Leicester vs Harlequins - unable to tame the tiger!

Another beautiful day for a game of rugby and a trouble free journey by road from Bedfordshire, nice not to have to negotiate the M25. Quins have a good record away against the Tigers in recent years but it would appear that we have not won the first two games of any season since the premiership winning season. Must admit to not knowing too much about some of the new players in the Tigers set up but still happy to see a settled Quins team with strength on the bench so expecting a close fought game as reflected in my prediction league score of Tigers 19, Quins 23.

Tigers kick off from the boot of flyhalf Tommy Bell and the most notable incident in the first five minutes is a massive hand off by Luamanu on Bai resulting in treatment for them both and with the latter leaving the field of play to be replaced by Owen Williams. First penalty of the day goes to Tigers for Horwill pulling down Croft in the line out, Tigers kick to touch and after a period of continuous pressure Tigers are held up over the line. From the resulting 5m scrum Karl Dickson is penalised for offside, which he hotly disputed, leading to three easy points from the boot of Bell, 3 - 0 after 10 minutes.

Following the restart an up and under from Evans leads to a knock on by  Harrison and Croft plays the ball from an off side position giving Nick Evans a shot at goal from 40 metres out which he made look simple, 3 - 3 after 13 minutes. From the kick off Quins are penalised for a knock on trying to play the ball out of the 22 when Ward is somewhat harshly penalised at the breakdown leading to another simple kick at goal for Bell, 6 - 3 after 15 minutes. An attacking phase by Quins finally breaks down with a loose offload from Luamanu allowing Bell to break resulting in a scrum on halfway to Tigers in which Lambert is penalised. A more testing kick this time for Bell, 9 - 3 to Tigers after 19 minutes.  Quins back on the attack and Tigers penalised for holding on allowing Evans to add three more points from about 25 metres out, 9 - 6 after 24 minutes. Straight from the restart, Tigers penalised again, Quins kick to touch and from the line out a loose kick from Evans leads to an easy mark by Bell.

Some scrappy play leads to a penalty to Tigers, kick to touch and from the lineout yet another penalty for offside by Quins  and another simple kick for Bell, 12 - 6 after 28 minutes. A long period of attack by Quins in the Tigers 22 with a couple of periods of penalty advantage played results in a scrum to Quins for a knock on in the pass by Tigers; TMO asked to take a look but the officials decided it was not deliberate. Following two scrum resets, Tigers are penalised again, Quins kick to touch and eventually Jack Clifford gets over the line for a well taken try, conversion added by Evans, 12 - 13 after 35 minutes. Tigers go looking for points again and they are awarded another penalty from a scrum after Wallace breaks early but the long distance kick unluckily hits the post and Quins look after the ball to safely get through to half time with no change in the score.

Little surprise that the second half should start with another penalty as Tigers are penalised from the kick off for holding on to the ball. Nick Evans once again made the kick look easy by adding the 3 points, 12 - 16 after 41 minutes. Now here is a surprise, Tigers onto the attack from the restart and Tigers are offered the chance to add to their points total as Quins are now penalised, another good kick from Bell to bring the score back to within one point, 15 - 16 after 44 minutes. Shortly after, the home crowd come to life as Dan Cole comes on to the field to replace Balmain. This seemed to be the signal for "reset scrum time" and on the fourth attempt Tigers win their own ball and get the ball safely away to touch on the halfway line.

Following a Tigers attack breakdown on 50 minutes, Quins bring on the cavalry with Marler, Gray, Sinkler, Easter and Care replacing Lambert, Ward, Jones, Luamanu and Dickson respectively. Quins immediately win a penalty from a scrum and the ball is kicked to touch some 25 metres out and from the line out Quins set off on a 20 metre rolling maul before being stopped 5 metres out. The recycled ball eventually ends up in touch following a missed pass from Brown to Walker and Tigers are awarded a penalty for a high tackle on Harrison by Danny Care following the lineout. Quins now seem to be on the front foot with Danny Care very lively and Quins are awarded another penalty 45 metres out which Evans casually converts, 15 - 19 after 55 minutes. 

From a Quins lineout on halfway, Quins set up for a rolling maul which is brought down by Tigers, penalty to Quins who kick to touch. A sustained period of attack by Quins breaks down when a chip through in the Tigers 22 by Lowe for Yarde to chase results in a lineout to Quins on the 5 metre line as Bell shepherds the ball into touch.  This turned out to be the last part that Bell was to play in the match as he was replaced by Smith with Williams moving to number 10. Quins win another penalty from the resulting lineout which Evans elects to kick but is not successful with the ball drifting to the left of the uprights, at least it gave the home fans something to cheer about. Twomey replaced by Matthews and Nick Evans gets up very gingerly from a tackle. Shortly after, Joe Marler finds himself under the scrutiny of the TMO when he makes a late tackle on Williams which as usual looks a lot worse in slow motion but despite the baying of the crowd, only results in a penalty and a chat. From the penalty, Tigers find touch close to the Quins 22 followed by a penalty/kick to touch/penalty/kick to touch sequence from which Quins eventually win the ball and Walker makes a long clearance kick up field. Evans is replaced by Ben Botica during this sequence. Game now getting very tense as we enter the last 10 minutes with a lot of loose play by both sides and a good attack by Quins ended with a dropped pass by Yarde.

An unnecessary penalty for Tigers results in a brilliant kick to touch by Williams and a 5 metre lineout, catch, drive try. Points added by Williams to bring the score to 22 - 19 on 72 minutes. Vunipola is then replaced by Balmain, not sure how that works, and we are all set for a nail biting finale.  Now Quins are on the attack and kick to touch following a scrum penalty. Once again set up a good rolling maul from the 22 metre line lineout which is eventually brought down by Harrison who gets a yellow card for his trouble. Quins elect to kick to touch rather than have a shot of goal and quelle surprise, the resulting catch and drive is held up according to the referee, scrum to Tigers. Debatable decision but move on. Tigers take off Adam Thompstone  and bring on their 17 year old replacement scrum half to see out the rest of the game who shows his inexperience by still playing the ball with the clock having gone red.

Well, what to make of that, cannot help think that Quins lost that rather than Tigers winning it with COS clearly unhappy with some of the decisions. A match strewn with penalties which took the shine off of the event, not sure if this was due at least in part to referee Thomas Foley who has yet to get many premiership matches under his belt. If the first two games of the season are anything to go by then this is going to be very close campaign and Quins need to play and concentrate for the full 80 minutes. All in all a generally good display away from home but I suspect that next weeks game at The Rec will be a sterner test.