{"id":200446,"date":"2025-10-09T13:25:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:25:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/200446\/"},"modified":"2025-10-09T13:25:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T13:25:09","slug":"newcastle-red-bulls-name-debutant-fresh-from-rugby-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/200446\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle Red Bulls name debutant fresh from Rugby Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Newcastle<\/a> Red Bulls<\/a> summer recruit Simon Benitez Cruz<\/a> will make his debut on Friday night against Sale Sharks<\/a> six days after starting for Argentina<\/a> against South Africa<\/a> in the Rugby Championship.<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old, who played 70 minutes of the Pumas\u2019 narrow 29-27 loss to the Springboks at Twickenham\u2019s Allianz Stadium, agreed a move to Kingston Park from Tarucas in his homeland just days before the Rugby Championship<\/a> got underway.<\/p>\n

He will make his debut from the bench in the first match of the Gallagher PREM Derby Weekend.<\/p>\n

Newcastle head coach Alan Dickens has made six changes to his starting XV as the Red Bulls look for their first win of the league season.<\/p>\n

Another summer signing, Boeta Chamberlain<\/a>, will make his first start at fly-half, having previously played at full-back, while Fergus Lee-Warner<\/a> is set to make his starting debut after coming on from the bench against Exeter Chiefs<\/a> last week.<\/p>\n

Fixture<\/p>\n

Gallagher Premiership<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Sale <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Newcastle <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Liam Williams and Oli Spencer have dropped out, with the Welshman listed as unavailable, while Ethan Grayson<\/a> will shift from inside centre to full-back and Elliott Obatoyinbo will come in on the right wing. Fit-again Max Clark<\/a> will start at inside centre in Grayson\u2019s vacated No.12 shirt.<\/p>\n

In the pack, it\u2019s an almost entirely new front row as Adam Brocklebank<\/a> and Richard Palframan<\/a> will come in for Murray McCallum<\/a> and Luan de Bruin.<\/p>\n

Dickens said: \u201cIt\u2019s the league\u2019s derby weekend, and whilst I know everyone talks about the distance between Newcastle and Manchester this is still a really important rivalry for rugby in the north of England.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would make a big statement if we go over there and get a result, and that has to be the mindset.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s a tough place to go but we\u2019ve prepared well, and I\u2019m looking forward to it.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur set-piece is a big focus, and the forwards have been working hard in terms of winning the ball and really laying that platform to launch our attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cPhysicality and the contact area have both been big work-ons from last weekend, and we know that\u2019ll be massive against a Sale<\/a> Sharks side who thrive on those aspects of the game. If we shut Sale down they\u2019ll go aerial after a couple of phases, and that\u2019s another challenge we have to rise to.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lads are working hard, and I\u2019ve been impressed with everyone\u2019s attitude during the build-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeorge McGuigan and the senior players have set the tone, they\u2019ve spoken really well and got on with their work in the right way, and now it\u2019s a case of bringing it all together against a very good Sale Sharks side.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newcastle Red Bulls XV: 15 Ethan Grayson<\/a>, 14 Elliott Obatoyinbo, 13 Connor Doherty<\/a>, 12 Max Clark<\/a>, 11 Alex Hearle<\/a>, 10 Boeta Chamberlain, 9 James Elliott; 1 Adam Brocklebank<\/a>, 2 George McGuigan<\/a> (captain), 3 Richard Palframan<\/a>, 4 Jamie Hodgson<\/a>, 5 Freddie Clarke<\/a>, 6 Fergus Lee-Warner<\/a>, 7 Tom Gordon, 8 Amanaki Mafi
Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher<\/a>, 17 Micky Rewcastle, 18 Murray McCallum<\/a>, 19 Oscar Usher<\/a>, 20 Cameron Neild<\/a>, 21 Sim\u00f3n Ben\u00edtez Cruz, 22 Brett Connon<\/a>, 23 Oli Spencer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newcastle Red Bulls summer recruit Simon Benitez Cruz will make his debut on Friday night against Sale Sharks…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":200447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":["post-200446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-rugby","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=200446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/200446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/200447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=200446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=200446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=200446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}