The attention in the buildup had been lavished on the England captain, Chris Robshaw, as he returned from injury, but it was Danny Care who led Leicester up the blind side, in a match that Harlequins could not afford to lose in their quest for a top-four place, after starting the day in the bottom half of the Premiership table.
Leicester were leading 9-3 going into the second quarter. If they were not quite in cruise control, they had a firm grip on the wheel, pinching a couple of lineouts, winning penalties at the scrum, and coping comfortably with the home side’s off-loading strategy.
Quins may have needed to win, but they did not abandon their liberal approach to the game by going all conservative. Mike Brown was running out of his own 22 from the off and while the presence of Robshaw and Joe Marler gave them a ball-carrying influence at forward that they had been missing, Care is central to the way they play – high octane and far from safety first.
Care was upwardly mobile for most of 2014 but finished the year on a low after not only being dropped by England but made the third-choice scrum-half. He was up against the player who replaced him, Ben Youngs, and he has never been slow to seize an opportunity.
It took him 23 minutes this time, as Quins struggled to retain possession initially. They were six points down in 10 minutes after Owen Williams kicked two short-range penalties. Ben Botica, making his first start since September, replied with one from 40 metres after Tom Youngs entered a ruck from the side but, when Charlie Matthews took out another England returnee, Tom Croft, in the air at a lineout, Williams was again on target.
Quins were probing without finding much give in the Leicester defence, but failure did not deter them. Their league position masks their resourcefulness and, on the occasion of his 250th appearance for the club, Nick Easter combined with Care to tilt the match towards the home side.
Leicester’s defence had retained its shape after three phases of attack by Quins but as Easter was tackled and started falling to ground he slipped the deftest of passes to Care as the scrum-half approached on his inside. Care was through the main line of defence and, although the wind that is Adam Thompstone caught him up just short of the line, the momentum was with the attacker, and Botica’s conversion put his side ahead for the first time.
Robshaw was playing as if he had never been away, winning lineouts, breaking tackles – even when picking up the ball going backwards – and throwing himself into tackles. Croft, who has yet to be offered a new contract by Leicester after a few injury-ravaged years, was also conspicuously involved. He is a player whose speed of thought matches that of his legs but he was more the exception than the rule for the Tigers, who played with an orthodoxy shunned by their opponents.
Brown was at his most menacing, although he was fortunate when Vereniki Goneva’s kick towards the home line bounced away from him, presenting Miles Benjamin with the opportunity to pick up and score. The wing opted to hack the ball and kicked it against Brown. Williams had broken the line, but Brown stopped Graham Kitchener from making anything of the move.
There were 90 seconds of the opening half to go when Quins were awarded a penalty in the Leicester 22, an invitation for three points that most sides would accept. Care saw the opportunity for something more, tapping the ball and heading for the line. Two phases later, Care was throwing a long pass to the left for the flanker Jack Clifford to catch, sidestep and score, to take his side into the interval 15-9 ahead.
The lead was worth 13 points five minutes after the restart. Marland Yarde cannot be said to have made a flying start to his career at the Stoop, after moving from London Irish in the summer. Three tries against the bottom club, London Welsh, was his only scoring return in the Premiership, but his moment came when Williams shanked a clearance with his left foot.
When Yarde received the ball inside the Leicester half, he was confronted by a wall of bodies, but Tom Williams – a replacement for the injured Ugo Monye – created a hole by getting in Kitchener’s way, and Yarde was through it and on his way to the line. Botica’s conversion put Quins 25-9 ahead: their biggest Premiership victory over the Tigers was 22-9 in 2012.
A bonus point also beckoned but, after Williams kicked his fourth penalty and Botica missed two from 40 metres, the match drifted. Leicester had the chances to secure a bonus point but for all their perseverance and toil they lack a Care or an Easter, players who can turn nothing into much with the flick of a wrist and an eye for a gap.
Quins also had Brown, and he created the fourth try with the final move of the match, freeing Tom Swiel and delivering the record league victory and five needed points to move within three of fourth place.
