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Leicester ready to unleash 'very strong' 143kg ex-American footballer
By Josh Raisey
United States tighthead Tonga Kofe is set to make his Leicester Tigers debut on Friday in the PREM Rugby Cup against Newcastle Red Bulls after his summer move to the club from the Utah Warriors.
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The 29-year-old moved to Leicester in August after just two years in professional rugby in Major League Rugby, having previously played American Football.
The 143kg forward had represented the Portland Vikings in NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision, as well as being a state champion wrestler, before making the move to rugby.
Shortly before his transfer to the Midlands, he earned the first of his three USA caps to date, featuring from the bench against England, and will team up with the Eagles again after the match as they face Georgia and Romania.
A day after the match at Kingston Park, Kofe’s compatriots will run out at Scottish Gas Murrayfield to take on Scotland.
The American will start in a side coached by Neil Fowkes which has a blend of experience and inexperience.
After signing the prop, Leicester head coach Geoff Parling said: “Tonga is a prop who is late to rugby but who we think has huge potential. He’s physically very strong, but from speaking to his coaches in America, it’s his willingness to learn that stands out. We are really looking forward to welcoming Tonga, his wife, and their daughter, Lisa Rose, to Mattioli Woods Welford Road.”
Leicester Tigers XV
15 Charlie Titcombe
14 Gabriel Hamer-Webb
13 Will Wand
12 Joseph Woodward (C)
11 George Pearson
10 Orlando Bailey
9 Ollie Allan
1 Tarek Haffar
2 Finn Theobald Thomas
3 Tonga Kofe
4 Harry Wells
5 Tom Manz
6 Josh Manz
7 Sam Williams
8 Joaquin Moro
Replacements
16 John Stewart
17 Tubuna Maka
18 Ale Loman
19 James Thompson
20 Harry Palmer
21 Charlie Bemand
22 Ryan Crowley
23 Tom Threlfall
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