Newcastle Falcons have announced that former Wales hooker Scott Baldwin has joined the club’s coaching staff, and will take up the role of Defence Coach for the 2023/24 Gallagher Premiership season.
Baldwin hung up his boots at the end of the 2022/23 United Rugby Championship season, calling time on a 14 year career and retiring at the club where it all began. The 34-year-old re-joined Ospreys for the latest URC season, following the financial collapse of Worcester Warriors.
Baldwin made over 150 appearances for the Ospreys in a decade long stint, before joining up with Harlequins in 2019. Two years at the Stoop saw Baldwin become apart of the Premiership winning Quins side, who pulled off an unbelievable comeback in the 2021 Premiership Final against Exeter Chiefs.
Baldwin’s most famous career moment came off the field, when he was bitten by a lion on the Ospreys tour to South Africa. This most unlikely of injuries caused the hooker to miss a subsequent match against the Cheetahs.
Baldwin spent the last season coaching at his hometown club of Bridgend. Newcastle Falcons Head Coach Alex Codling is excited to recruit one of professional rugby’s newest coaches to his staff.
Codling said to the Newcastle Falcons website: “I first met Scott when I was forwards coach at Harlequins, I enjoyed working him and you could see straight away he was a top professional.
“He’s got a huge amount of experience from playing in the Premiership, URC and internationally over a number of years, and he’ll bring a wealth of knowledge to the role.
“During my own time working with Scott you could see he was keen to make the transition from playing to coaching, and he was one of those guys who always seemed to think like a coach. I’m looking forward to integrating him into a fantastic group here and seeing the impact he will make for the Falcons.”
Baldwin followed this up by adding: “Coaching is something I’ve been really interested in since 2017 when I started doing it at semi-pro level with Bridgend, and I just fell in love with that side of the game.
“That’s grown more and more as time has gone on, and it’s a fascinating area in terms of the different styles of play and not just being one mould for everyone. It’s broadened my horizons while I’ve been combining it with playing, and I can’t wait to get started with Newcastle.
“It’s been tough in a way because I know I can still play at this level, but this felt like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to start my professional coaching career.”
“It’s a talented squad with a relatively new coaching group, and I worked with Alex Codling during our time together at Harlequins. We got on really well, and we’re both very much into the game in terms of talking about rugby a lot and looking into everything around it.”
Baldwin discussed his return to the Gallagher Premiership, after winning the title as a Harlequins player: “You have to go into it with your eyes wide open because the Premiership is a relentless league with loads of different playing styles where every squad is incredibly talented, and you have to stay on it every week.
“All the clubs are in the same country which is a change from the URC from a travel perspective, although we’ll obviously have some long bus trips with being situated up in the North East.
“In the URC the Welsh derbies feel a bit special because they’re not that common, but in the Premiership it’s like that every week where you’re up against boys you know, and some of the best players in the world. The Falcons have obviously got a really strong Argentinean contingent as well as all their local talent, and it’ll be really good tapping into all the various groups with everything they bring to the table.”
Newcastle Falcons have signed 11 senior players for the coming campaign in Murray McCallum (Edinburgh), Eduardo Bello (Saracens), Cameron Hutchison (Edinburgh), Hugh O’Sullivan (London Irish), Tim Cardall (Melbourne Rebels), Louis Brown (Coventry), Ollie Leatherbarrow (Exeter Chiefs), Kiran McDonald (Munster), Bryan Byrne (Bristol Bears), Josh Bainbridge (Coventry) and John Kelly (Doncaster Knights).