Report: Leicester Tigers 18-27 Harlequins

Harlequins extended their unbeaten run to six wins out of six by defeating Leicester Tigers by 18 points to 27 at Welford Road.

As always when the time to visit the Tigers’ lair comes around, memory recalls the last win at Welford Road in 1997.  Memory plays tricks, but one has a clear recollection of Jamie Williams playing his first game for the senior side at full back. Who? Ever since, the matches against Tigers have been occasions when it was better to travel hopefully than to arrive.  There have been cup matches won, also a draw and some very narrow losses.

Harlequins, unbeaten in the Premiership this season came to face wounded Tigers who had lost all but one of their five games. True the Tigers were depleted by calls to the World Cup, but so too were Harlequins, albeit to a lesser degree. What occurred was an intense, exciting physical battle.  But this young Harlequin side fears nothing and showed it at the end of last season with the defeat of Munster at Thomond Park and Stade Francais at Cardiff.  If this victory did not quite have the same cachet as those, it will still rank high.

It took the Tigers just three minutes to score the first try. A penalty for offside allowed them to take play deep into Quins’ half and a penalty at the subsequent lineout saw the set up an irresistible driving maul which powered across the Quins’ line with Stankovitch touching down.  Staunton’s conversion attempt failed.

The response was almost immediate as a Quins’ counter-attack was stopped briefly and the ball recycled into the hand of Mike Brown who set off towards the Leicester line and his pass left found Sam Smith with a clear thirty metre run for the try. Evans added the extras. From the restart Quins attacked again and once again Mike Brown came into the line and his pass to his right put Seb Stegmann in for an almost identical score.  Evans added the conversion to bring the score to 5 – 14 after eight breathless minutes.

 Tigers were now on the attack and creating good pressure upon the excellent Quins defence.  A fine move which threatened the line was snuffed out by a fine tackle from Sam Smith which dislodged the ball and a Quins’ scrum. Almost inevitably the pressure told and a fine backs move found Hamilton with room to cross in the corner for a try that Staunton converted.  12 – 14 as the first quarter ended.

Tigers might have had another try five minutes later as Tuilagi was denied a score by a fine try-saving tackle from Turner-Hall and the television match official.  Tigers took the lead with six minutes remaining as Staunton slotted a penalty, but two minutes later a similar strike from Nick Evans sent the teams in at 15 – 17 at half time.

The second half saw the Tigers try to increase the apparent dominance of their forwards. But unforced individual errors limited the effect.  Quins continued to find opportunities to attack and both teams had to increase the effectiveness of their defences. A kick and chase by Quins forced Leicester to carry back over their own try-line but Quins conceded a penalty at the scrum that followed.

When Leicester pulled down a maul formed after a lineout, Evans duly slotted the kick to increase the lead. Almost immediately from the restart Quins went offside and Staunton reduced the arrears to the two point gap again.  As the game moved to the final quarter, Evans and Staunton both missed kickable penalties.

With barely five minutes remaining, Quins were back on the attack and a series of thrusts by forwards and backs combined, followed by a lineout produce d the sort of finish that Tigers have long made their trademark play. Quins produced an effective rolling maul which stopped to just short of the try-line and a series of thrusts ended with Kohn touching down for the try. 

To pick out anyone for special mention is almost invidious.  Evans was immense as usual and there were fine performances from Robson, Robshaw, the two wingers and Luke Wallace.  But this was a team effort by Harlequins playing with skill, determination, pace and belief. Faith, they say can move mountains.  Who knows how far this team can now go this season.

After the match Conor O’Shea expressed his pride in the performance, saying “We won't get carried away but I'd rather be in our position than Leicester's. It was an incredible ask for them. We were under the pump in the first half but we were very opportunistic and then in the second half we dug in and I am really proud of the guys. Last season we lost 10 league games by one score or less, this season we are playing with more composure and the confidence that comes from winning."

Leicester: Morris, Tait, Smith, Twelvetrees, A. Tuilagi, Staunton, Harrison, Stankovich, Chuter, White, Slater, Parling, Mafi, Woods, Salvi.

Replacements: T. Youngs for Chuter (76), Holford for White (76).

Harlequins: Brown, Stegman, Lowe, Turner-Hall, S. Smith, Evans, Dickson, Marler, Brooker, Fairbrother, Kohn, Robson, Robshaw, Wallace, York.

Replacements: Gray for Brooker (51), Johnston for Fairbrother (51). Skinner for York (77)

Attendance: 17,227

Referee: David Rose (RFU)