Payne appointed Newcastle Thunder Academy under-18s coach

Newcastle Thunder is delighted to announce the return of Jason Payne, who will take over the reins as Academy under-18s coach for the upcoming season.

A former club captain and head coach, Payne resumes his long association with the club having enjoyed national success during his time in charge of Northumbria University’s rugby league side.

Providing support to Chris Thorman, who was recently announced as Newcastle Thunder head coach, Payne will oversee preparations and coaching for Thunder’s players of the future, whose fixture list sees them taking on a number of Super League and Championship academy outfits.

The 34-year-old will be a familiar face to many at Newcastle Thunder as the former prop featured over 170 times for the club across 10 seasons, scoring an impressive 45 tries in the process. Payne also had a stint as head coach of Thunder for two years from 2017 prior to his departure in 2019.

Payne’s loyalty and dedication after 12 years with the club was recently recognised when he was inducted into the Thunder Hall of Fame, receiving his heritage number of 207.

Speaking on his appointment, Payne said: “I’m delighted to be back. It’s been 3-5 years since I was last involved and there have been some big changes around the club, and with that comes some new opportunities. I’ve been speaking for a while about the possibility of coming back and after a long time assessing and seeing how things were going, I’ve decided to take the plunge, come back into the fold and work with the academy.”

Speaking on to his experience at Northumbria University and what he can draw from it, Payne added: “It was my first real coaching job, so it was certainly a big learning curve for me. It did take some time to settle in but now I’ve definitely learnt and developed my craft.

“I think working with university students, bears a lot of similarities to the academy with them both being a similar age range. There’s a lot I can take and bring to Thunder from my experience working there.”

Newcastle Thunder chair Keith Christie added: “As a club we need to be focused on the development of the game in the region, and Jason will support us in doing that. He brings a huge amount of knowledge, experience and understanding of the North East game, as well as what it takes to play at the highest level.

“As well as head coach to the academy team part of Jason’s role will be to support and implement the development plans for the North East community game by identifying potential players and developing both coaches and staff.

“His passion and experience for the game in the region will provide us with a huge asset which will undoubtedly benefit the club.

“I have known Jason personally for a long time and wanted to get him back at Thunder at the earliest opportunity. He has settled into the region and leads by example, still enjoying rugby league at local side Jarrow Vikings. Jason is one part of the jigsaw that will allow Thunder to develop and create a valued North East playing opportunity for our grassroot and development players going forward.”