Newcastle Red Bull’s latest England-qualified signing, Max Hicks, has taken an unconventional route to professional rugby.
His childhood was unconventional, too. Hicks was born and raised in New Zealand, with a Māori father, James, and a mother, Liane, whose family comes from Cornwall.
“I grew up in a little town called Coatesville, west of Auckland,” says the 27-year-old, stretching his long frame across a sofa at Kingston Park. “I had a pet eel called Scarface. There was a big creek running through the bottom of our property. At primary school we had an agricultural day, where people brought in sheep, calves and bunny rabbits.
“My old man was a builder and we had this old bathtub, so we caught one of the eels from the creek and took it into school. I kept it as a pet and put it back in the river, but it always came back. I fed it leftover butter chicken. Eels don’t have very good vision, so I think it was something to do with the aromatics. It loved it. I’d pick it up and carry it around the garden. I also had a ram called Cookie. I’d shout his name and he’d run over to me. I was a pretty weird kid…”
His sporting development was just as unusual. While players such as Caleb Clarke and Tupou Vaa’i came through New Zealand’s All Blacks age-group system, Hicks was more likely to be found on a hockey pitch or playing Australian Rules football. Rugby hardly looked like a guaranteed career choice.
“My parents encouraged me to try every sport possible,” he says. “I played 100 first-team hockey matches at high school and represented the New Zealand Māori hockey team. I also started playing AFL in my final year of school and spent some time with St Kilda, one of the AFL’s most historic clubs, based in Melbourne. AFL is such an athletic sport. The big men can run, jump, kick off both feet and handle the ball with both hands.
Newcastle Red Bull’s England-qualified signing Max Hicks has taken an unconventional route to rugby
Unlike many emerging New Zealand stars, Hicks came through hockey and Australian Rules rather than the All Blacks age-grade system
“I loved rugby, but I was never the best player. I was invited to a few Under-20s camps, although I was built like a rake. AFL wanted me to be extremely fit and capable of running forever, while rugby wanted me to put on size. I was caught between the two.
“Rugby didn’t really feel like a genuine career option until I left high school. Once I committed to it, I began a major bulking programme to add weight. McDonald’s, KFC, ice cream!”
To finance his rugby ambitions, Hicks became a trainee builder. He increased his calorie intake and began lifting weights early each morning before heading to work. By coincidence, his labouring colleague was former schoolmate Ethan Roots, the Auckland-born Exeter Chiefs flanker who has since been capped by England.
“We went to the same high school and worked for the same building company, constructing houses around Auckland,” he says. “We were setting out slabs, putting up standing walls and fitting cladding. You’d get up at 4.30am and be in the gym by five. I was still trying to make it in rugby, but I was also preparing for life if it didn’t work out.
“I wasn’t a young superstar who was picked up straight from school and placed into a professional rugby environment. I moved down to Tasman, who from 2028 will become Tasmania’s first AFL club. They didn’t offer me a full contract, but they said, ‘If you come down here and work hard, you can earn yourself a place in the team.’”
“The following year I joined the Highlanders. I remember walking in for the first time and seeing all these players I had watched on television, including Aaron Smith and Shannon Frizell. Ben Smith and Tony Brown were coaching us. It was pretty surreal. I played for the Māori All Blacks, representing my father’s side, and I was keen for an adventure, so I moved to France and joined Perpignan.”
Hicks wore the No 6 jersey last season and finished second only to Jack Willis for turnovers in France’s Top 14. With Europe now within reach, he also had the chance to explore his family’s English roots.
“My grandad was in the Royal Air Force and was posted to New Zealand. Mum was born in Truro and moved over when she was about ten. I went to Cornwall with Mum for the first time last year, which was really cool. She showed me where she grew up.
Hicks has made only two Premiership appearances for Newcastle but is already attracting attention
Hicks worked as a trainee builder while pursuing rugby, alongside former schoolmate Ethan Roots, the England-capped Exeter flanker
“We rented an Airbnb and spent some time in St Ives. Ethan and Jimmy Roots came over from Exeter as well. Much of the family moved to New Zealand, but there should still be a few relatives around. I might have to do one of those Find My Family DNA swabs!”
Newcastle’s head of recruitment, Gavin Vaughan, discovered Hicks’ English connections last year. Vaughan previously worked with Scotland and helped identify Sione Tuipulotu and Huw Jones while searching the global rugby landscape for players eligible to represent Scotland.
In his new role with Newcastle, Vaughan has to hit targets of English-qualified players, making Hicks a particularly attractive proposition.
‘I wasn’t actively looking to leave France but I was open to hearing what was out there. Red Bull approached me and my agent and it’s such an awesome project. The Red Bull influence is pretty cool. I thought, “How cool would it be to come into a new environment that’s so unknown, with all this expectation, and really turn a place around?”
‘You know, the Falcons had it tough for a couple years. It would be such a cool story to come here as a group of people from all around the world and fill the stadium out every week. That’s what excited me. Mum was quite happy that I moved over. There’s a bit of patriotism there. I’ve represented my dad’s side and I guess now I’m representing my mum’s.’
During Newcastle’s pre-season camp at the Red Bull HQ in Austria, Hicks had another surprise for his team-mates. He wowed everyone with his wakeboarding skills out on the Wolfgang Lake – another skill he picked up living by the coast in New Zealand.
Hicks has only played two PREM games for Newcastle but he is already making a name for himself. During last weekend’s defeat by Leicester, Ireland legend Brian O’Driscoll compared his ability to hold a ball in one hand to NBA superstar LeBron James.
At 6ft 6in and 17st 9lb, Hicks resembles former Saracens flanker Theo McFarland, whose basketball background gave him an athletic point of difference. His eye-catching performances have thrown him into the mix of England’s World Cup bolters – although there has been no contact with Steve Borthwick.
During Newcastle’s pre-season camp at the Red Bull HQ in Austria, Hicks had another surprise for his team-mates. He wowed everyone with his wakeboarding skills out on the Wolfgang Lake
‘It was never my reason for coming over here but I would love to play international rugby,’ he says, having represented the Maori All Blacks twice but never the full senior side.
‘I’d love to represent my mum’s side of the family. If that happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. I’m here to throw all my eggs into the club. My reason for coming here was to be part of an exciting project with Red Bull.
‘I know we’ve had a tough start to the PREM and we’ve lost two, but the progress we’re making as a group has been really positive. We’re still fine-tuning things, the fans are excited, and the group’s gelling really well. It’s just about finding those little connections with players you have never played with before.
‘Some teams have been together for a few years and they know who’s going to get a weak shoulder and throw an offload. We’re still figuring that out with each other, but when that clicks, it’s going to be exciting. We’ll start getting more results come our way.’
