A penalty some two metres into the visitors’ half, after ten minutes, allowed Nick Evans to open the scoring with a good strike.  Although he missed his first opportunity, Jeremy Staunton equalised ten minutes later.  Apart from those scores neither side had managed to evade the other’s defence and a scrappy, error-ridden game ensued punctuated by frequent blasts of Dave Pearson’s whistle. 

The first opportunity had fallen to Quins as an intercepting kick upfield took play deep into the Tigers’ twenty-two but a failure to gather cleanly knocked the ball forward and a chance was lost.  A second opportunity came from a fine break by Monye setting David Strettle haring along the wing only to be stopped by the Tigers’ cover in the corner.

Strettle, too, showed his considerable footballing skill as he flicked a loose  pass up with his foot, caught it and set off, eventually giving a pass to Will Skinner which he was not able to hold.  Had Skinner done so, a try might have resulted.

Both sides were guilty of unforced errors with knock-ons and forward passes and turning over possession, all releasing pressure when it needed to be maintained. The half ended without further score,

Tigers began the second half with the benefit of a penalty almost immediately that Staunton kicked to give them the lead. Quins response was immediate counter-attack A fine run down the left wing by George Lowe, making his Premiership debut, was stopped but when recycled a good cross kick from Nick Evans was caught by Strettle but he was held by Jordan Crane who earned himself a yellow card for failing to release after the tackle.  A penalty try could well have been given but was not.

A fine break from Monye, who was doing an excellent job at full back, almost put Lowe in for a try, but the winger could not hold on to the pass and knocked on with the line at his mercy. Leicester, at the other end of the pitch, squandered an equally good chance passing behind the unmarked winger into touch.

A penalty allowed Evans to level the score with his second kick and give Quins the lead again with his third, but for the final quarter every blast of the whistle seemingly went against Quins and Tigers were able to add three penalties to win the game.  The Harlequin scrum was frequently penalised as the greater power of the Tigers’ forwards gave them possession and penalties.  Despite showing more penetration and playing more rugby Quins managed to lose by 9 – 15.

After the match, Tony Diprose was frank and honest about Quins’ failure.  He said, "Leicester forced us to defend for long periods and that probably told in the end.  If we want to play with tempo we need to hold onto the ball for longer. We didn't close out the game. We went 9-6 up with 20 minutes to go but we didn't quite get our basics right and we lost a couple of scrums."

Harlequins: U Monye; D Strettle, T Masson, J Turner-Hall, G Lowe; N Evans, D Care (S So’oialo 72); C Jones, G Botha (T Fuga 54), M Lambert (J Andress 54), L Stevenson (T Guest 72), J Evans, C Robshaw, W Skinner (captain), N Easter.

Leicester: G Murphy (captain) (A Mauger 1-6, 43-49); S Hamilton, M Smith (A Mauger 60), A Allen, J Murphy; J Staunton, H Ellis (B Youngs 61); M Ayerza, G Chuter (M Davies 42), M Castrogiovanni (J White 63), R Blaze, L Deacon, T Croft, B Woods (C Newby 49), Jordan Crane (B Deacon 75).

Referee:  D. Pearson (RFU)

Attendance: 9,805

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