London Broncos have confirmed that Alex Mammone has signed a three-month deal with the club.
The 24-year-old prop is a former Australian Institute of Sport Under-18s player whose career began with St George Illawarra Under 20s.
He has also spent time with Manly and Asquith Magpies, and now has the opportunity to win a longer deal for himself at London.
“I’m thrilled to have been offered this opportunity with the Broncos – I’ve been training with the boys since pre-season started last week, and they’ve really welcomed me with open arms,," said Mammone, who is eligible for, or holds, Australian, British and Italian passports.
“It’s a fantastic environment, and I’ve really enjoyed it so far. It’s been pretty hard work, but that comes naturally with pre-season.
“I met my girlfriend [who lives in Surrey] while she was travelling Australia, so this works perfectly for us. Hopefully it can turn into a more permanent stay."
Broncos head coach Andrew Henderson is looking forward to helping another diamond in the rough reach his full potential.
“Alex was brought to my attention by Ben Fisher, who was previously a player and assistant coach here at the Broncos – he also was a former Scotland teammate of mine – so he tipped me off about him originally," he said.
“I also spoke to a few other contacts in Australia who had seen Alex play, and they all spoke fairly well of him.
“It’s a contract similar to Will Lovell’s – at the end of the day, I don’t know enough about the bloke to warrant a 12-month deal.
"He comes on a good recommendation, so we’re giving him the opportunity to impress over these three months with a view to extend if we see him fitting into our squad moving forward.
“He’s a good size – 6’4 and 112kg front row forward, so he’s already got something different there compared to what we’ve had previously.
“He’s trained a week and a half, and he’s adapting to full time rugby. He came through some good systems as a kid, and he’s got some good grounding as a youngster, and now this is his opportunity to try and kick on.”
