Leicester Tigers grind out victory over Harlequins

Leicester Tigers came from behind with a late try to earn a 22-19 Aviva Premiership Rugby victory over Harlequins at Welford Road on Sunday.

Replacement Laurence Pearce was driven over the line in a line out maul eight minutes from time to put Leicester in front on the scoreboard.

Harlequins were not done though as Sam Harrison was yellow carded for bringing a maul down and Harlequins pressed at the Tigers tryline but the home side held on for the victory.

Trailing 19-15 with eight minutes left, Leicester, who had lost just one of their previous 18 home games, looked on course for defeat at Welford Road until Pearce got on the end of a maul following a line-out.

Owen Williams added the conversion and, while Harlequins almost scored at the other end straight away, Leicester held on to maintain their 100 per cent start to the campaign.

Leicester’s other points came from fly-half Tommy Bell, who kicked five penalties, while Jack Clifford scored a try for Harlequins and Nick Evans kicked the other points.

Final Score Leicester Tigers 15 (12) Harlequins 19 (13)

Scorers

Leicester Tigers
Tries – Pearce
Pen – Bell (5)
Con – Williams
Drop –

Harlequins
Tries – Clifford
Pen – Evans (4)
Con – Evans
Drop –

Match Officials
Referee :Tom Foley (8th Premiership game).
Assistant Referees: Nigel Carrick & Paul Dix
TMO: Rowan Kitt.

Teams

Leicester Tigers

15 Mathew Tait (c) , 14 Adam Thompstone , 13 Peter Betham , 12 Seremaia Bai , 11 Vereniki Goneva , 10 Tommy Bell , 9 Sam Harrison , 1 Logovi’i Mulipola , 2 Tom Youngs , 3 Fraser Balmain , 4 Mike Fitzgerald , 5 Sebastian de Chaves , 6 Mike Williams , 7 Tom Croft , 8 Lachlan McCaffrey

Replacements , 16 Harry Thacker , 17 Riccardo Brugnara , 18 Dan Cole , 19 Laurence Pearce , 20 Opeti Fonua , 21 Ben White , 22 Owen Williams , 23 Matt Smith ,

Harlequins

15. Mike Brown , 14. Marland Yarde , 13. George Lowe , 12. Harry Sloan , 11. Charlie Walker , 10. Nick Evans (C) , 9. Karl Dickson , , 1. Mark Lambert , 2. Dave Ward , 3. Adam Jones , 4. James Horwill , 5. Sam Twomey , 6. Jack Clifford , 7. Luke Wallace , 8. Mat Luamanu

Replacements : 16. Joe Gray , 17. Joe Marler , 18. Kyle Sinckler , 19. Charlie Matthews , 20. Nick Easter , 21. Danny Care , 22. Ben Botica , 23. Ollie Lindsay-Hague