Newcastle crushed by Exeter after Diamond exit

The Prem

Exeter (24) 38

Tries: Feyi-Waboso 3, Vintcent, Dweba, Skinner Cons: Slade 4

Newcastle (10) 15

Newcastle Red Bulls began life without Steve Diamond with a 38-15 Prem loss at Exeter.

Two tries from England’s Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, plus scores from Ross Vintcent and Joseph Dweba saw a dominant home side lead 24-10 at the break.

Newcastle, who dispensed with director of rugby Diamond’s services on Wednesday, struggled to threaten the side that finished one place above the bottom-placed Red Bulls last season during a first half where they were largely second best.

Having lost to Saracens in their opening league game of the 2025-26 campaign, new owners Red Bull dispensed with Diamond’s services.

But despite Diamond’s departure there was no change of form as Newcastle hardly landed a glove on their opponents on their longest away trip of the season.

Wing Feyi-Waboso forced his way over for an unconverted try four phases after a five-metre line-out to put Exeter ahead in the ninth minute, but Brett Connon cut the gap with a penalty soon after.

Just two minutes later Vintcent put Exeter two tries in front when two Newcastle players clashed as they went to claim a box kick and the Italy forward took advantage to sprint in from 30 metres.

Exeter’s set piece was impressive and laid the groundwork for a dominant spell before the break, and but for some handling errors, would have added to their score.

Newcastle hardly ventured into Exeter’s 22 and went further behind 12 minutes from the break when a period of pressure under their posts was ended with a long pass to the wide open Feyi-Waboso on the right wing who cantered in before South African hooker Dweba was mauled over for the bonus-point try five minutes from the break on his home debut.

But in a rare foray into Exeter territory Newcastle did add seven points to the scoreboard as George McGuigan bundled over from a five-metre line-out just before the break.

Exeter continued to boss the game after the interval and were rewarded with a fifth try 15 minutes into the half when Feyi-Waboso hauled in Harvey Skinner’s crossfield kick before racing in under the posts for his hat-trick.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Sport:

“This is a bit like what we want to see, what we’re a bit about when we play here.

“We’re not always scoring, we’re not making every single thing perfect, but look how hard we’re working, and sooner or later that has an effect at some stage in the game if you stick at it and you don’t get distracted by the odd bits and pieces that come against you, and for me, that was probably the really pleasing bit.

“Then obviously the second pleasing bit was that we had our little wobble, but we let it stay a little wobble.

“Seven minutes into the second half we hadn’t let Newcastle out of their half and I think then you kind of go ‘right, we’re seizing control of the game here’.”

Newcastle Red Bulls head coach Alan Dickens told BBC Sport:

“I am disappointed. At the end George McGuigan spoke to the players about the frustration that we let them in through our errors.

“There’s a couple of the line-outs where we got the opportunity to put them under pressure and we just allowed Exeter to win the ball and clear their lines.

Exeter: John; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Hammersley, Brown-Bampoe; Skinner, Varney; Goodrick-Clarke, Dweba, Iosefa-Scott, Jenkins (capt), Zambonin, Roots, Fisilau, Vintcent.

Replacements: Yeandle, Blose, Tchumbadze, Tuima, Pearson, James, Chapman, Lilley.

Newcastle: Williams; Spencer, Doherty, Grayson, Hearle; Connon, Elliott; McCallum, McGuigan (capt), de Bruin, Hodgson, Clarke, Neild, Gordon, Mafi.

Replacements: Fletcher, Brocklebank, Palframan, Usher, Lee-Warner, Dickens, Chamberlain, Obatoyinbo.

Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys.