His Exeter Chiefs are playing in the Premiership at the bottom of the table, which is a situation they haven’t been in for the majority, if not all, of their career in the top tier.
However, Exeter will play the Falcons at Kingston Park on Friday (19:45 BST) in a battle of the losers at the bottom of the table following a club record-worst start to the season.
It’s more of the same for Newcastle, who have lost 25 straight league games since defeating Gloucester 17–12 on March 23, 2023.
Newcastle wouldn’t be in this situation and would already be a division below if the last two Championship winners, Jersey Reds and Ealing Trailfinders, hadn’t had adequate home fields.
Steve Diamond, the director of rugby for the Falcons, tells BBC Sport that the media has questioned why the team is in the league.
We’ve played in the Premiership for about thirty years. On a few instances, we have fallen into the Championship, but we have quickly recovered. There is a reason we are in the league because we have won both the competition and the cup competition.
We’re all aware that there is a promotion and relegation issue, and we’ll take it as seriously as can.
