Leicester Tigers eye one-cap Wallaby Harry Johnson-Holmes

Leicester Tigers could move for Western Force tighthead Harry Johnson-Holmes as they look to strengthen their front row options ahead of next season.

Johnson-Holmes, 28, missed the whole of the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific campaign with a knee injury he suffered in a pre-season game against the ACT Brumbies 12 months ago.

The Force handed him a 12-month extension to his contract to cover the 2026 season, and he will be free to move to Welford Road later this year. He said that he had unfinished business after signing on the dotted line.

Johnson-Holmes made a 32-minute cameo for Australia in a 35-17 Rugby Championship defeat against South Africa at Ellis Park in Johannesburg in July 2019 and is well known to Tigers boss Geoff Parling.

The former England and Lions lock ended his playing career with the Melbourne Rebels and then spent five years as the Wallabies forwards coach before moving to the East Midlands after the Lions series in the summer.

Johnson-Holmes played 91 matches between 2018 and 2024 for the NSW Waratahs before linking up with the Force, and could be an experienced back-up for England international Joe Hayes.

He started his Waratahs career at loosehead, where the Tigers are missing Wales star Nicky Smith, who is joining Sale Sharks, before switching sides to the right-hand side of the front row.

The Tigers, who are losing George Martin to Saracens and Hanro Liebenberg to the Bulls, had talks with Perpignan’s Georgian international star Giorgi Tetrashvili, but he decided to sign a new contract and stay in the Top 14.

Parling is starting to make moves in the transfer market, having already announced that Aaron Wainwright is moving from the Dragons and that Elliot Stooke is on his way from the Red Hurricanes.

RugbyPass understands that they are also in the market for a centre and might need another fly-half if veteran Wallaby star James O’Connor decides to move on.