Second-row forward George Skivington has signed a new deal with London Irish to keep him at the club until the summer of 2016.

Skivington has made a big impact since joining from Leicester Tigers in June and director of rugby Brian Smith has expressed his delight at the deal.

"He has been enormous for us this season," he told the club's website. "He's had a huge impact in many of our big wins leading from the front and setting a great example for the rest of the pack.

"George has made a huge contribution off the pitch as well, always the consummate professional, he's a player the boys are happy to go into battle with. His commitment to the club for the next three seasons gives us another key player to build our new team around."

Skivington is looking forward to the next stage of his career with the Irish.

"It has been a challenging first season at the club, but with so much change in the playing and coaching staff over the summer it was always going to be initially quite tough," he said.

"We have really turned a corner in 2013 with the squad starting to gel well together. There are a lot of great players at the club and the important thing is that the majority of the starting side in recent weeks will be at the club for the foreseeable future which is a real positive moving forward."

Skivington played 51 times in two seasons for previous club Tigers.