Clever it was not. True, Varndell is occasionally accused of lacking in concentration, but no one is that sleepy, and he made no mistake, leaping for the catch, shrugging off Berry and Keogh and bursting through Gomersall's flailing soft arms to score in the corner, the ball untouched by multi-coloured hands. With the conversion it was 6-28 and the faithless Quins fans began the familiar, heads down, exodus that is very much a feature of the 'fortress' Stoop.

Pre-game the crowd had been awash with anticipation. Television cameras always bring out the best in our media-minded crowd, and the presence of Sky, the sunshine and free flags on their seats combined to produce almost perceptible excitement in the the Eithiad stand when Quins found themselves 3-0 up after 10 minutes, the ebullient Andy Gomersall energetically gesturing for more. Five minutes later the excellent Hala'ufia picked up at the base of the scrum and burst through on the blindside making 20 metres before a panicked Leicester conceded a penalty and Malone made it 6-0.

Unfortunately we were not to score again for a very long time.

Leicester were wearing the white strip that seems to be all but compulsory for teams playing away in the Premiership's fussy, jobsworth colour-clash regulations. Call me old fashioned, but am I the only person who misses seeing visiting teams turn out at the Stoop in their traditional colours? Over the years I must have seen the Tigers play Quins a dozen times wearing their proper green, white and red and I don't recall a moment of confusion.

Leicester soon came back, playing inventive and dangerous looking rugby, especially out wide on their left-side, where a repertoire of rehearsed moves brought Varndell over from his opposite wing. Though Quins defence held, it started to look ominous, Quins eventually conceding the penalty to make it 6-3.

Eventually, with 10 minutes to play, and the crowd quiet, Tigers broke through: at a lineout on their own 22m Quins threw in but the catch was casual, and dropped and Tigers took advantage; at the ensuing maul the Leicester backs all moved right and, when Goode broke to his left, a chip to the left corner and the waiting wing looked on, but Varndell was cleverly tight on Goode's inside shoulder and accelerated through the gap to gather beautifully controlled chip off the outside of the faultless Goode boot, and a well-constructed try. Quins were suckered and sucker-punched; half-time beckoned.

In the second half it went wrong from the start: the long Leicester kick-off was hoofed back as far as the half way line, where Murphy had all the time in the world to set himself for 45m drop goal. Minutes later Skinner conceded a silly penalty and catchable 6-10 had turned into an ominous 6-16.

Quins tried manfully. Hala'Uifa continued to impress: at one stage running over an entire maul to make an break, but a second badly placed kick, this time gathered by Corry led to a counter attack and a score from the tidy-looking Croft; Varndell's catch and go from the kick-off made it 6-28 and there was no way back. Though the late raft of Quins substitutes acquitted themselves well there was really only one team it. The tigers were playing their best rugby for weeks, Quins their worst and it wasn't pretty. As the clock (newly installed and finally, finally visible after three seasons!) wore down the Tiger sparkled while Quins seemed increasingly bereft of ideas. Are my eyes at fault or did they really resort Keogh on the crash ball? Three times?

After the game, Deano spoke eloquently about the strength in depth of the well-budgeted Leicester squad, which can afford to leave the likes of Chuter on the bench, coamparing this luxury with the impact of losing Nick Easter on Quins . Of course he's correct, so far as he goes: there aren't so many Quins but here's the real problem: man for man the squad are too small. At each substitution the Leicester team seemed to get bigger and stronger, the Quins side shrank. Don't get me wrong: Keogh, Strettle, Jarvis and Turner Hall are all a joy to watch and full of promise, but a back-line to put the physical shakes up the opposition? That they are not.

With 15 minutes to go Barry copmpleted a nightmare game for him, caught napping as he waited to gather a Leicester cross kick, completely unaware of the hungry Croft who stole in front of him to gather the ball, an easy try and a bonus point. A few minutes later, when Varndell claimed his hat-trick to make 6-42, the word I wrote in my notebook was 'rout'.

Their work done Leicester took their foot off the pedal and let in Strettle for the late try traditionally labelled 'consolation' but no such thing to this reporter.

At the press conference Deano was outwardly cheerful, irritably brushing off any suggestions of a crisis. 'We're not downbeat', he claimed, citing some good performances against tough opposition, and a respectable 6th place in the league. But crisis or not: if Quins don't play better we're looking two long, hard, soul-destroying games in the last round of the Heineken Cup.

Bookmark or share this story with:

• Digg
• Delicious
• Facebook
• Reddit
• Stumbleupon

Related Articles:

• January 2008 at Harlequins

SPORTNETWORK SPECIALS