Newcastle announce new Australian signing in the best way possible

Drew Darbyshire

Newcastle announced the signing of Australian half-back Nick Newman in lovely fashion. 

The 22-year-old joins Thunder on a deal until the end of the season from fellow League One club Coventry Bears.

Newman – who came through the ranks at Sydney Roosters and Newcastle Knights – scored four tries and kicked 32 goals in ten appearances for the Bears.

Newcastle officially announced their new recruit just before popular reality TV show Love Island aired on Tuesday night.

On signing Newman, Thunder director of rugby Denis Betts said: “I’m very pleased to bring Nick in. He’s a young half who has a huge amount of potential and can grow as a player along with the team.

“He’s a good reader of the game; he plays at a good tempo with the ball and can control matches well.

“We’ve moved to bring him in because of that and because we are looking to continually raise our standards by creating competition in the squad and that’s something Nick is going to do.

“He’s shown a great deal of resilience throughout his playing to date and I’m looking forward to him being part of our group.”

On joining Newcastle, Newman said: “I’m really looking forward to getting stuck in and getting started with Newcastle.

“Speaking with Simon [Finnigan] and Denis, their ambitions they have for the club are something I’m really interested in and joining was an opportunity that was too good to refuse.

“I had a good experience at Coventry, they are a club on the rise. They put 100% into everything like training and gamedays and I’ve nothing but praise for them. I wish them all the best.

“Being an Australian half-back, I like having control of the game as much as I can and control of the players that are out there with me. Having a good pack like the Thunder have is going to make my job a lot easier.

“I’m looking forward to making Kingston Park my home ground with a nice wide pitch as part of a high-quality team.”

Newcastle is in contention to make his debut for Newcastle in this weekend’s home game against Whitehaven.

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