Quins started with Slemen passing the ball to Gollings to kicked off, the ball went over Martin Johnson’s head and it was eventually cleared to touch. Quins won the lineout but Leicester stole the ball from the resulting ruck. There were a number of phases of messy and mistake ridden play that was to set the standard for the game. Eventually Nathan Williams took the ball and cleared to touch. The ball was caught by Davison and further messy play lead to Will Greenwood being penalised for going over the top, Stimpson kicked the penalty to give Leicester the lead 3-0.

Leicester took the ball from the kick off but it was turned over in the tackle and Diprose came away with the ball making a break and flicking the ball behind his back to Ace who was in close support, Leicester infringed and Quins were awarded a penalty which Slemen kicked from 30 yards to level the score [3-3].

The kick off was deemed not to have gone 10 metres by the referee (Nigel Williams) even though it bounced over the 10m line to be collected by Kay. The Leicester defence held up against Quins’ attacks. Mistake followed mistake from both sides, good defensive play was shown by Rudzki and Gomez who put in a number of big hits. Quins were eventually awarded a penalty which Slems kicked to touch. Rudzki won the line out but the ball was dropped, Leicester claimed it and knocked the ball on but the referee awarded a penalty to the home side for off side by Quins. Stimpson kicked successfully [6-3].

Another knock on by Leicester gave Quins a scrum which was lost against the head but Johnson knocked the ball on, and then kicked the ball away in a show of petulance, The Quins scrum was under pressure but Slemen cleared the ball to 30m out. Rudzki was penalised for pulling down a rolling maul and the ball was kicked to 10m from the Quins line. A number of penalties were awarded for Quins being offside and eventually Back scored from a maul, Stimpson kicked the conversion to give the home side a 10 point lead after 24 minutes [13-3].Powell was hurt in the maul (back spasms) and he was replaced by Bemand.

Rudzki won a lineout but Leicester infringed giving Slems the chance to reduce Leicester’s lead which he duly did [13-6].

The next Quins lineout went to Rudzki at the front and Slems put up a high kick which was won by Ace but was then lost in the ruck. A long clearance kick by Stimpson was taken at the back by Williams who made a great break, going past two men, but Leicester took the ball on the ground. (Kronfeld replaced the injured Will Johnson). Another throw to Rudzki at the front of the line was passed back to Ace but another knock on occurred allowing Leicester to boot the ball upfield, Gollings covered back and dived on the ball he wasn’t allowed to get up and a penalty was awarded to us. The ball was cleared upfield and another penalty was awarded to Quins in front of the posts which was disappointingly missed by Slemen. A good passage of passing play by Quins lead to another penalty on the half way line which was again missed by Slemen.

The drop out went to Nathan Williams who kicked the ball back and Leicester ran it back leading to a break up the left wing which was stopped by a good covering tackle by Bemand which allowed the defence to reorganise itself. Leicester ran the penalty they were awarded but the play broke down after a forward pass by Neil Back. The half-time whistle went with the score remaining 13-6, the game had been scrappy but close and but for the missed kicks Quins could have gone in just one point behind.

The second half started the way the first had ended with Quins doing well but with there being too many mistakes by both sides. Quins stole a Leicester lineout, and the ball was cleared, Stimpson returned the kick which went to Bell who attacked up the left chipping the ball forward but he pulled up with what turned out to be a hamstring injury. Gollings chased the ball and put in two good tackles to pressurise the Leicester line but they kicked the ball to touch.
Bill Satala came on for Bell three minutes into the second half.

Quins won the lineout and the ball was passed to Gollings who failed in a drop goal attempt. The drop out was kicked deep to Nathan Williams who put a low kick into the corner resulting in a line out just 5m from the Leicester line. Davison won the lineout and the ball was spun across the pitch only to be slapped forward by Leicester – instead of awarding the penalty that the blatant deliberate knock on deserved Mr Williams awarded Quins a scrum. Quins attacked and the referee again failed to notice Leicester players being offside a number of times. Matt Moore was eventually tackled into touch on the right hand side. Leicester won the line but Stimpson seemed to have his eye on an imminent tackle by Satala and knocked the ball on.

