Howard and Cockerill both enjoyed huge success at Leicester

The pair, returning from French side Montferrand, will assist John Wells, who has been promoted to head coach.

"I'm very excited to have them both back," said Johnson. "Pat brings a wealth of experience to the backs.

"Cockers will have picked up a valuable insight into forward play from his time in France which will be useful to us."

Former Wallaby Howard will take charge of the backs while Cockerill is to contribute as a forwards coach, although he will remain available for selection.

Their return was also endorsed by flanker Neil Back, who along with Johnson has taken on some coaching duties since the departure of Dean Richards.

Getting guys like Pat and 'Cockers' in gives us a different vision Neil Back

"It's great that Pat's back as he was liked by all the fans and kept a close relationship with a lot of the guys here - even after he left," said Back.

"As for 'Cockers', he's exactly the sort of guy we need here. He's been away, experienced a different environment and hopefully will have picked up a few things to help the club.

"I'm still around mainly as a player but I'll continue handling the defensive sessions which I've been doing for a while and also used to do for England when Phil Larder was away."

Leicester interviewd a variety of big-name coaches but Back feels the club has made the right choice in luring two Leicester old boys back to the club.

"A lot of people put themselves forward and said they had the best interests of the club at heart, and it would have been easy to just pick one of them," he added.