“I tell everybody that’ll listen, I went up the steps to St. James Park in 2012 as a tourist and 90 minutes later, I came down a Geordie. It was pretty crazy, to be this Mexican-American going over to Newcastle to play rugby (and go to grad school) and then falling in love with the city. I was raised by my grandparents, who I call mom and pop. I’ll never forget the time I called the house and was talking to them both, and my mom was like “I watched the game on the weekend.” She said, ‘I watched it because maybe I'd see you on TV when they show the fans.’ So watching became part of her routine, keeping an eye out for me. It kind of replaced the Lakers for us because that was the thing that held us together. In a weird way she started watching it just because she wanted to make sure she had something to talk to me about when I’d call and then she totally caught the bug. We went to St. James Park together. I showed them all my favorite spots in Newcastle. It was really special for ...