{"id":4831,"date":"2025-12-31T11:14:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T11:14:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=4831"},"modified":"2025-12-31T11:14:56","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T11:14:56","slug":"franco-molina-newcastle-red-bulls-sign-argentina-international-lock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/?p=4831","title":{"rendered":"Franco Molina: Newcastle Red Bulls sign Argentina international lock"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\"><b class=\"ssrcss-1xjjfut-BoldText e5tfeyi3\">Newcastle Red Bulls have signed Argentina international lock Franco Molina for the start of the 2026-27 season.<\/b><\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 28-year-old second row will join up with the Newcastle squad in the summer after playing the 2026 Super Rugby campaign for Australian side Western Force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Molina, who has experience of Prem rugby after making 17 appearances for Exeter Chiefs last season, has agreed a two-year deal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has 20 international caps and previously had club spells in Argentina with Dogos, Ceibos and Jaguares, as well as Chilean side Selknam.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m incredibly honoured to be joining Newcastle Red Bulls &#8211; a club that has such a rich affinity with Argentinian players,&#8221; Molina <a href=\"https:\/\/www.newcastleredbulls.com\/en\/articles\/argentina-lock-molina-set-for-newcastle-move\" class=\"ssrcss-k8mrr8-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\">told the Newcastle club website<span class=\"visually-hidden ssrcss-1f39n02-VisuallyHidden e16en2lz0\">, <!-- -->external<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;After my conversation with Jonny Petrie [managing director] and Neil McIlroy [sporting general manager] it is obvious that this is a really exciting time to be involved with the club, and I cannot wait for what is to come.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I&#8217;m looking forward to meeting my team-mates and achieving something special there.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Manager McIlroy said Molina had built up valuable international experience in recent years by playing in &#8220;many big games&#8221; for Argentina.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;He knows the Prem from his time with Exeter, and his set-piece ability will stand us in good stead as we look to put this club on a clear upward trajectory,&#8221; said McIlroy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Newcastle are currently bottom of the Prem after losing all eight of their league matches so far this season and host second-from-bottom Gloucester on Friday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Newcastle Red Bulls have signed Argentina international lock Franco Molina for the start of the 2026-27 season. The 28-year-old second row will join up with the Newcastle squad in the summer after playing the 2026 Super Rugby campaign for Australian side Western Force. Molina, who has experience of Prem rugby after making 17 appearances for<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rugby"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/outdoorthrill.cfd\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}