London Broncos’ long-term target Mitch Allgood (pictured) finally arrived in the capital on Thursday after securing his visa.
The former Hull KR and St George Illawarra forward has linked up with Danny Ward’s squad and is now looking to force his way into contention as quickly as possible.
Ward explained: “It seemed like we’d been waiting for that visa forever, so it was good to get it over the line.
“I think maybe he was making 100 per cent sure that pre-season had finished!
“Mitch has some size about him, he’s a little bit older and has experience and leadership qualities.
“He’s played NRL and Super League and that experience will be invaluable to the young blokes in our pack.
“He’ll give us some presence on the field, and we’ll assess him and see where he’s at in terms of fitness.
“We’ve been keeping in touch over the winter and our performance team has been in close contact with him about programmes.
“Hopefully he’s not too far off and he’ll add to competition for places straight away.
“But he’s not guaranteed to walk into the team; he will have to earn his place like everyone else.”
As well as Sunday’s clash with Bradford Bulls, the Broncos’ new reserve team – coached by former Coventry boss Tom Tsang – kicked off their campaign against Huddersfield on Saturday.
And Ward says he has already felt the benefit of having more players on board at the club.
He added: “We always had decent numbers last year, to be fair, but now we’ve got a good bunch of reserve lads that we know we can all on if we need to.
“We’ve been able to do some 13 on 13 stuff at training, which is fantastic, and also a good reward for those lads that turn up all the time.
“It’s great for their development to get a taste of what it’s like in the first team, and there are some good lads in there. I think we’ll see a few jump up this year.”