Head coach Matt O’Connor says the influence of back-rower Sione Kalamafoni in the Leicester Tigers camp stretches beyond the impressive statistics from his opening three games for the club.

Tonga international Kalamafoni joined Tigers this season after five years at Gloucester and has already made an impact.

Figures released by OPTA, the Aviva Premiership’s statisticians, show he has made the second-highest number of tackles in the opening three rounds of the season and is also in the top three for carries and offloads.

“Sione is a phenomenal professional,” O’Connor said. “He is incredibly accurate in everything he does.

“His work off the field is as good as his work on it and I think he’s a great asset to the environment.”

With the stats backing up Kalamafoni’s importance to the team in the opening weeks of the season, O’Connor added: “Sione is producing the highest numbers in the forward pack and is doing a lot of hard work for the team.

“His workrate in the first three games has been phenomenal and I think we can build a lot of things around the numbers he is producing.”