Harlequins 13-17 Leicester Tigers

Before I even start trying to recount, report and summarise the events at the Stoop today, one thing must be said. What. A. Game. It had everything. Two top teams in scintillating form, a list of head to head matchups of the highest calibre as long as your arm, drama, good old fashioned defence, at times contentious officiating, excellent long passages of play and yet more drama! This game represented everything good (along with some of what is not so good) about Aviva Premiership rugby. Certainly, the score line simply doesn’t do it justice.

Leicester Tigers arrived at the Twickenham Stoop fresh from devastating a relatively strong Bath side in their own back yard. There’s a reason that these guys have been champions time and time again. They’re a mighty good side capable of beating the best at all times. With Harlequins fresh from a similarly rampant victory against an equally strong Gloucester side, the stage was well and truly set for a close contest. The game duly delivered. The opening stages were tense. Quins were quick to show what they were capable of, a sweeping move with as many offloads as you have fingers unfortunately ended in a knock on. From then on, defence dominated. There were big hits, phases of possession from both sides, contested set pieces, a blood Injury to Quins’ captain Chris Robshaw (from which he didn’t return) and missed kicks from both fly halves, Evans from wide on the left and Flood from a friendlier angle on the Quins’ 10 metre line. For a while at least, it seemed that both sides were content to arm-wrestle without drawing blood.

That soon changed. On the half hour, the revitalised Ugo Monye found some space and released Nick Easter whose juggernaut-esque run ended with him (correctly) adjudged to have put a foot in touch before grounding the ball. The game then opened up. Monye again found some space and following quick ruck ball from the following phase, Danny Care showed an astonishing burst of pace to bust through a Tigers defensive line temporarily in disarray and dot down adjacent to the posts. Nick Evans, freshly recovered from a broken hand, added the extras. 7-0  to Quins after 33 mins. Quins came back renewed and a further penalty followed. 10-0 after 36 mins. Flood had one further ambitious shot at goal (from about the half way line) which dropped about 5 yards short. 10 – 0 it remained at the break and it seemed that Quins were beginning to dominate.

But love them or hate them, you can never write the Tigers off. After catching the restart, Mike Brown sliced a routine clearance kick straight into touch. A fatal mistake, but one mistake is all it needs in this game of inches. From the resulting lineout, Leicester openside Craig  Newby broke off a rolling maul and smashed his way to within inches of the Quins line. Quickish ball and quicker hands from the Leicester backs allowed Alesana Tuilagi to squeeze over in the north west corner, confirmed by a TV replay. Flood’s conversion attempt was both impressive and successful. 10-7 after 42 minutes. Tigers meant business. Game on.

The game continued at a fast open pace. A break from Tigers lock Steve Mafi lead to Ben Youngs knocking on 5 metres short of the line. The resulting multiple resets of the scrum changed the face of the game entirely. A series of infringements on the Quins tighthead side led to a series of resets as Leicester turned the screw. The first (for a technical offence) reversed the head and feed at the scrum. The second penalty was a repeat of the first. A couple of resets followed where the scrum appeared to walk towards the LV= stand with neither side having any discernable dominance. The third penalty appeared to result in Quins’ tighthead Mark Lambert’s (on for the injured John Andress) last warning. The next reset saw Will Skinner harshly sin binned for offside after falling on a ball which was deemed to not be out. Given the fact that this was a pretty marginal call (and a first offence), the yellow card produced was probably a result of Barnes losing patience with the Quins pack. The following reset saw Lambert binned (probably correctly, but really does he who is sat in the stand really know what goes on in there with any degree of certainty?) for consistent technical infringement. Ceri Jones came on at tighthead to replace him with Mo Fa’asavalu making way. The final scrum of the set resulted in referee Wayne Barnes finally running under the posts for an inevitable penalty try following a powerful Tigers drive against a reduced Quins pack. 10-14 tigers, 13 plays 15, 57 minutes played, the face of the game totally changed.

Disheartened neither by the shotgun refereeing of the scrum at one end nor their numerical disadvantage, Quins attacked with renewed vigour. Wave after wave of tight crash ball rebounded from the grey iron curtain of the Tigers defensive line. Evans missed another hard shot at goal (awarded for a penalty won by the 6 man Quins pack at the scrum, oh the irony!) by inches from halfway. Then, yet more incident! Following a breakdown in play in the south east corner, both sides’ respective looseheads Marcos Ayerza and Joe Marler became involved in a scuffle, initiated by Ayerza headbutting the Quins man, with Marler responding with a flurry of punches. With Ayerza correctly sent off for the headbutt and Marler following him into the locker room for retaliation, Quins were reduced to 12 players and Tigers to 14. Quins were (bizarrely, given the retaliation involved) awarded a penalty which Evans slotted. 13-14 after 65 minutes.

Slowly but surely, Quins were boosted by the return of messrs Skinner and Lambert from the bin of sin and earned another penalty, Evans this time pushing the ball to the left of the uprights. Tigers responded and a midfield drive led to an illegally collapsed maul. Flood slotted the kickable penalty with relative ease to put Tigers out of penalty/drop goal range. 13-17, 72 minutes played. Quins came back searching for the try that would give them the win. A series of phases, Quins penalties and near misses culminated in a good 3 minutes of sustained pressure, unfortunately ended by a Tomas Vallejos knock on. Final Score 13-17.

Having watched Quins regularly over the past 7-8 years or so, I can say with certainty that that game is up there with the best of them. Pure theatre. Both sides spurned kickable chances to win the match and either side can claim to have deserved the win to some extent, with Quins probably having the right to feel a bit more hard done by. Although Wayne Barnes lost the plot when it came to refereeing the scrum (an area which must surely be looked it in the off season so that it is less of a problem in future years), the game never suffered as a contest as both sides slugged it out in a game that went to the wire.

In the wider scheme of things, their hard earned 4 points puts Leicester Tigers 7 points clear at the top of the Aviva Premiership and seemingly destined for a home play-off semi. For Quins, a solitary point will seem like scant consolation for their massive effort in a game they could and should have won. Playoffs are probably out of the equation even more than they were prior to the game and Quins will need to come up with at least 2 results from their remaining three games (which include two tough away trips to Bath and Leeds as well as a home game against high-flying Saracens) to guarantee Heineken Cup rugby next season.