In early 2023, Newcastle, under the leadership of head coach Dave Walder, built momentum. The Falcons had just won four of their last six Premiership games, with stability and cohesion increasing. However, a commotion awaited around the corner.
Towards the end of the season, Newcastle lost two of their three starting front rowers - George McGuigan and Trevor Davison - as well as Walder. At the start of the current campaign, the team had seen significant turnover. Under new head coach Alex Codling, the Falcons are currently bottom of the league with no win to their name.
The winds of change had arrived at the Falcons. According to Newcastle, the gusts were necessary for survival. This was, of course, a season in which three Premier League clubs - Worcester, Wasps and London Irish - all went to the wall. Financial sustainability and cutting clothes in accordance with the budget had become not only goals for the club, but also crucial.
Such drastic measures would inevitably lead to unrest. Professional rugby is a cutthroat business that involves large sums of money and contracts.
Ultimately, however, the path of financial necessity intersects with treating the people at the club with the respect they deserve, rather than as pieces of meat.
Telegraph Sport has spoken to several sources - some of whom did not wish to be identified - who accused the club of significant failings in this area. One of these is Carl Fearns, the aggressive back rower who left Newcastle at the end of last season and who, after a spell at Carcassonne, announced his retirement from the sport last week.
Fearns, 34, felt the need to speak out following the explosive post-match interview Codling gave following the defeat to Leicester earlier this month. The Falcons' head coach questioned the club's direction in a very public manner during his first season in the North East following a series of difficult results with a relatively underachieving squad.
Fearns spent two seasons at Kingston Park, recruited by former director of rugby Dean Richards. Fearns explains that he received a verbal contract offer from the club's head of recruitment, former hooker Matt Thompson, over a coffee at the Twin Farms pub, close to the Falcons stadium. He says he was then kept in suspense for two months with no clarity about his future - and no contract offer. Fearns says he didn't mind having to leave. He understood the budgetary changes taking place at the club, but the indecision and exchanges left him concerned about his livelihood and the care of his family. This story has been confirmed by another anonymous player at the club, and Telegraph Sport has seen the communication between Fearns and Thompson.
The story continues
"Around January 6 I had a face-to-face meeting with Matt Thompson over a cup of coffee and he told me he wanted to keep me at the club," Fearns told Telegraph Sport. "He said I was an experienced player and it would be a younger team next season and he wanted my experience there. He said he wanted to keep me and that he would send me a contract next week. That's how it ended.
"A week or two passed and I asked him if he had a contract for me. He said, 'No, sorry, nothing at the moment.' It continued, the next week I asked again. "Not at the moment, not yet, sorry," he said again.
"At the end of January I sent a message asking whether the position had changed. I had a family, I had to make plans, I could finish my career, I had to find a job, I had a mortgage. He didn't reply until I messaged again in March.
"I'm not a stupid guy. I'm an old pro. I knew what the crazy was. After he said "not yet" for the third week, I knew exactly what was going on.
"I think the man is a coward. You have to treat people right. I was pretty decent about it in the messages. I understood that if the club was in a financial position, the situation around me might have changed. It might have been a bad thing for me to hear, but I just had to know if it was yes or no.
"In March I told him what I thought and he replied that he thanked him for the message and that the club was looking for a new coach. That's basically all I have. I never got a clear answer.
"I felt something was wrong. If I had been a young player, I could have left at the twelfth hour with no job and no family."
Telegraph Sport has since met with both Thompson and Newcastle owner Semore Kurdi, where the duo admitted shortcomings in communications surrounding Fearns' lack of contract extension, explaining that the club was in a period of transition, with sustainability and a long-term project. based on a core of youthful talent - the goal, but that the treatment their former back rower received should not have happened.
"We were sad to hear last week that Carl will retire from playing professional rugby, but he can look back on a great career," Newcastle told Telegraph Sport in a statement.
"In retrospect, we recognize that communication surrounding his contractual situation could have been handled more clearly, but we thank Carl for his service and wish him all the best for his life after rugby."
Lineout coach Scott MacLeod's departure from the club, Fearns explains, is another example of poor treatment. With the arrival of Codling, whose specialty is the lineout, MacLeod was told by Thompson over the phone at the end of last season that his services at the club would not be required for the next campaign. An hour later, unaware that the former lineout coach's contract had not been renewed, Codling called MacLeod to ask what he would bring to the coaching team next season. Newcastle declined to comment on Fearns' account of MacLeod's departure, although it is understood the club have apologized privately.
"I have sympathy for Alex because, as I said, I know what is going on around the club," Fearns added. "But if he had done his due diligence before he arrived, he might have understood what was going on at the club. But Thommo, like he did with me, maybe he promised him things he would never get? Maybe that happened? All he had to do was do some due diligence: it was clear which way the club was going, losing all the experienced strikers in the group.
"If they want to cut their clothes accordingly, that's well within their rights, but you have to treat the players as human beings - and treat them well.
"Under Scott MacLeod we had one of the best lineouts for many years and he is a great coach. There was no point in getting rid of him."
The departure of McGuigan and Davison was high-profile; not just because the duo were in the England squad or in talks about international call-ups, but because they arrived in the middle of the season, with immediate effect, within three months of each other - and both players left for Premier League rivals. A source who did not want to be identified told Telegraph Sport that Davison was left in tears at the side of the training ground.
"The way George left the club... We came in on a Monday and George just stood up in a team meeting and said, 'Guys, I'm going to Gloucester.' Some coaches didn't even know," says Fearns. "When things like that happen, the whole team - which, with less money, relied on being a cohesive unit - started to wonder why we were doing it, if people became like that treated?
"Trevor went to Northampton, but then he didn't. I think he was told the deal was off, and then he came one day and Thommo told him he was going to Saints tomorrow. It seemed as if the measures had been imposed on both George and Trevor.
"Towards the end I felt sorry for Dave and all the staff who stood in front of us and gave us messages about being 'true north' and being close as a group, but every week something else happened that cut their legs out from under them. I would have left if I was Dave."
Newcastle declined to comment on McGuigan or Davison's departures when contacted. Both players also declined to speak to Telegraph Sport. However, it is understood that factors beyond the club's control and external contract negotiations were part of the reason for both players' immediate departures.
