insists-major-investment-can-only-be-a-good-thing-for-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/538483\/","title":{"rendered":"Scotland winger Graham is backing a Red Bull revolution at Newcastle as star insists major investment can only be a good thing for rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

TIME and money will determine whether the Newcastle Red Bulls go on to enjoy the sort of glory-laden metamorphosis experienced by the likes of Manchester City<\/a> in football but Darcy Graham is keeping his fingers crossed for good things.<\/p>\n

The former Falcons are a club close to the Scotland winger\u2019s heart, based just a 90-minute drive away from his hometown of Hawick and where his uncle Scott MacLeod spent four years as a player and is now the forwards coach.<\/p>\n

Red Bull\u2019s decision to make Newcastle the first rugby outfit in their sporting portfolio \u2014 alongside hiring Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend<\/a> as a consultant \u2014 will undoubtedly go on to alter the dynamic at a club that finished bottom of the Premiership in each of the last three seasons.<\/a><\/p>\n

Like the aforementioned City, it could see Newcastle evolve from perennial strugglers to trophy contenders with aspirations of European glory, backed by a cosmopolitan squad filled with rugby\u2019s elite.<\/p>\n

How much they shift away from the traditional club founded in 1877 will depend on how deep Red Bull\u2019s pockets are but Graham believes this sort of corporate takeover can only be good for the game.<\/p>\n

\u2018I hope it really works, because if it works down there, other massive companies might come in and buy up other teams \u2014 and that\u2019s only a good thing for rugby,\u2019 he said. \u2018The more bigger names like Red Bull we can get in, the better, and it just grows the sport.<\/p>\n

\"Graham <\/p>\n

Graham is hoping that Red Bull’s investment in Newcastle is a success<\/p>\n

\"Scotland <\/p>\n

Scotland head coach Townsend caused a stir when he took on a consultancy role at Newcastle<\/p>\n

\"Newcastle <\/p>\n

Newcastle are the first rugby club Red Bull have added to their portfolio<\/p>\n

\u2018So, I really hope it works for them. Speaking to people there, they want to be the best and to win something in the next few years, so I think they\u2019ll chuck everything at it.<\/p>\n

\u2018They\u2019ll have world-class facilities, world-class coaching, world-class physio departments. They\u2019ll have everything to hand. I was down at a match recently and love it there.\u2019<\/p>\n

Townsend\u2019s decision to take on a second job alongside his primary role of leading Scotland has not been met with universal approva<\/a>l but Graham prefers to focus on the positives.<\/p>\n

\u2018Yeah, again, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a bad thing,\u2019 adds the 28-year-old. \u2018It\u2019s going to broaden the experiences he\u2019s going to bring into Scotland. He\u2019s going to learn a lot working with Red Bull, who have one of the best teams working in sports in the world. They\u2019ve got world-class football and ice hockey teams.<\/p>\n

\u2018They\u2019re running high-end teams, and they\u2019ve got high-end people in there. If he learns small things from there, and brings it back, it\u2019s going to benefit us.<\/p>\n

\u2018I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a bad thing having a Scottish person in that picture. Newcastle is so close to Scotland, so I reckon, if you could get some Scottish players in there, it could be useful.\u2019 Graham could have been a Newcastle player himself had things turned out differently in the very early days of his career. The winger had been on trial at Edinburgh but didn\u2019t have a contract on the table when Newcastle offered him a trial and then the chance to sign.<\/p>\n

\"Graham <\/p>\n

Graham scores for Edinburgh in the United Rugby Championship win over Benetton<\/p>\n

The thought of losing Graham to an English rival finally prompted Scottish Rugby to do the right thing and a contract materialised. Life could have been a lot different for the player \u2014 and perhaps Scotland too \u2014 if they hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

\u2018Newcastle gave me a lifeline when I tried to sign pro as Edinburgh pretty much never had a contract for me,\u2019 he recalls, thinking back to that career-defining few days back in 2017. \u2018They [Scottish Rugby] were like: \u201cThere\u2019s nothing at Edinburgh\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Then Newcastle asked me to come for a trial game. So, I went down there, played an A game, went down to Gloucester, came on, set up a try, and played really well at 15.<\/p>\n

\u2018Literally, that same day, Newcastle came in with a contract and said: \u201cWe want to sign you\u201d. That was a Sunday, so I hung off and then Monday I went round to Edinburgh and they then had a contract for me too. So, I almost forced the SRU to pull out a contract and the rest is history.\u2019<\/p>\n

Graham\u2019s existing contract runs until the 2027 World Cup, the same length as the deal recently penned by Townsend to remain in charge of Scotland. There was a feeling among many supporters that it was time for change but Graham is happy with that continuity.<\/p>\n

\u2018Gregor has been massive for my development. I\u2019ve really enjoyed working with him and I\u2019m excited to hopefully get an easier pool for the next World Cup,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The winger is getting ready to play his part in the autumn series for Scotland<\/p>\n

Performing well in this autumn series will help on that front too, with Graham eyeing up the chance to land Scotland\u2019s maiden victory over the All Blacks. The winger scored one try and had another chalked off in the agonising 31-23 loss against the same opposition three years ago and believes playing New Zealand more regularly will be the key to finally beating them.<\/p>\n

\u2018We\u2019re excited to play New Zealand again because it\u2019s very rare that we actually get to play them so the boys will be up for it,\u2019 he adds. \u2018I wish we got the opportunity to play them a lot more. We struggled to beat England for a long time, and then once we did do it, that monkey was off the back.<\/p>\n

\u2018We beat England a lot now and go out there with a lot of confidence, knowing if we turn up we can beat them.<\/p>\n

\u2018So, New Zealand\u2019s probably very similar. I reckon if we play them more often, we\u2019d have more opportunities to beat them and then get the confidence that comes from finally achieving that.<\/p>\n

\u2018We weren\u2019t far away in 2022. Just a couple of things went against us. It\u2019s that confidence thing because we let them score a couple of tries, then we scored, and then it was like: \u201cWe can actually do this\u201d. It\u2019s about going out there from minute one with that belief we can beat them.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Famous Grouse celebrates 35 years of sponsoring Scottish Rugby with the release of a limited-edition bottle \u2018Time to Celebrate\u2019 in time with the 2025 Quilter Nations Series. The commemorative bottle, along with tickets to an upcoming game, can be won in a prize draw via The Famous Grouse\u2019s Facebook (www.facebook.com\/TheFamousGrouseUK)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TIME and money will determine whether the Newcastle Red Bulls go on to enjoy the sort of glory-laden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5009],"tags":[748,92,4884,4204,712,93,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-538483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scotland","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dailymail","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-rugbyunion","12":"tag-scotland","13":"tag-sport","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115465393808004671","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=538483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/538483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=538483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=538483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=538483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}