Tigers make it three in a row

Jonno
By Mike Hill
March 29 2004

In a close and hard fought encounter Tigers did just enough to register a third win on the trot for the first time this season. Outscoring Harlequins by three tries to two and 23 points to 20 this was an invaluable away win as Tigers chase a wild card place.

The game started badly for Leicester with an early territorial advantage producing no points and Quins quickly built a ten point lead. A well struck penalty was followed by a scorching run from Ugo Monye that saw him run fully 60 metres and tear Tigers defence to shreds. Austin Healey finally caught the flying wing only for Ben Willis to take Monye's pass to score unopposed.
Two Andy Goode penalties cut the Harlequins lead before a strong forward drive saw Louis Deacon reach the line. More excellent play by Deacon saw him out on the wing dummying and handing off a stretched home defence before releasing a rampant Henry Tuilagi to score and put Tigers in the lead at half time. Quins regained the advantage when Mel Deane cut back against the drifting defence and rounded Austin Healey with ease. After Monye had shown Healey a clean pair of heels earlier in the game some sections of the home crowd had taken the opportunity to taunt him with it. It would therefore have pleased Healey no end when he scored the match winning try and beat Monye to the line in the process. The architect of the score was the excellent Harry Ellis who sniped down the blind side before passing inside to Healey.
Quins then had ten minutes to respond but offered an easy penalty in the 42nd minute they turned it down to go for the lineout. The ball was knocked on and Tigers survived to keep their unbeaten run under the new coaching team. Man of the Match this week was a close call in my mind between Henry Tuilagi and Louis Deacon, both enjoyed absolutely storming games. The nod goes to Henry for terrifying the hell out of the Quins and for always taking the direct route to the line no matter how many bodies stood in the way.
The end of this week should see an announcement on who is to take over the coaching for next season. Whoever it is the last two months hard work by the current team has made the job a lot easier for them and at last we have a side who are going forward again. Another win next week at Newcastle would put us in a strong position for a wild card place something that seemed fairly unlikely back in January. My final wish for next week is that the new set up includes a certain Patrick Howard. It would be nice to see him back where he belongs.