Stimpson knocked on another two times – he really seemed to be worried by Satala’s presence in front of him. Satala made a beak through the middle up to ten yards from the Leicester line, the ball was recycled to Jase, then to Gollings who missed another drop goal. The drop out went to Davison, and Leicester were penalised for coming in from the side.The line out that followed from a Slemen kick to touch was won by Davison, the ball was spun to the left but a wayward pass from Greenwood to Gollings was knocked on giving possession to Leicester. After passing the ball left and right and stretching the Quins defence Booth scored wide out on the right, Stimpson missed the conversion to give Leicester a 18-6 lead after 18 minutes of the second half. This try signalled the end of a sustained period of pressure by Quins and Leicester were in charge for much of the rest of the game.

From the kick off Slemen chipped the ball through for Nathan Williams and Matt Moore to chase but he put too much power into it and it went over the dead ball line giving a scrum to Leicester, Stimpson kicked the ball over Matt Moore’s head to touch. Another period of messy play followed with a lot of mistakes being made by both sides. Leicester also showed their ‘professionalism’ by having a man go down with an injury every time Quins had a scrum or penalty. Satala made a break through the middle, followed by a break by Greenwood but he was penalised for not releasing he ball at the tackle. Stimpson kicked the ball deep into Quins territory again and Leicester won the lineout, and a chip kick to the right to Booth looked to be a certain try but a good covering tackle lead to a knock on. Satala attempted another break from the Quins line but he was stopped and Kronfeld replied with a break through the centre but he was held up over the line by a fantastic tackle by Rudzki (I think). Leicester were awarded a penalty and they opted for a scrum. They pushed the Quins scrum back and a try was scored by replacement scrum-half Jamie Hamilton, Stimpson converted to leave the score 25-6 after 69 minutes. Ace was replaced by Caputo and Diprose was replaced by Jim Evans.

The kick off was won by Satala tapping the ball back to Greenwood who sadly knocked the ball on again. Nathan Williams received a kick and ran back bouncing a couple of tacklers and the referee gave a rare offside decision against Leicester. Slems kicked the ball to touch on the 22 metre line. The referee missed jumping across the line by the Leicester jumpers and Quins were awarded a scrum after Healey knocked the ball on after a tackle by Evans. Leicester were again penalised and as Slemen kicked to touch Kay tried to charge it down which you would have thought should have been another penalty for not being back 10 metres but the referee allowed play to continue. Quins won the lineout and set up a rolling maul which was pulled down by Back, again a penalty was not awarded by the referee. Leicester cleared the ball and ended up with a lineout near the Quins line. It was a long throw and a messy passage of play which ended up with a knock on by Tournaire who threw the ball away in disgust. The next few passages of play all came to nothing because of terrible handling by both sides.

Leicester then put their best passage of play of the second half together passing the ball to the right quickly and stretching the Quins defence to let Stimpson score in the corner. He failed to convert his own try and the score remained at 30-6 for the rest of the game.

Mark Evans and Mike Scott were understandably low key at the press conference saying that there were too many mistakes and it might have been a different game if we had scored from all of our kicks at goal. Evs said we had Leicester on the ropes for the last six minutes of the first half and the first 17 minutes of the second half, but although we had a lot of possession the play was all between the half way line and the Leicester 22. Where we had been good in the scrum and lineout last week this week they were poor, but we were poor in the tackle against Gloucester but that was much better in this game. Evs also mentioned that he thought Rudzki had a good game and he liked seeing a good rolling maul which brought a slight smile to Scotty’s face for some reason. Dean Richards said that the only member of the Quins backs that he saw as a threat was Satala.

All in all it was a terrible game of rugby from both sides with a ridiculous number of simple handling errors which were inexcusable given the perfect playing conditions and the quality of players in both teams. There weren’t many positives to take from this game but Karl Rudzki had a good game at second row, Nathan Williams played well at fullback and Satala looked lively when he came on for his first Quins first team game.


Leicester: Stimpson, Booth, Smith, Naufahu, Tuilagi, Healey, Ellis, Rowntree, West, Tournaire, M. Johnson, Kay, Corry, Back, W. Johnson.

Replacements: Freshwater, Chuter, Kronfeld, Short, Hamilton, Vesty, Hipkiss.

Harlequins: Williams, Moore, Greenwood, Bell, Gollings, Slemen, Powell, Leonard, Tiatia, Gomez, Rudzki, Davison, Sheriff, Sanderson, Diprose.

Replacements: Caputo, Starr, Evans, Miall, Bemand, Jewell, Satala.

Att: 15,387

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