Finn Baker

A product of the north-east of England, Finn Baker is a young openside flanker on the books at Newcastle, the Premiership club now competing as the Newcastle Red Bulls. Born on 17 October 2004, he is at an early stage of his career and looking to establish himself in senior rugby through the qualities that define a modern seven. Baker's game centres on a high work rate at the breakdown, line speed in defence and the persistence to keep arriving at the contact area phase after phase. As an emerging forward, he offers the kind of energy and turnover threat that coaches prize in a back row, allied to the link work between forwards and backs that an openside is expected to provide. The path from promising academy prospect to established professional demands physical development and consistency at senior level, and Baker is in the process of building both. For a club managing a period of transition, young forwards willing to compete for every ruck and tackle are valuable, and Baker fits that mould, a developing talent intent on earning his place through effort and reliability rather than reputation.