Newcastle Red Bulls may be escaping from the rigours of the new Prem season, but head coach Dan McFarland is not expecting there to be any let-up as they get set for European action.
Red Bulls take a break from Prem action to begin their Challenge Cup campaign with a trip to Welsh side Scarlets on Saturday (20:00 BST).
But for someone like McFarland, vastly experienced within the United Rugby Championship and its previous incarnations from coaching spells with Connacht, Glasgow Warriors and Ulster, he is aware of what his team faces, especially after working alongside Scarlets’ Dwayne Peel.
“They’re a good team,” he said. “I worked with Dwayne at Ulster and Dwayne and (Newcastle attack coach) Stephen Jones know each other very well.
“Dwayne’s all about playing a brand of rugby that is all about counter attack and spark and moving the ball and they’ve got some extremely dangerous backs and now this year they’ve got some big heavy forwards as well.
“It will be a big challenge for us, but one we relish.”
Welsh rugby is under the microscope as the four regions shrink into three with Ospreys and Scarlets battling to be the west Wales franchise in the new set-up.
But as far as McFarland is concerned, the most important ingredient remains – the quality of player.
“Welsh rugby obviously has its high-level strategic quandaries at the minute, but I don’t think there is any doubt there is still a lot of talent in Wales,” he said.
“It’s a difficult situation, the club-country-region situation, and doing what is best for everyone is very difficult.
“But the thing is are there players with talent coming through? In my eyes, you look at the likes of Dewi Lake and Jac Morgan at the start of the season, really superb players. And there are plenty of those talented players at Scarlets.”
Newcastle and their vastly rebuilt squad have lost all three Prem games so far, including a narrow defeat by Exeter Chiefs on Sunday but they have collected four bonus points from those matches to suggest they are going to be more competitive.
They have been regulars in the Challenge Cup in the past few years and reached the last-16 of the competition last season, but McFarland is pushing for them to go further.
“The Challenge Cup sits as a different experience and a bit of a different focus, but we’re definitely looking forward to going down to west Wales,” he said.
“I was in Irish rugby for a long time with Connacht where we played a lot of play-off games and I have a particular affinity to this competition and it’s a great place to be if you get to the later stages.”
