Dowson finally gets his man as talented young prop Haffar signs for Saints

And the Saints boss was delighted to finally get his man as Saints announced the arrival of the 21-year-old prop on Wednesday afternoon.

The 115kg, 6ft loosehead joins the black, green and gold from London Irish, after the Exiles filed for administration and were suspended from the Gallagher Premiership last week.

Haffar joined the London Irish Academy set-up aged 14, having caught the eye with club side Grasshoppers RFC while also playing for Gunnersbury Catholic School.

He notched up 10 appearances for the Exiles during the 2022/23 season, after making his debut against Harlequins in September 2022.

And Dowson said: “Tarek is someone whose progress we have been following for a long time.

“He clearly has both the physical and mental ability to push on and become a top-class loosehead prop.

"He has a lot of power and loves to get involved and carry the ball as well, having played a bit of back row earlier in his career.

“The work he’s been doing as a scrummager is really impressive, so while Tarek doesn’t have masses of experience yet, he has masses of potential and is desperate to kick on.

“It’s fantastic for us to add some depth at loosehead too. Manny (Iyogun) is coming back from a long-term injury, and we obviously have Alex and Ethan Waller in that space as well, but we want Tarek to be challenging all those guys and making the competition for that jersey as fierce as possible.”