Statement: Leicester Tigers confirm SEVEN senior departures

The senior squad will say goodbye to seven players, while three players from the Senior Academy will also be leaving.

Notably absent from the list is England winger Anthony Watson, whose contract is set to expire in the summer and who has been rumoured to be courted by Castres, London Irish, and Saracens.

According to sources at RUCK, there are indications that Watson might remain at Welford Road beyond his current contract, although there is no official confirmation yet.

This could be the reason why Leicester Tigers did not include him in their list of departing players.

The Senior Squad players who are departing are:

He will retire at the conclusion of the 2022/23 season after an 18-year career as a professional in both rugby union and rugby league.

The Leicester Tigers outside-back has, to date, made 25 appearances for the club after joining midway through the 2021/22 campaign.

Prior to joining Tigers, Ashton played for Wigan Warriors (rugby league) and Northampton Saints, Saracens, Toulon, Sale Sharks, Harlequins and Worcester Warriors (rugby union), as well as representing England in both codes and the Barbarians.

One of the most prolific try-scorers in the history of rugby union, Ashton is the record try-scorer in the Gallagher Premiership (98) and Heineken Champions Cup (41) competitions.

To date, he has won three Premierships, two Heineken Champions Cups and one European Challenge Cup.

His professional career began in 2005 when he debuted for Wigan, as an 18-year-old, and scored two tries in his first appearance.

Ashton made more than 50 appearances for the Super League club, and represented England in rugby league, before switching to rugby union to join Northampton.

In 2010, he made his England Rugby Test debut and went on to represent his country on 44 occasions, scoring 20 international tries.

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He spent five seasons with Saints before moving to Saracens, where he spent a further five years and was part of two Premiership and one European Cup winning campaigns.

In 2017, Ashton joined Toulon and, during his lone year in France, he broke the record for tries scored in a single season with 24 tries in 23 appearances.

He returned to England in 2018 to join Sale before stints with Harlequins and Worcester ahead of joining Tigers in February 2022.

Gopperth joined Leicester Tigers ahead of the 2022/23 season.

The versatile back made the move across the Midlands from fellow Gallagher Premiership club Wasps.

Born in New Zealand, he was selected to represent Wellington’s provincial team in 2003 after impressing for Old Boys University, before signing with Super Rugby side the Hurricanes in 2005.

Gopperth represented New Zealand Under-21 and the Junior All Blacks before moving to Auckland in 2008 and represented North Harbour and The Blues in Super Rugby before moving to the northern hemisphere in 2009 to join Newcastle Falcons.

After more than 100 appearances for Newcastle, he joined Leinster Rugby for two seasons and returned to the Premiership with Wasps in 2015.

Gopperth has won both the Premiership Player of the Year and RPA Players' Player of the Year awards, as well as the Golden Boot in 2016/17 as the league’s top points-scorer. He sits in fourth place on the Premiership’s all-time points-scorer list after more than 200 appearances in the English top flight.

 Green returned to Leicester Tigers from Newcastle Falcons in the summer of 2019.

Originally from Norwich, Calum came through the Tigers academy ranks, captaining the team in his final year, before making his senior debut at the end of the 2008/09 season as a teenager.

He started the historic win over world champions South Africa at Welford Road as well as gaining senior experience on loan at Nottingham before joining Yorkshire Carnegie.

Calum moved to Newcastle in 2014 and made more than 100 first-team appearances for the Falcons, consistently appearing among Premiership Rugby’s leading locks, particularly in his set-piece stats, before agreeing to return to Welford Road where he made 20 appearances in his first season back.

Jansen joined Leicester Tigers on a short-term contract in February 2022 from Otago Rugby Football Union in New Zealand.

The 22-year-old, who is capable of playing across the back-row, attended Otago Boys High and played his junior rugby with North Island RFC and represented North Otago.

In 2021, the Dunedin-born forward won Otago’s Development Forward of the Year award.

With the experience of three Rugby World Cup campaigns, Murimurivalu joined Leicester Tigers in the latter stages of the extended 2019/20 season.

Born in Suva, he was selected for Fiji Under-20s for the Junior World Cup in 2009 before earning a move to ASM Clermont Auvergne in France.

He had three seasons at Clermont, making his Test debut for Fiji against Tonga in 2011 and going to a first World Cup that year, before signing for La Rochelle where he made more than 130 appearances in eight season, playing at full-back, wing or centre.

After joining Tigers during the second part of the Covid-affected 2019/20 season, he made his debut in a derby victory over Northampton Saints at Welford Road in September 2020 and also started the European Champions Cup semi-final in Toulon.

Tonga international wing Saumaki was among the additions to the Leicester Tigers squad during the summer of 2021.

The outside-back spent five seasons in Japan, representing Daito Bunka University in Tokyo and then Top League club Canon Eagles in 2017 – finishing his first season as the competition’s second-top tryscorer – as well as three years with the Sunwolves in Super Rugby.

He progressed from the Tonga Under-20s and Sevens squads to gain his first Test caps in 2021.

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Snyman joins Leicester Tigers ahead of the 2021/22 season from Italian club Benetton Rugby.

Born in Zimbabwe, the second-rower represented his homeland at age-grade levels before joining the Blue Bulls youth programme in South Africa.

Like fellow new Tigers signing Marco Van Staden, Snyman attended the University of Pretoria and represented UP Tuks in South Africa’s Varsity Cup competition.

In 2016, Snyman was selected to represent the Springboks Under-20s and made his Currie Cup debut for the Bulls in the same season.

Snyman made his Super Rugby debut during the 2019 season for The Bulls before signing with Treviso ahead of the 2019/20 European season.

From the Senior Academy, the players are:

In addition, two mid-season arrivals will leave with their short-term contracts at Tigers coming to an end.

The duo is Tom West and Sam Wolstenholme.