Izaia Perese greeted a familiar face when Michael Cheika first arrived at Leicester Tigers.

The 27-year-old outside centre was signed in March by Dan McKellar but he was sacked as head coach and replaced with Cheika, the former Australia coach, in June.

It brought an unexpected reunion, eight years after the pair first met when Cheika coached the Wallabies.

“He picked me up as a young fella as an apprentice and took me on a spring tour tour in 2016,” Perese told BBC Radio Leicester’s Leicester Tigers Rugby Show.

“I didn’t play but it was still such a great time.

“We saw each other for the first time at Tigers and said, ‘What are the odds?’ Then we had a good catch up after that.”