Match Centre: Gallagher Premiership: Leicester Tigers 17-20 Harlequins
Cadan Murley was Harlequins' only try scorer
©Steve Haag
Leicester Tigers 17-20 Harlequins, Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium
Harlequins made most of Chris Ashton's red card as they edged out Leicester Tigers 20-17 in the final league game at Mattioli Woods Welford Road Stadium on Saturday.
The result also saw Harlequins end seven game losing streak in away fixtures as they secured a berth in the next season's Heineken Champions Cup while Leicester will now face Sale Sharks in the semi-final of the Gallagher Premiership.
Leicester suffered early setback as Cameron Henderson was sin-binned for collapsing a maul in the 11th minute that also resulted in a penalty try for the visitors.
Despite being down on the numbers, Leicester fought back to level the scores with Julian Montoya crashing over at the back of a maul and Handre Pollard kicked the extras.
The momentum once again shifted towards the visitors as they launched an attack and sent the ball wide allowing Cadan Murley to touchdown and Smith improved to make it 7-14. At the stroke of half time, Leicester lost Ashton to red card high tackle on Murley. Smith added three points, extending the Harlequins lead to ten points prior to half-time.
Leicester narrowed down the gap to seven points with Pollard kicking an early penalty goal in the second half and despite Ashton's red card they did not concede any more points until the 70th minute when Smith with a three-pointer of his own restored the visitors' 10 point lead.
With four minutes left in the game, Tommy Reffell finished off a relentless driving maul which Jimmy Gopperth converted but they failed to get over the line despite Joe Marler's yellow card in the final minute.
Team line up:
Leicester: Brown, Ashton, Porter, Kelly, Potter, Pollard, Youngs; West, Montoya (c), Cole, Wells, Henderson, Liebenberg, Reffell, Wiese.
Reserves: Clare, van Wyk, Heyes, Carnduff, Cracknell, van Poortvliet, Gopperth, Scott.
Harlequins: David, Murley, Marchant, Esterhuizen, Bassett, Smith, Care; Marler, Riley, Collier, Lamb, Herbst, Kenningham, Evans, Dombrandt (c).
Reserves: Musk, Baxter, Hobson, Hammond, Trenholm, Gjaltema, Northmore, Lynagh.
