Paul Burke for Leicester

Post by **limecat** » February 28th, 2006, 10:24 am

from ireland.com

28/02/2006: Former Ireland fly-half Paul Burke will join Leicester from Munster at the end of the season. The 32-year-old will play out the rest of his contract with Munster before joining Tigers ahead of the 2007 campaign.

The former Bristol and Harlequins back, capped 13 times by Ireland - most recently in 2003 - is relishing the chance to make his mark once more in England.

"This is a fantastic opportunity for me. Leicester is a huge club with huge traditions and I’m really excited about being back in the Premiership. When a club like Leicester expresses an interest, you don’t have to think about it," he said.

Burke will team up with fellow Irish players Geordan Murphy, Shane Jennings and Leo Cullen at Welford Road, plus Leicester captain Martin Corry, who is a former Bristol team-mate, and his one-time Harlequins colleague Scott Bemand.

"Hopefully that will help me settle in easier and the transition won’t be that hard for me," he said. "They will know the way I play."

Darce · Post by **Darce** » February 28th, 2006, 10:29 am

Great move for him and best of luk to him. I always liked him, very tidy player IMO. Nice distrabuter and a leathal boot, form the hand and off the ground, I remember him striking a penalty from 60metres and converting it, Ligined! I also heard that Andy Goode is heading to Clermont Auvernge.

Flash Gordon · Post by **Flash Gordon** » February 28th, 2006, 10:34 am

Darce wrote:Great move for him and best of luk to him. I always liked him, very tidy player IMO. Nice distrabuter and a leathal boot, form the hand and off the ground, I remember him striking a penalty from 60metres and converting it, Ligined! I also heard that Andy Goode is heading to Clermont Auvernge.

Strange though that Leicester seem to sign quite a few second tier players. You'd expect more from one of the top 3 sides in Europe....guys like Humph Jnr, Cullen, Burke etc are hardly big name, believe they tried to persuade Gary Longwell to go another year with them before he retired too....maybe that's why they've slipped a bit in the GP....