Leigh snap up Couturier

Leigh Centurions are delighted to announce the capture of current French International threequarter Damien Couturier on a one year contract.

The 25 year old from L'union in Toulouse, played 25 games for Hull Kingston Rovers during their promotion winning 2006 season. He is an accomplished attacking player who scored 9 tries and kicked 84 goals.

Prior to joining Rovers during the final weeks of their 2005 campaign, Couturier played for Toulouse after earlier representing Lezignan. Whilst with Toulouse he proved a scourge of several teams during the French side's dramatic Challenge Cup run, scoring 5 tries and booting 27 goals.

Speaking of his latest signing, Leigh boss Darren Shaw said,

"He comes to us following a good season, and is a current French international centre. He has good pedigree. He can play centre or wing and when he was at Toulouse he had a goal-kicking rate of over 85%."

"I know at Hull KR last season he was on-course to break a record and became only the fourth player in their history to kick 14 goals in a game. He is a prolific goal-kicker and obviously with the competition being so tight, every two points will be valuable to us."

"He is very experienced, having played against Australia, New Zealand and England on the international stage and at 25, he is in a good age bracket for us and could play for years to come. He has played against the best, including the recent Federation Shield games."

Damien is expected to arrive in Leigh during the first week of January.

"Having spoken to Damien today, he's really looking forward to it." Said Shaw.

"He enjoyed his time in England with Hull KR and is certainly looking forward to getting back over here again."