The last time a fly-half with a taste for a dramatic drop-goal made his seasonal debut for Newcastle, the Falcons went on to be crowned English champions. Back in the 1997/98 campaign, the newly promoted team pipped Saracens by a single point with an 18-year-old local lad by the name of Jonny Wilkinson playing a starring role with 24 appearances in all competitions and 231 Premiership points from a boot that would soon become world-famous.
A lot has changed since then. For starters, the Falcons are no more, replaced by the newly branded Newcastle Red Bulls. On the pitch they’re a shadow of what they once were. Currently propping up the table after four consecutive defeats, they’ve finished in the bottom three places in each of the previous four seasons. If the powers that be hadn’t scrapped promotion and relegation from English rugby, the club would be in serious danger of collapse.
Into this void has stepped Boeta Chamberlain, the latest to inherit a jersey heavy with memory. He won’t be asked to recreate Wilkinson’s magic – that would be unfair – but he will be expected to bring direction, spark, and perhaps a flicker of the same belief that once carried Newcastle to the summit of English rugby.
Boeta Chamberlain left the Bulls for Newcastle this summer, playing outside of South Africa for the first time (Photo by Michael Driver/MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
“I can only promise to just be myself, there’ll never be another Jonny,” Chamberlain says, eager to put aside any further comparisons. “But I can be confident and say that I came here to help turn the club around. I want to play my part and create something special. I want to win matches for Newcastle. I want to win trophies for Newcastle. I want to be the guy who can make our fans and the city as a whole proud. Maybe in that sense I want to do what Jonny did. But I’ll have to do it my way.”
If Chamberlain sounds assured, it’s because he has already weathered some of the game’s harsher lessons. Born in Worcester, South Africa, his natural abilities were honed in the elite sporting nursery that is Paarl Boys High School, alma mater of 26 Springboks including Frans Malherbe, Corne Krige and Thomas du Toit.
“Some of the toughest games I’ve ever played were for my school,” Chamberlain explains. “We’d sometimes have 25,000 people watching us. Imagine that. I’ve played games in the URC and Prem with less people watching.
“When you take a kick to win a game in front of that many people as a 17-year-old, it must do something to you. I’m not saying that kids from other countries don’t feel pressure, but there is something that happens in South African school boy rugby that prepares you for the big stage.”
I felt like I was getting a lot of attention but then I’d go straight back to square one. I felt like I needed to face the truth. This wasn’t going to happen for me.
That toughness runs in the family. His mother, Marinda Chamberlain, was a standout athlete – earning South African colours in the 100m and long jump and representing Western Province in netball – while his father, Bennie, went straight from the army into the police force. Discipline, resilience and competitiveness were the family’s currency.
But the mind cannot exist without a healthy body and in his final school year, in a game against Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool, one of the top schools in the country, he fell in a heap, clutching his knee in agony. He didn’t need a later diagnosis to confirm that he was in trouble. For the fourth time in two years, he required surgery.
He rationalised his hard luck as “God’s will”. He wasn’t angry. Some things are just not meant to be.
“I felt like I was getting a lot of attention but then I’d go straight back to square one,” he says. “I felt like I needed to face the truth. This wasn’t going to happen for me.”
Chamberlain came of age at the Sharks and featured regularly for Sean Everitt’s side in the URC (Photo By Brendan Moran/Sportsfile via Getty Images)
His luck wasn’t all bad. In that same game where he blew out his knee, a scout from the Sharks was watching and had seen enough to offer Chamberlain a contract straight out of school.
A year later he was part of the team that won the under-19 Currie Cup. An invitation to train with the SA under-20s followed shortly after.
But selection at junior level can be as ruthless as it is revealing. He was dropped and then recalled. Dropped and recalled. Despite his early promise, and despite being included three times, Chamberlain was cut from the final South Africa Under-20 squad ahead of the 2019 Junior World Championship.
“That hurt more than breaking any injury I’ve ever had,” he says with a deep sigh. “It still hurts to be honest. It’s almost like a dream just got shattered in front of me. It was like someone was dangling something in front of me just to tease me.”
I know how challenging this game can be. I’ve had my fair share of upsets and disappointments and I welcome the struggle.
A lifeline arrived in the form of Sharks coach Sean Everitt – now with Edinburgh – who recognised both the potential and the hunger in a young player whose road to the top was never going to be smooth.. In the same year his mates were representing South Africa at the under-20 World Cup in 2019, Chamberlain made his Currie Cup debut.
Of course it wasn’t smooth sailing. Impressive performances against the Bulls and Lions weren’t enough to prevent him from being dropped for the semi-final against the Cheetahs. “I felt like this would be my story,” he says of a narrative in which he was cast as the nearly-man.
Still, his time with the Sharks proved productive. Across five years he scored 172 points in 46 matches. He kicked a drop goal against the Lions in a 30-28 win and would cement his status as a drop-goal king in 2021 when he nailed a hat-trick of drop-goals in Swansea as the Sharks beat Ospreys 27-13.
“It’s just something I love doing,” he says when asked why he is such a natural at this particular skill. “When I’d play with my mates as a kid, we never had a cone so I’d drop-kick quite a bit. It’s not something I think about but I do like that it’s helped me stand out a little.”
Is that why Newcastle signed him from the Bulls in Pretoria where he spent just a single season after leaving the Sharks in 2024? Not likely. But there must be a reason why a struggling outfit has placed their faith in a 26-year-old. At the same time, there must be a reason why a player who was living a comfortable life back home has taken a punt on a team that is firmly in the doldrums.
📸 The Blue Bull is now a Red Bull.
👌 Boeta Chamberlain in his new togs. pic.twitter.com/mdH0dfMU2R
— Newcastle Red Bulls (@NCL_RedBulls) September 22, 2025
“Maybe we’re a perfect match,” Chamberlain muses. “I know how challenging this game can be. I’ve had my fair share of upsets and disappointments and I welcome the struggle. I don’t think I’d have stuck around for so long if I didn’t enjoy the difficult road.
“And maybe that’s why they wanted me. When the opportunity came I grabbed it. I don’t see it as a gamble but as an opportunity to prove myself and to grow as a player and a person. This could be the reason my career goes to the next level and maybe I can be part of the reason that Newcastle returns to where we believe it should be.”
The only way is up from here, though how far up is anyone’s guess. Steve Diamond’s exit as director of rugby leaves a power vacuum at the top and whispers are growing louder that Scotland coach Gregor Townsend could be the man to fill it.
There is already a smattering of Test stars in the ranks including Welsh fullback Liam Williams and the Argentine scrum-half Simon Benitez Cruz. Chamberlain insists that something is about to click. Perhaps a familiar hand will be the catalyst for change.
“I’ve not met Jonny but I can’t wait to pick his brain,” Chamberlain says, referencing the news that Wilkinson will lend his expertise in an advisory role. “If I can have even a percent of the impact he had I’ll be more than happy.”