Harlequins clicking into gear at just the right time with win over league leaders Leicester Tigers

Harlequins know how to pace themselves on a run-in to the finishing post, and Saturday’s win over league leaders Leicester gave notice to the Premiership that they are coming up on the rails again.

Andre Esterhuizen’s try and Marcus Smith’s penalty sealed this win and showed the front-runners that they could be reeled in again.

South African centre Esterhuizen, at 6ft 4in and the best part of 18st, is a worthy candidate for player of the season, and he was the focal point for Harlequins.

With games against Northampton on Friday and Gloucester and Exeter to come, Harlequins delivered a finish which echoed last season’s smash-and-grab sprint to the title.

Scrum coach Adam Jones said: “We know teams won’t want to play us. We can have a crack at scrum and line-out and we have a little bit of magic and a big, giant South African playing as well.

“Northampton are doing amazingly well, and Gloucester and Exeter. We have to win these games. It is almost like last year, we just have to win them.We have put ourselves in a good position and it is up to us to get across the line or mess it up and we are hopefully going to get across the line.”

Rewind a year and Harlequins were out with the washing, before clambering into fourth place and coming back from 28-0 down to beat Bristol in the semi-final. They pulled off a similar trick in the final against Exeter.

It was a chastening afternoon for Leicester, who have their hands full juggling three tournaments and with the Champions Cup quarter-final against Leinster looming on May 7.

Stuart Lancaster, the former England head coach, now happy in Dublin working for the Irish province, was in the crowd. But he would have got few clues about next month’s date at Welford Road apart from the value of a hard-running midfielder. And Lancaster has one of them in Robbie Henshaw.

Leicester captain Hanro Liebenberg said: “At times we let them off a bit easy. You have got to get your money’s worth going against good quality sides and that is what Quins gave us.”

Quins boost play-off charge with win over Tigers

Harlequins 26 Leicester Tigers 20

Andre Esterhuizen, the South African centre, scored the match-winning try as Harlequins took another step towards the play-offs and tweaked the tails of leader Leicester Tigers.

Esterhuizen’s 74th minute score and Marcus Smith’s penalty put Harlequins level on points with Saracens in the Premiership table and may have done their morth London rivals more harm than it did to Steve Borthwick’s side.

Freddie Burns had given Leicester the lead at 20-18 when he took over kicking duties from George Ford in the 73rd minute after Ford had missed a straightforward chance a minute earlier. Then came Esterhuizen and Smith to send the Stoop wild.
It makes a home semi-final a realistic possibility for Harlequins who have fixtures against Northampton, Gloucester and Exeter to come.

If the pulsating second half were to be served up in a showpiece game later down the line this season, or across the road at Twickenham in June, there would be few complaints. This was one of the games of the campaign and could have gone either way.

There were flash points such as Callum Green’s clash with Joe Marler which could have resulted in a red card for Green in the second half. Sharp-eyed referee Wayne Barnes and his team spotted Alex Dombrandt pushing into Marler and gave Leicester a penalty. Like many of the players Barnes had a stormer.

Quins full-back Huw Jones, scrum-half Danny Care, Smith and Esterhuizen were all heroic, Marler was Marler and with them in form their side is on the march.

Here they overcame a Tigers side who unleashed Ellis Genge, Jasper Wiese and Dan Cole off the bench shortly after the break and gave Chris Ashton time near the end to try and break the Premiership try scoring record.

But this was a win that proved Harlequins still mean business during the season run-in and a statement victory over the best side in England so far this campaign.

“You have to respect them for what they do,” said Harlequins senior coach Tabai Matson. “They won 17 games and they’ve set the way because they’re just so consistent. Even today they were leading with a few minutes left and they just showed how difficult they are to put away.

“The good teams take momentum and when the bench came on they won four penalties in a row and scored a try and you knew it was coming. Stopping it is really difficult even if you know it’s coming. But strategically really smart too, being able to know that often the game sways in the last 15 minutes, bringing on internationals to the field was really smart from them.”

Genge and Cole helped to shore up a Leicester scrum which had struggled in the first half and Jasper Wiese another early second half addition grabbed the lead for Leicester on 58 minutes with a trademark driving score that set up the finish.

Leicester qualified for the play-offs weeks ago and their selection probably hinted at one eye on Europe where they face Leinster in the Champions Cup quarter-final on 7 May. Stuart Lancaster, the former England head coach, now on the staff at the Irish province was here to cast his eye over Tigers.

The idea they would be a force in Europe was unthinkable two years ago when Leicester would have been relegated but for the Saracens salary-cap scandal. They might be top of the table but they ended up second best here.

Harlequins were knocked out of Europe last weekend but have been gathering momentum in the Premiership as they did last year when they ended up winning it. They came here with five wins on the spin and a game plan, one which Lancaster would have noted, based on Esterhuizen.

Twice the former Springbok carried into the heart of the Leicester defence early on and after a big carry from lock Hugh Tizard, another from Alex Dombrandt and a brilliant pick-up from Will Collier saw the Quins prop over the line.

Anything Harlequins could do in the big carrying stakes Tigers could do and their hulking Fijian wing Nemani Nadolo went straight through Louis Lynagh’s tackle after Ben Youngs’ pass to level it up with eight minutes gone.

But Quins were back ahead when their underrated wing Cadan Murley got on the end of a familiar Smith break from side of play to another. Smith missed the conversion, to the same set of posts which he kicked wide of against Montpellier last week, and Leicester levelled it when captain for the day Hanro Liebenberg ran in. Smith’s easy penalty from in front gave the Londoners a three-point lead at the break. That was only the start of the action with Liebenberg’s second half try saving tackle on Lynagh a highlight.

“Ultimately we have to look at that start and how much access we gave them into our 22 to score those points, said Leicester head coach Steve Borthwick. “ I think then tactically we adapted and were very good through the next part of the game. It was a real arm wrestle in the second half between two teams that looked pretty evenly matched.”

Match details

Scoring sequence (Harlequins first): 5-0 Collier try, 7-0 Smith con; 7-5 Nadolo try, 7-7 Ford con; 12-7 Murley try; 12-12 Liebenberg try; 15-12 Smith pen (half-time) 15-17 Wiese try, 18-17 Smith pen, 18-20 Burns pen, 23-20 Esterhuizen try, 26-20 Smith pen

Harlequins: H.Jones; L.Lynagh, J.Marchant, A.Esterhuizen, C.Murley; M.Smith, D.Care; J.Marler (S.Kerrod 53), J.Walker (J.Gray 53), W.Collier(W.Louw 53), M.Symons, H.Tizard (J.Chisholm 71), S.Lewies (capt, G.Hammond 52), L.Wallace (T.Lawday 54), A.Dombrand.
Replacements not used: L.Gjaltema, N.David.
Leicester: F.Burns; H.Potter, M.Moroni, M.Scott(B.Hegarty 75), N.Nadolo (C.Ashton 59); G.Ford, B.Youngs (B.Youngs 59); F.Van Wyk (E.Genge 44), C.Clare, J.Heyes (D.Cole 44), C.Green, E.Snyman (H.Wells 44), H.Liebenberg (capt), O.Robinson (T.Cowan-Dickie 75), S.Jansen (J.Wiese 44).
Replacements not used: B.Hegarty.
Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU).
Att: 14,280.