By AlanQuin
April 25 2006

Leicester Tigers retained the Guinness A League title after defeating Harlequins by 26 points to 17 (58 – 51 on aggregate) at Welford Road in the second leg of the final before a record crowd of 12,769. Nothing was more certain than that Tigers, wounded by defeat last week in the first leg, would be a fiercer and more difficult opposition at home in front of their large crowd of rabid supporters. They made their intentions clear from the start, attacking with excellent running and commitment with the forwards seeking retribution from the mauling they had received at The Stoop. Harlequins needed to defend strongly and the early attacks were repulsed. But after only five minutes, a free running attack and a good break by Cornwell put scrum-half Rob Springhall in to the left corner for the first try. Ian Humphreys added the conversion from the touchline.

Tigers now increased the pressure, running the ball at every opportunity. Quins were defending strongly and unforced errors led to series of scrums and line-outs. Then a disastrous error saw the ball squirt into space from a ruck in the Leicester half and Will Skinner, the Tigers flanker, picked up and, with Mike Brown up in attack on the opposite side of the pitch, ran effectively unopposed 60 metres to score the second try in the left corner. Humphreys kicked the conversion leaving Tigers leading 14 – 0 after 12 minutes.

Quins’ first chance of points came four minutes later when Jarvis had a relatively easy penalty attempt and hit the right hand post. Quins redoubled their efforts and a good run by Amesbury was stopped by the Tigers’ defence and the ball lost in contact. A minute or so later another penalty on the 10-metre line saw Jarvis kick successfully to give Quins their first points of the day.

Tigers continued to try to attack through their backs and their winger Rabeni who was well marshalled by the Quins’ defence. A kick through the Quins’ defence needed all Amesbury’s speed over the ground to touch down before the attacker. Shortly after a similar thrust by Harlequins saw Leicester penalised for a deliberate knock-on preventing the touchdown. For the penalty Quins opted for a scrum. From the ruck which followed Alex Rogers appeared to have dived over and scored with a Tiger’s hand knocking the ball away after it had been touched down. The referee did not allow the try and awarded the scrum to Tigers for an alleged knock-on by the prop.

Quins tried hard to add to their score before half-time with an attempted cross field kick just beating Barratt into touch and a knock-on ending another good attack as the whistle brought the half to an end. The score remained 14 – 3 (46 – 37 on aggregate)

The second half saw Simon Keogh on for Barratt and Leicester replaced Hipkiss with Youngs. Harlequins had the first chance of points but Jarvis missed with another penalty attempt. Points were not long in coming. A quickly taken penalty saw Ian Vass make an excellent break through the defence and find Pablo Bouza in support for the scoring pass. Jarvis added the points and Quins were back in the game at 14 – 10 with only two points separating the teams on aggregate. Injury to Robson saw him replaced by Sherriff. Leicester brought on Pienaar and Bemand for Skinner and Springhall

Then came the try of the match as the ball went right to Keogh who took off down the right wing, chipped over and rounded the would-be tackler, gathered, passed another defender and ran round to score under the posts. Jarvis kicked the easy two points and Quins led 14 – 17 (46 – 51) with nearly an half-hour to play.

Both sides now sought to impose themselves as Quins tried hard to add to their score and Leicester tried to respond to pressure. Good kicking by Jarvis and Mike Brown kept Tigers pinned in their own twenty-two for long periods although when they got out they were dangerous. Another good break by Vass put Tom Guest away but he was caught and put into touch. Tigers’ pressure produced another fine kick through the Quins’ defence which Amesbury just managed to kick into touch. Fortunately Quins had a penalty from the resulting line-out and the danger was averted.

The Leicester scrum was not being pushed about as it had been in the first leg. It was much steadier and occasionally stronger. With only ten minutes remaining Quins were pushed off their own ball at a scrum in front of the posts. Resolute defence with Tigers almost on the line was overcome when Bemand managed to come round a pile of bodies to score the try which Humphreys converted to restore the lead to Tigers at 21 – 17 (53 – 51 on aggregate).

But now Harlequins could not break out to mount a successful attack and then found themselves pinned back onto their own line following a penalty a 5-metre line-out and an almost irresistible catch and drive. Quins did resist as the clock ticked away the remaining seconds of the match until Tom Croft managed to get the ball onto the line in the corner for a final try. Humphrey’s kick which failed was followed immediately with the whistle. Final score 26 – 17 (58 – 51 on aggregate)

So Harlequins failed to add this trophy to their other two this season and to repeat their win of two years ago. It was, however, a creditable performance and justified the competition organisers allowing Harlequins to compete despite relegation. A National Division 1 side has competed pretty well with the Premiership A teams losing only narrowly in the final.

Afterwards, although disappointed, the management were not altogether unhappy with the performance. Dean Richards clearly understood the difficulty and pressure of playing in front of a pretty full Welford Road which he acknowledged was an intimidating arena which took getting used to. In the first 20 minutes they had not played well and after that had to struggle to get back on terms and could not hold on to the end.

On a sadder note, did we see the end of another fine rugby career as Tony Diprose walked slowly from the field five minutes from the end of the match? If it was, then one can only thank him and wish him well in the future. Players of his quality and ability are all too rare.

Leicester Tigers XV: 15. Matt Smith, 14. Seru Rabeni, 13. Danny Hipkiss, 12. Matt Cornwell, 11. Alex Dodge, 10. Ian Humphreys, 9. Rob Springhall, 1. Dan Cole, 2. James Buckland, 3. Dave Young, 4. James Hamilton, 5. Dan Montagu, 6. Tom Croft, 7. Will Skinner, 8. Will Johnson
Replacements: 16. Chris Whitehead, 17. John Rawson, 18. Ben Pienaar, 19. Brent Wilson, 20. Scott Bemand, 21. Ollie Dodge, 22. Tom Youngs

Scorers:
Tries: Springhall, Skinner, Bemand, Croft.
Conversions: Humphreys (3)

NEC Harlequins XV: 15. Mike Brown, 14. Henry Barratt, 13. Tosh Masson, 12. Mel Deane, 11. Charlie Amesbury, 10. Adrian Jarvis, 9. Ian Vass, 1. Alex Rogers, 2. Augustin Costa Repetto, 3. Lorne Ward, 4. James Inglis, 5. George Robson, 6. Pablo Bouza, 7. Tom Guest, 8. Tony Diprose
Replacements: 16. Aston Croall,(Rogers 60), 17. Mark Lambert, 18. Darren Clayton,(Diprose 77) 19. Luke Sherriff, (Robson 58), 20. Simon Keogh,(Barratt 40), 21. Jordan Turner-Hall, (Masson 75) 22. Adam Thompstone

Scorers:
Tries: Bouza, Keogh
Conversions: Jarvis (2)
Penalty: Jarvis