PLAYER PROFILE : ROSS BEATTIE BORN : 15/3/63 BIRTHPLACE : Sittingbourne, Kent HEIGHT : 6'5" WEIGHT : 17st 7lb POSITION : No.8

Young Ross Beattie, another up and coming player, was last season suddenly given the almost impossible task of filling, ex-captain Dean Ryan's rather large and experienced rugby boots. Luckily before Dean's departure he took Ross under his wing for a week, showing him how to really play at No.8. Ross now says that "in that one week I learned more about rugby and back row play than in all my whole career up to that point". It is only this season that Ross has become a full-time professional, though it was in the 1997/8 season that he made his Newcastle debut. His first appearance, like his Newcastle rise, was slightly out of the ordinary. Ross was pulled out of an England Under 21's match by Newcastle to play in the Sanyo Cup. He was called to the second row, after Garath Archer injured his ankle . Luckily it was worth it, a club debut at Twickenham against the World XV, being part of a Premiership winning club and a contract with the Falcons, all within a matter of weeks.

Ross, an England schoolboy international, joined Newcastle when only 18 at the beginning of the 1996/7 season, after leaving Hull's Hymers College. In 1997 things began to pick up. After graduating from the development XV, Ross was training with the first team and had been selected by England to play for England Students before winning his first England Under 21 cap.

He is now an automatic choice for the No 8 berth. In the 1998/9 season Ross began more than 20 games for Newcastle, scoring three tries. He took part in the Newcastle side that lost to Wasps in the Tetley's Bitter Cup Final at Twickenham on 15th May 1999.

Ross began the 1999/2000 season with style but his season was tragically cut short after a shoulder dislocation resulted in an operation to pin his upper arm. He was expected to have a full recovery and be back with the squad by the beginning of the 2000/2001 season. His return came earlier than expected and he took to the field as a replacement on the 12th March 2000 at home to London Wasps. Ross then reclaimed his number 8 shirt for the full eighty minutes in Newcastle's victory over Saracens only two weeks later (March 26th). Good to see Ross back fit and well.