English rugby union club Leicester confirmed yesterday the signing of Tuqiri who will start training with the English Premiership champions this week.

The contract is likely to be a short-term one with the dual international thought to have come to an agreement with Wests Tigers to relaunch his rugby league career with the Sydney NRL club starting next year.

Wests Tigers chief executive Stephen Humphreys said the local club had had discussions with Tuqiri but denied any deal was done. He issued the statement: ``We absolutely refute the suggestion ... that Wests Tigers have agreed to terms with Lote Tuqiri. While we are hopeful of securing his services, I must re-iterate at this point in time, we have neither verbally agreed to terms nor signed any agreement.''