Whitehaven have announced the signing of Frenchman Louis Jouffret for the 2016 season.

Jouffret, previously at Catalans Dragons’ reserve side UTC, spent two months on loan at The Recreation Ground last season and is set to return to West Cumbria at the start of next year.

Playing at full-back, Jouffret made nine starts scoring two tries and kicking 28 goals.

His first try for the club came in his debut appearance for Haven in the Summer Bash derby fixture with Workington in May.

Haven boss James Coyle said: “When Louis left us after his stint on loan, I don’t think we appreciated how good he actually was.

“We definitely could have done with him earlier on in the year.

“It’s important that when he gets in with us that he hits the ground running.

“I’ve given him a rest and he will be coming over to join us at the start of January.

“He’s not stopped playing rugby for nearly three full seasons. He played in 2014, played the 14-15 season and then played after leaving us.

“He understands that he needs a break, but he’s a fit lad and I wouldn’t be surprised if he comes into pre-season training ahead of some of the group.”

Although fully aware of Jouffret’s talents as a player, Coyle admitted he hadn’t initially considered making an approach to signing the utility back.

“I didn’t consider him being an option for us,” Coyle continued. “I thought he would be happy to play in France for Catalans’ reserves and work his way up.

“We looked all over the competition to get somebody in who could match what he would do for us.

“Now we’ve got a player who can play in a couple of positions.

“We’ve got Elliott Miller in the squad who is untried at full-back but we are going to give him the opportunity to play there.

“There’s competition in the squad for both of them, but it doesn’t mean one of them won’t play if the other does because they can be used in different positions.”

The Haven boss believes Jouffret, pictured, may be the final addition to his squad for the 2016 season.

“We’ve got 24 players in now. We were aiming for 25 but might miss out on our last target and we’ll probably leave it at that.

“We’ve got the players on dual-registration from Widnes and it won’t be a case of having on guy for one week or anything like that.

“We will be very consistent in how we use those players.”