Newcastle Red Bulls Sign Canada Forward Mason Flesch Until End of Season
Newcastle Red Bulls have signed Canada forward Mason Flesch until the end of the season, the Premiership club announced on 21 October.
Flesch is a back-row forward, the group of players who line up behind the front row and are usually the quickest to the breakdown, the area where a tackled player is contested on the ground. He can also play at lock, the tall second-row forwards who jump for the ball at lineouts. He has won 26 caps for Canada, meaning he has played 26 official Tests for his country.
The Ontario-born player came through the ranks at the Toronto Arrows and made his professional debut in 2021. Rugby Canada lists his first Test as a match against the United States on 4 September 2021. He has since spent time with the Chicago Hounds in Major League Rugby, the top competition in the United States.
Flesch was a standout there. He scored 10 tries in 11 games, and the Hounds went on to win the 2026 Major League Rugby title, beating California Legion in the final. He scored a try in that final. Major League Rugby also named him its forward of the season for 2026.
The move comes at a difficult stage for Newcastle. BBC Sport reports that the club had lost their first three Premiership matches of the season when Flesch was signed. The Premiership is England's top men's club competition. Newcastle also lost their opening European Challenge Cup match 47-14 at Scarlets the Saturday before the signing. The Challenge Cup is the second tier of European club rugby.
Head coach Dan McFarland said Flesch deserves the opportunity and will add depth to a very competitive part of the squad. In other words, the club has plenty of forwards, and Flesch will have to earn his place among them.
Flesch arrived on Tyneside in the same week he signed. He becomes the first Canadian men's international to join a Premiership club in seven years, according to RugbyPass.
For Newcastle, the question now is how quickly a player with a strong try-scoring record in North America can settle into a squad that is looking for its first win of the league campaign. For Flesch, it is a chance to test his game against Premiership forwards, one of the toughest tests in the sport.
