Leicester Tigers end losing streak after beating Harlequins 35-24

Leicester Tigers 35-24 Harlequins, Welford Road
Scorecard

Leicester Tigers brought an end to an eight game losing streak after they went on to beat Harlequins 35-24 in their Gallagher Premiership clash at Welford Road on Saturday.

The win has taken Leicester Tigers to the sixth position in the table with 23 points while Harlequins are at fifth place with 24 points.

Harlequins suffered an early setback when Charlie Mulchrone was replaced in the third minute by Dave Lewis and the problem for the visitors compounded when George Ford kicked a seventh minute penalty goal for the Tigers.

The home side soon stretched their lead to 10 points when George Ford set up Jonah Holmes over the line in the 14th minute and the fly-half also improved it. James Lang pulled things a bit for the Quins with back to back penalties in the 20th and 24th minutes that reduced the gap to four points.

However, Holmes with his second that had Ford's conversion and penalty on either side increased Leicester's lead to 14 points and that remained the same at the end of the first half after both the fly-halves traded penalties.

Lang started the second half positively with another penalty kick but Leicester went on to attain the bonus point following tries from Manu Tuilagi and Jonny May in the 56th and 68th minutes respectively. Harlequins did manage tries in the final quarter of the game from Cadan Murley and Alex Dombrandt but could not quite cross the line.

Leicester Tigers head coach Geordan Murphy said: “I’m pleased with the result, I thought at times we looked really sharp out there and at times we made some silly mistakes.

“There is definitely a lot we can work on but overall it is really great that we got the result and the bonus point as well.

“It was an incredibly physical game. Harlequins under Paul Gustard have shored up that defence.

“They are a physical side who come hard at you. They carried hard into us on many occasions and I thought the guys stood up and tackled their hearts out.

“On the other side of the ball in attack I thought there was some really positive moments from some big players.”