By Ian Birks
March 21 2004

Tigers continued their recent winning ways on Friday night with a 30 – 21 victory over visitors NEC Harlequins, but it was all far from plain sailing with handling errors galore and Leicester losing their grip on the game early in the second half through some sloppy defence.

The game started well enough for the home side. Tigers attacked from the kick off and won a scrum from a Quins knock on within the first 30 seconds. The Harlequins front row was penalised for dropping the scrum, and the first points of the evening went to Leicester with 1 minute on the clock, from the boot of Andy Goode.

The now familiar Henry-charge came from the restart. Jaco van der Westhuyzen tried the chip and chase, and made 35m before the move was ended by a knock-on from Tuilagi.

The visitors won a sloppy line out from the Tigers in the 6th minute. The ball was chipped across field over the head of the full back forcing Goode to run the ball into touch on the Leicester 5m line.

The following line-out, ending in a knock-on by the Quins, then lead to the first flare up of the night after only 9 minutes, which saw the Harlequins hooker, Tani Fuga, being binned.

Leicester capitalised almost immediately on the extra man. A mid-field break by Gibson released Goode and Healey to make enough space for van der Westhuyzen to run in for his first try of the evening. Goode converted and the score was looking a very healthy 10-0 with only 13 minutes played.

A promising move from Quins mid-field was halted when referee Rowden pulled them up for crossing. Tigers kicked for touch and won their throw on the Quins 22. A strong drive from Corry was taken forward by van der Westhuyzen whose perfectly timed pass put Gibson though to score the second try. Another conversion from the boot of Goode put the Tigers into a 17-0 lead with 21 minutes gone.

Harlequins first points came 3 minutes later from a strong run by Moore who was allowed to run the ball back fully 30m from a van der Westhuyzen kick. Leicester were penalised for going over the top at the ruck and Dunne had the simplest of kicks to move the score on to 10-3.

Some 2 minutes later, Quins were adjudged to have tackled late as the Tigers were clearing their lines. The resulting throw in from the kick on the Leicester 10m line saw Tigers drive some 40 metres. Ellis took the ball on from the back of the maul, but was well tackled - and held up – turn over to the Quins, but again the move ended in a knock-on for the visitors.

Dunne added to his points tally when Rowntree was penalised for going in a the side after a good phase of possession from the Harlequins. The visiting side was halted illegally, only 15 metres out, straight in front of the posts and the scoreboard moved on to 17-6.

With 40 minutes on the clock, a well struck kick by Quins to the halfway line resulted in Leicester a lineout. A grubber kick from, you guessed it, Jaco van der Westhuyzen, forced the Quins to run the ball into touch on their own 22. The last play of the half came from another Tigers throw and driving maul, but Tigers were accused of, the now obligatory, ‘truck and trailer’ and the teams went off with the score standing at 17-6.

The second half started as well for the Harlequins as the first did for Leicester. Within the first minute, Goode found himself out of position and running backwards to attempt to gather a high ball which was just inside the Tigers 22. As a result, the ball was knocked backwards, over the dead-ball line and the Quins were awarded the scrum.

Although Tigers ended up in possession, the clearing kick was partly charged down and the ball was run back through non-existent Tigers defence for Quins fullback Gavin Duffy to silence the home support and score with 3 minutes on the clock. The conversion from Dunne brought the score to 17-13.

Tigers struck back with a strong counter, as a driving maul headed towards the visitors line on the left touch line. Harlequins were warned three times about infringing, until finally, Ashley Rowden awarded a kickable penalty and Goode restored a 7 point margin: 20-13.

A period of consistent pressure from the Tigers over the next 5-6 minutes saw Leicester pushing the Quins scrum backwards. Harlequins were finally penalised for standing up, and Goode added 3 points from about 23m out in front to the posts.

A further period of pressure from Leicester lead to a strong break down the right wing by Gibson who passed infield to Back, but the move fizzled out as the final pass from Back ended in touch. Again, Quins pushed up the field, and Tigers were penalised again on their own 22 for entering a maul at the side. Dunne added the 3, and the score edged on to 23-16.

Yet another bullocking run from Tuilagi was stopped on the halfway giving Goode the opportunity to chip through, but the visitors easily cleared their lines. A few minutes later, Goode had the chance to kick a 40 metre penalty after Quins were penalised for not rolling away from the tackle, but this attempt as wide of the mark.

From the restart, Booth tried a high kick, but the ball was collected by Fuga and the Tigers defence was opened up yet again as Quins centre, Taumalolo, scored a second try. Pointless commentary from players and supporters, after the event, that there had been a forward pass in the move went unheeded by the officials. Back was warned by the referee to keep his cool or else get a red card! Dunne failed to convert from the touchline and the score stood at 23-21.

The home side, revitalised, built the phases and were rewarded with a second try from van der Westhuyzen. A 5m scrum on the right wing lead to Jaco being fed the ball as he ran an arcing line through the Quins defence to score under the posts. Goode converted with 35 minutes on the clock taking the score to 30-21, but referee Rowden insisted that there was still 12 minutes left to play because the numerous ‘time-offs’ and ‘time-ons’ as play was interrupted had not been accounted for on the ground’s clock.

The final scoring attempt of the game went to the visiting side: Tigers were trying to drive a maul out of their half when Johnson was penalised for breaking his binding. The penalty kick was missed, unusually, by Dunne and the score ended 30-21 to the Tigers.

Although the win was very much welcome, the manner of the win was far from convincing. To allow a visiting team to score two tries in the second half is, by no means, a disgrace: but to allow the opposition to make 30-40 metres through your defence is poor. Not to take anything away from Harlequins: they saw he gaps and exploited them well to score two badly needed tries.

At the end of the evening, owner Mark Evans looked philosophical about the score line: perhaps he knows that, on this performance, Leicester have it all to do in the return leg against Harlequins next Saturday.