Newcastle have won just two of their 11 Premiership games and sit six points behind Exeter in ninth.

But on the playing front, life got slightly easier with the news that Ealing Trailfinders, runaway leaders of the Championship, do not meet the Premiership entry criteria, so there would be no play-off with them at the end of the season.

However, off the field, Newcastle have frozen recruitment for next season as they seek financial help, whether in the form of a short-term loan or new ownership of the club.

It is a time of uncertainty as outsiders worry if the club will go the same way as Worcester Warriors, Wasps and London Irish.

Prop Murray McCallum was at Worcester when they went under and has just signed a new two-year contract at Kingston Park.

And the 29-year-old Scot is assured that the situation at his current club is nowhere near how it was at Sixways.

"We genuinely saw the bailiffs turning up," he told BBC Look North. "It's nowhere near that here.

"It plays on the mind as much as anyone. Job security is job security. The rugby world post-Covid is an interesting place.

"But we just need to turn up to work every day, put a smile on our face and put our head in the spokes."