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Jake Ilnicki is the latest Americas players headed out the door at Kingston Park. The Canadian prop will leave Newcastle Falcons at the end of the season to join Yorkshire Carnegie in the Greene King IPA Championship on an initial one-year contract.
It’s been a frustrating couple of seasons for the 26-year-old from Williams Lake. After being a first choice tighthead for the San Diego Breakers in PRO Rugby and Manawatu Turbos in New Zealand’s Mitre 10 Cup, Ilnicki joined Northampton Saints of the Aviva Premiership. He was a regular with their reserve grade side, winning the Aviva ‘A’ Championship, but did not see any Premiership action with Saints.
In September he signed for Newcastle, initially as cover for long-term injury victims David Wilson and Scott Wilson. Again Ilnicki has been relegated to Aviva ‘A’ league duty, making only Premiership appearance thus far as a replacement against Exeter Chiefs in October.
Meanwhile he has been a staple in the Canadian side, starting all six internationals in 2018 to bring his total to 28 caps since his test debut in November 2013.
Yorkshire Carnegie, previously known as Leeds Tykes, are one of the top sides in the Championship, England’s second professional division. In 2001 they earned promotion to the Premiership and stayed there for five seasons before being relegated in 2006. They were subsequently promoted and relegated twice each, settling in the Championship in 2011.
More recently they lost out to London Irish in the 2016-17 Championship final playoff. The are currently in 5th spot on the table, tied with 4th-place Jersey on points and just two behind 3rd-place Bedford.
Canada Senior Men’s scrum coach Mike Shelley is the longest-serving player in the club’s history, spending a decade with the side beginning in 1996 and amassing 244 appearances.
Other confirmed departures at Newcastle include fellow Canadian DTH van der Merwe, who has already joined Glasgow Warriors, while Belisario Agulla has returned home to Argentina and another Pumas international, Juan Pablo Socino, will move to Edinburgh next season.
