The former England international and British and Irish Lion was obviously sad to leave and expressed his gratitude towards the club with which he has enjoyed a highly successful five-and-a-half years .'Today is the last time I will be at Welford Road as a Tigers player,' said Stimpson on Saturday. 'And I'd like to thank everybody associated with Tigers for the tremendous support they've given me over the last five-and-a-half fantastic years.

'I'm also extremely grateful to Dean Richards and the board of directors for letting me take this opportunity to play in Perpignan, and to release me at this stage so that I will qualify to play for them in the Heineken Cup.

'I'm disappointed that a knee injury has prevented me from playing for the last month, especially as it is a difficult time for the club. Now is the time for everybody to get right behind the team - the better the support, the better they will play.'

Director of rugby Dean Richards added: 'Today we bid farewell to Tim Stimpson who is moving on to Perpignan after five-and-a-half years at Leicester.

'We'll be sad to see him go, but life goes on, and this was too good an opportunity for him to miss.

'Tim is leaving a couple of weeks earlier than expected as Heineken Cup rules mean he has to be registered for them by next week. It's a shame that his knee injury has kept him from playing for the last few weeks - I'm sure he would have liked to have gone out on a high in front of the Welford Road crowd.'

Two Heineken Cup winners medals in 2001 and 2002 were the highlights of Stimpson's Leicester career and he will be best remembered for his last gasp penalty against Llanelli which put the Tigers through to the 2002 final. Perpignan will be hoping his addition will help them go one step further, having been narrowly defeated by Toulouse in last season's Heineken Cup final.

Heineken Cup Pool 6:

Celtic Warriors; Perpignanl; Calvisano; London Wasps