Tom Christie laughs at the suggestion he is now one of the veterans in the Newcastle Red Bulls squad.

After a little over 12 months on Tyneside, there are still many areas of the north east he is waiting to discover, but Christie is the man chosen to captain Newcastle as they embark upon their second season under the ownership of the global energy drinks giant.

A whopping 25 new players have been recruited for this campaign as the Red Bulls try to close the gap on the rest of the Prem, having been bottom for the past four seasons

And the 28-year-old New Zealander will lead them out on Friday night in their Prem opener at champions Northampton Saints on what he hopes will be an exciting adventure.

“The season is going to be a story,” Christie told BBC Sport.

“We’re not going to put any limits on where we think we’ll get to or where we hope to get to, because we’d be selling ourselves short.

“Let’s just play and see where that takes us.”

Head coach Dan McFarland is the man tasked with pulling all these new parts of the jigsaw together and the Englishman is excited by the challenge.

Christie was one of the initial wave to join the club in its new guise last summer, but with the new ownership only confirmed just over a month before the start of the season, Newcastle were playing catch-up.

A serial winner from his time back home with Crusaders in Super Rugby and with Canterbury in New Zealand’s provincial championship, Christie had an unaccustomed role in a side at the bottom.

But a season of tough losses has given him perspective into the previous years of struggle and a keenness to be part of a side that changes the story as he replaces hooker George McGuigan as the Red Bulls’ new captain.

“It was good to feel it last year, to speak to the fans who had been through a tough time,” he said.

“But seeing their enthusiasm for the project, for the team, the smiles on their faces after a couple of pivotal wins at home, that was really rewarding as a player.

“It didn’t necessarily go the way we wanted, but there was a lot of benefit for me learning about the club, the history. When things start going well this year, you can relate back to that a lot more and feel the passion.”

In sporting terms, the challenge is unique. This version of Newcastle Red Bulls have recruited more than a matchday 23 in new players.

But they are in a league with teams who are well-established with their own styles of play and largely settled squads.

Newcastle do not have that and Christie described the first day of pre-season as like starting a new school given how many new faces were in the building.

But just as important is developing relationships with people who have moved to a new city or a new country away from the field and the back-row forward is impressed by how quickly a spirit has been growing in the dressing room with players helping each other out as they settle into a different environment.

A week in Salzburg last month, visiting Red Bull’s global headquarters and living in each other’s pockets, allowed bonds to build and to gain a sense of support of being in the company’s umbrella, while they enjoyed a fine 36-24 win at Leicester Tigers in the Prem Rugby Cup in the team’s first competitive outing together.

“With so many new guys, everyone’s in it together,” Christie said.

“You’ve got partners and wives that are all trying to establish friendships, trying to meet people all in the same boat. From that sense, it’s easier than coming into a group that is quite set in its ways.

“Everyone is so accommodating, everyone is willing to meet each other, build connections and form those bonds. Everyone being in a similar stage does help.”

For most of the past four years, it has been easy to predict Newcastle’s place in The Prem.

From the 18 consecutive losses in 2023-24 to just a couple of wins in each of the past two campaigns, matches against the Tyneside club have been easy to put down as bonus-point wins for the opposition.

But this season? Nobody from outside the dressing room or even within can confidently forecast how this nomadic squad is going to fare.

“We’re not going to set a limit on what we are capable of,” reiterated Christie.

“If anyone wants to write us off, they are more than welcome to and we’ll be out there to prove every one of those wrong and to find out what we’re about ourselves.”