By chandler262827
September 28 2006

NEC Harlequins V Leicester Tigers Date: Saturday September 23 2006 Venue: Twickenham Stoop Referee: Chris White Attendance: 10,164 The usual pre-match sense of anticipation had an additional facet to it; Dean Richards, the Harlequins Director of rugby, was up against the club to which he had given so much as a former player, captain and DOR, and from which he had departed under a cloud in 2003.

After three straight defeats and with just a single point to show for their efforts, Harlequins needed a win to kick start their season and begin proving to everyone, including themselves, they belong back in the top flight. The Tigers were looking for their first away win of this term having stuttered to an away loss and a home draw after their convincing opening win against Sale.

The kick off by Burke was caught by Quins, driven back, then kicked clear. John Murphy made a tidy start to his debut by catching the clearance cleanly (helped by Ellis who got away with a deliberate block on a chasing player), then attacking; an early example of his reliability throughout. After the ball was recycled to Burke, it was moved on to Vesty then Hipkiss, who made good ground and passed back inside to Vesty. Vesty then floated a pass out wide over the covering defender and into the grateful arms of Varndell, who finished the move by scoring in the left corner. A try to Tigers and less than a minute played. It was a clinical move, helped not insignificantly by the gaps in the Quins defence, who seemed to have been caught a little cold. Burke missed the conversion to the left, leaving the score-line 0-5.

From such a bright start, the visitors looked likely to go on to dominate the game. A good drive by the excellent George Chuter led to a penalty for the tackler not rolling away. However, not for the last time, the following kick to touch from Burke did not gain as much territory as he would have liked. The resultant lineout was taken by Cullen, but possession was lost via a knock on after the attack had gone through several phases, with Quins struggling.

Quins started to get into the match after winning a free kick at the game’s first scrum. Tigers were penalised for twice pushing before Mr White’s ‘engage’ call. The kick was taken quickly, with the Tigers’ tackler not 10m. The whistle went again, and Jarvis gained good territory with a long kick to touch.

A cross kick by Jarvis was watched closely by Varndell as it dropped into touch on the full in the Tigers 22, with Monye lurking.

The clinical nature displayed when scoring their try was now lacking in the visitors play. A sharp break down the short side by Ellis came to nothing after he passed to Varndell who sliced his grubber kick, the Quins defence managing to scramble it clear.

Tigers failed to extend their lead when Burke missed a penalty from 38metres out on the right after Corry was taken out in the air at a line out.
Quins started to enjoy more of the possession, but with no real penetration. Monye made some good yards, but several times they kicked instead of looking to attack with the ball in hand.

The home side got on the scoreboard after 17mins via the boot of Jarvis, who kicked successfully from nearly in front of the posts after Ben Kay had been pinged for playing the ball on the floor. With the score now 3-5, Evans came on as a blood replacement for Spanghero.

Jarvis tried another cross kick which was this time caught by Monye. He was tackled by Geordan Murphy who took a big impact in the process. Play was brought back for a penalty to Quins, as Ellis had been offside. Jarvis kicked successfully and it was now 6-5 after 25 minutes with Quins in the ascendancy.

A great touch finder from Jarvis put Quins back on the attack after Louis Deacon was adjudged to have entered a ruck from the side, an offence which was committed more often than was penalised on both sides. Slow ball for Quins looked to have been used well as the pace picked up and it went through several pairs of hands before Luscombe knocked on, thereby squandering their best try scoring opportunity.

A piece of athletic brilliance from Monye kept an attempted Burke penalty kick to touch from finding its target and gaining Tigers a line-out deep in the Quins half. At full stretch, and at the top of a good leap off the ground, he was able to keep the ball in play and knock it backwards to Duffy who subsequently cleared. From the line out Burke made a good break, but the ball was coming to static backs who were therefore running out of space and ideas.

Another penalty against Tigers, this time for holding on, led to Jarvis extending his team’s lead with a successful kick from just about half way. This brought the first half to a close with the score 9-5.

The second half started with the static nature of play continuing. Slow ball coming out from the rucks for both sides meant that again there was no penetration.

Ollie Smith came on to replace Geordan Murphy, with Vesty moving to full back and Smith joining Hipkiss in the centres and looking sharp.

Tigers scored first in the second half; Quins took a scrum down after strong work from the Leicester front row and Burke was accurate with the penalty, bringing the score to 9-8 after 49 minutes. He narrowly missed another kick from a trickier position shortly afterwards

On 52 minutes Ellis was replaced by Beamond to immediate effect. Skinner deliberately took Burke out after the ball had gone and was rightly yellow carded, and in his absence Leicester scored there second try. The penalty was kicked to the corner, the lineout successfully gathered, and after great driving work from Castrogiavanni, Beamond picked up and burrowed over from close range. The conversion was successful, and the score now read 9-15 after 55 minutes.

Quins failed to reduce the deficit when Jarvis hit the post with a penalty attempt. The ball rebounded into Burke’s hands, and he moved it onto Vesty who did well to make a break and clear to touch.

Nebbit, Richards and Evans replace Hayter, Ross and Kohn.

Jarvis then hit the same post with another penalty attempt, though this time the rebound went his way leaving the score 12-15 with 63 minutes on the clock. Burke replied with a penalty of his own a minute later, 12-18.

Lewis Moody got pinged for offside, and Jarvis converted a great penalty kick from 44 metres making it 15-18.

Ollie Smith went close to scoring a third try for the visitors, but was held up over the line.

The Tigers kept the ball tight with the forwards, and wound the clock down. A penalty from the final scrum of the match successfully kicked by Burke and it was over. Final score 15-21.

From both team’s point of view, there’s doubtless going to be a bit of head scratching whilst asking ‘where do we go from here?’ Quins looked unlikely to score a try; they need a win badly, and it already looks like a long hard season for them. As for Tigers, an away win should be celebrated, but if they continue to concede a series of kickable penalties, it will cost them games. Whilst being strong up front, they need to be more creative behind the scrum.