{"id":387384,"date":"2026-01-24T05:04:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:04:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/387384\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T05:04:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T05:04:16","slug":"kiwi-influence-at-newcastle-grows-after-addition-of-123kg-prop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/387384\/","title":{"rendered":"Kiwi influence at Newcastle grows after addition of 123kg prop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/newcastle\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Newcastle<\/a> Red <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/bulls\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Bulls<\/a> have confirmed their 10th new signing ahead of the start of next season, with Hurricanes, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">All Blacks<\/a> XV and the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/maori-all-blacks\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Maori All Blacks<\/a> prop <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/pouri-rakete-stones\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pouri Rakete-Stones<\/a> the latest Kiwi to come on board.<\/p>\n<p>The English-qualified prop has signed a two-year contract and joins <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/hoskins-sotutu\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hoskins Sotutu<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/hurricanes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hurricanes<\/a> team-mate, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/players\/fehi-fineanganofo\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fehi Fineanganofo<\/a>, in making the move from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rugbypass.com\/teams\/new-zealand\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">New Zealand<\/a> to the North-East of England.<\/p>\n<p>Able to operate on both sides of the scrum, 28-year-old Rakete-Stones has amassed almost a century of NPC appearances for his home province of Hawke\u2019s Bay.<\/p>\n<p>A Junior World champion with New Zealand U20s, the six-foot scrummager spoke of his excitement at joining the Red Bulls at such a formative stage of the club\u2019s new era.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSigning with Newcastle Red Bulls is an exciting chapter,\u201d said Rakete-Stones, who was first linked to the club in Fissler Confidential, rugby\u2019s unrivalled transfer gossip column.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re building something great, and I can\u2019t wait to add to it. I\u2019m really looking forward to working hard with this group and making our fans proud.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sporting general manager Neil McIlroy added: \u201cPouri has been a really consistent performer for a number of years now, and we\u2019re very happy to have secured his signature.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe has played at a high level and forged a strong reputation in the front row, which will help us build solid foundations as we look to move this club on to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newcastle Red Bulls have confirmed their 10th new signing ahead of the start of next season, with Hurricanes,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387385,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-387384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387384\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}