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| Leicester:(15) 25 |
| Tries: Liebenberg, Steward 2 Cons: Pollard 2 Pens: Pollard 2 |
| Harlequins:(17) 29 |
| Tries: Dombrandt, Lamb 2, Green, Porter Cons: Smith 2 |
Harlequins returned to the top of the Premiership as they shaded Leicester Tigers at Welford Road.
Tries from Alex Dombrandt, Dino Lamb and Tyrone Green saw Quins edge a see-saw first half 17-15 after Tigers had hit back through Hanro Liebenberg and Freddie Steward.
Steward and Will Porter exchanged tries before Handre Pollard’s penalty put the hosts back in front.
But Lamb dived over for his second score and Quins held out to win.
A fourth successive win leapfrogged the London side into top spot above Sale, who beat Bristol, while a fourth defeat in five matches keeps Leicester in ninth.
Having lost three of their opening four Premiership fixtures, the Tigers hoped the return of six internationals from World Cup duty would kickstart their season as England quartet Steward, Ben Youngs, Dan Cole and Ollie Chessum started alongside South Africa’s World Cup winners Jasper Wiese and Pollard.
They were much improved and bossed large parts of the game, but conceded soft scores and missed chances, particularly late on as they hammered at the Quins line.
Following a contrasting opening to their campaign, the Harlequins XV was bolstered by England pair Joe Marler and Marcus Smith, and they flew out of the traps.
Dombrandt and Lamb powered over with close-range scores within the opening 15 minutes, both the product of patient and incisive work from the pack.
Leicester went into the match with the poorest rate of gainline success in the league, but with their big names back in harness, their freshened attack fired as they inched back into the game.
Liebenberg produced a super diving finish in the corner to add to Pollard’s earlier penalty and cut the deficit with his fifth try of the season.
Two of their World Cup stars then combined to put them in front for the first time, Pollard’s great pass, following a dominant Tigers scrum, giving Steward a simple finish in the right corner.
Yet Quins stole in front shortly before half-time, picking up loose ball from a sloppy midfield scrum before quick hands from Smith and Oscar Beard sent Green away for a run to the corner.
The lead changed hands once again when referee Ian Tempest accidentally bumped into Dombrandt at a Quins line-out, allowing Tigers to collect loose ball and attack at pace, with Steward finishing in the corner.
More slack defence, though, gifted the lead back to Harlequins, against the run of play, when Porter sold the dummy and ghosted around the fringes of a ruck to cross.
Tigers spurned three scoring opportunities in quick succession going into the final quarter as they piled on the pressure before Pollard – whose late penalty sank England’s World Cup final dream – kicked the hosts 25-24 ahead with 14 minutes left.
It was another World Cup semi-finalist who had the final say as replacement Danny Care’s quick tap penalty once again caught the Tigers napping and Lamb charged over.
Leicester Tigers head coach Dan McKellar told BBC Radio Leicester:
“We had many opportunities to win that game but errors and ill discipline, handling errors and errors around the set piece, critical lineout turnovers hurt us.
“There were a lot of positives to take out of it. We made some really good strides in and around our attack, lots of new players back in, guys that haven’t played rugby together.
“But we have got to eliminate the simple turnovers and errors. Discipline was good for the most part, but it’s hurting us at critical moments at this point in time.
“In life you go through tough periods and we’re going through a tough period at the moment, but it will turn and we’ll look back on this period and appreciate the good times even more when they do come because they’re not far away.”
Harlequins attack coach Nick Evans:
“You look at the teams that win World Cups, the teams that win championships, they have the ability to change the style and the way they play their game.
“We will always have our identity, we’re really clear on that, we train that, but we also need to evolve and be able to stick in games like that.
“There were a few turnovers around the middle of the field, which was obviously an improvement for us, but we stuck in there and we played the game we needed to play towards the end.
“We just waited for those scenarios where we could imprint our DNA onto the game and, luckily enough, we managed to do that.”
Leicester: Brown; Steward, Kelly, Kata, Bassett; Pollard, Youngs; van Wyk, Clare, Cole, Henderson, Chessum, Liebenberg (capt), Rogerson, Wiese.
Replacements: Vanes, Cronin, Hurd, Carter, Ilione, Whiteley, Atkinson, Scott.
Harlequins: David; Green, Beard, Anyanwu, Lynagh; Smith, Porter; Marler, Riley, Collier, Launchbury, Hammond, Lamb, Evans, Dombrandt (capt).
Replacements: Walker, Baxter, Lewis, Herbst, Chisholm, Care, Evans, Esterhuizen.
Referee: Ian Tempest
