Newcastle Red Bulls have signed Fiji hooker Zuriel Togiatama on a one-year deal, bringing the 27-year-old to Kingston Park from Super Rugby side Fijian Drua (BBC Sport).

Togiatama has been capped 14 times by Fiji and arrives with top-level experience in both the southern hemisphere's Super Rugby competition — the premier club tournament in that part of the world — and on the international Test stage (Newcastle Red Bulls). For a hooker, the position that wears the number 2 shirt and throws into the lineout while anchoring the scrum, that breadth of background is exactly what attracted Newcastle's attention.

Head coach Dan McFarland was fulsome in his assessment. Togiatama, he said, has "proven himself at Super Rugby and international level," and is "strong in the set-piece, carries the ball with real intent, and has the work rate and physicality" the role demands (Newcastle Red Bulls). In plain terms: he is reliable at the structured restarts — scrums and lineouts — where games are won and lost, and he carries the ball into contact with purpose rather than drifting.

The move reunites Togiatama with a familiar rugby landscape in a different code of competition. Fijian Drua, based in Nadi, have been a growing force in Super Rugby since joining the competition in 2022, and Togiatama's time there placed him alongside some of the most dynamic backs in world rugby. His job, though, was the unglamorous front-row work that makes their flair possible — the tackles, the carries, the scrum stability that buys a team time and territory.

For Newcastle, a one-year deal is a measured bet. It gives McFarland a chance to assess Togiatama through a full English season — the Premiership's set-piece intensity and winter conditions are a different challenge to Super Rugby's faster, looser rhythms — before committing to anything longer. For Togiatama, it is an opportunity to test himself in one of the most physically demanding domestic leagues in the world.

Fijian players have increasingly become sought-after signings across European rugby, and for good reason. The island nation has always produced athletes with an instinctive feel for the game's open-play moments, but recent years have seen a growing crop of forwards — Togiatama among them — who combine that natural ability with the technical discipline required at the highest level.

What fans can expect: a hooker whose credentials are built on hard graft rather than highlights, arriving from a Fijian set-up that plays with both flair and fight. If McFarland's description holds, Togiatama will bring exactly the sort of physicality and set-piece reliability that English crowds appreciate — the kind of player whose work rarely makes the clip reel but consistently makes a difference.