Diamond slams Max Pepper's loyalty as rising Newcastle star 'jumps ship'

Max Pepper, the former Great Britain sevens player, has delivered a major blow to Newcastle Falcons’ bid to hang onto their young talent by turning down a new two-year deal to “jump ship” and join Bristol Bears.

Pepper, who is currently injured, interrupted Steve Diamond’s ski holiday last week to deliver the bad news in a 10-second call which sees the wing or scrum half follow his brother Guy to the West Country where the flanker is in the Bath squad.

Diamond is clearly disappointed to lose 23-year-old Pepper who was struggling to make any impact with the Falcons until he arrived as consultant director of rugby and the former Sale and Worcester chief recently told RugbyPass that the youngster could fill the void left by England wing Adam Radwan who has signed for Leicester. Pepper follows Pumas lock Pedro Rubiolo who has already moved to Bristol.

Diamond, who is preparing his team for Friday’s home Premiership Rugby Cup quarter-final with Gloucester, said: “Max Pepper has decided to go to Bristol. I am disappointed because I thought we gave him a lot of opportunities on the wing. He obviously thinks it is better to go elsewhere.

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“He reminded me of Ben Foden who could play scrum-half and in the back three. I was on ski holiday last week and got a 10-second phone from him saying he wasn’t taking the new contract.

“The problem you have is that you give these lads opportunities and they jump ship and when I arrived he didn’t have a contract. I offered him a small one and then vastly improved it over two years.

“These young lads are influenced by their agents and promises about what they can get elsewhere. The agent didn’t ring me about Max and you have to ask if they are going to get the game time at clubs with 60 or 70 players? Lads like Max, under the previous regime, were waifs and strays and they didn’t rate them. I gave them an opportunity and nine out of ten people respect that and show some loyalty.

“We are having a lot of talks with players and a lot of them have agreed to stay and there have been positive chats with Callum Chick (club captain) about the vision for the future of the club with or without investment.”