Leicester Tigers Head Coach Dan McKellar has confirmed four additions to the Senior Squad ahead of the 23/24 season.
Included within the quartet of signings is a returning Tiger, who made more than 80 appearances for Leicester in four seasons at the club, and an international scrum-half who previously worked with McKellar down under.
The four new Leicester residents bring the total of new faces in the 23/24 Tigers squad to eleven, joining the already announced seven signings of Josh Bassett, Sam Carter, Ollie Hassell-Collins, Kyle Hatherell, Solomone Kata, Jamie Shillcock and Finn Theobald-Thomas.
The four additions are:
Get your tickets to the Rugby World Cup matches at viagogo, the world’s leading ticket marketplace. Find out how by clicking here.
JOE POWELL
The 29-year-old makes the move to the East Midlands after a season with London Irish, who he joined after eight years of Super Rugby.
Born in Canberra, the scrum-half made his senior rugby debut for the Canberra Vikings in Australia’s National Rugby Championship before stepping up to professional rugby with his Super Rugby debut in 2015 for the Brumbies, where he played for Leicester Tigers Head Coach Dan McKellar.
After previously representing Australia at Under-20 age-grade level, Powell’s senior Test debut came in 2017 against Fiji.
Powell started in the Brumbies 2020 Super Rugby AU Final victory over The Queensland Reds ahead of moving to the Melbourne Rebels for two seasons before joining the Gallagher Premiership with The Exiles in 2022.
Speaking about the signing, Leicester Tigers Head Coach Dan McKellar said: “Joe is an experienced scrum-half who has played at the highest level in the game and I am really excited about having him join us at Leicester Tigers.”
“I have spoken openly about the type of players we want at Tigers, the type of character I want in the group and a young man of Joe’s qualities on and off the pitch fit well and truly within that.”
“It’s no secret we are likely to be without Jack [van Poortvliet] and Ben [Youngs] during the World Cup, so certainly in need of depth at scrum-half and I am pleased we have been able to add that with the quality of Joe.”