Meet the Death Metal-loving Swedish prop set for Leicester debut

Ale Loman will become the first male Swedish player to play for Leicester Tigers when he makes his debut for the club this weekend.

Loman, 24, has been named as tight head prop for the Premiership Rugby Cup clash against Coventry at the Butts Park Arena on Saturday after just 16 games of professional rugby for the Tigers' Championship partner club, Nottingham.

Capped 15 times by his country, Loman signed for Nottingham in June last year having caught the eye playing for the University of Nottingham in BUCS rugby.

Loman, who can play both sides of the scrum, came to the UK as an exchange student and was studying an MSc in Machine Learning and Computer Science, whilst also hoping to develop as a rugby player.

Previously, Loman had only played club rugby domestically, for his hometown club Lugi Lions, who are based in his birthplace Lund, a city located at the southern tip of Sweden.

A guitarist in the now-disbanded Swedish Death metal band called Bred, Loman has been the cornerstone of the Swedish national team's pack in their rise up the world rankings under English coach Alex Laybourne.

He scored a viral, lung-bursting 50-metre try for Sweden in November last year and Laybourne is a staunch believer in his potential to go further in the game.

“I’m very proud of where Ale has got to so far. He made his debut in my first test match in charge against Luxembourg in October 2021, and has been an ever-present since,” said Laybourne.

“Originally he played as an 8, but I moved him to prop and he hasn’t looked back, developing consistently and working hard on his game.

“He has a great willingness to learn and a desire to get better all the time; I believe he has a high ceiling and there is plenty more to come from him.”

As well as their ground-breaking loanee, the Tigers have brought Josh Bassett and Solomone Kata into their starting XV, with Finn Carnduff captaining the side again this week from the back row.

Whoever wins Saturday's Midlands derby is likely to progress through to the quarter-finals as one of the three best pool runners-up. Northampton are virtually assured of finishing top of Pool B.