When the Tiger needs a little reassurance he needs only to invite the fancy-costumed one to his lair. Not to tear the once-tasty Harlequin to shreds, but to paw it about, make its life pretty miserable, and generally confirm to themselves that life in the den is as it always was.
Indeed, though many of the names on the jerseys may have changed, this could easily have been any of the many games seen over the five years in which Leicester have remained unbeaten in league games at home: the visitors looking willing until half-time and beyond, but basically going nowhere; the champions remaining strong in the key areas and finally marching to a convincing victory.
There seems little doubt that Leicester were stung by their reverse at Leeds a week ago. Dean Richards referred in yesterday's programme to his side taking it 'very personally' and 'having had a long, hard look at themselves'. Moreover, the coach was 'particularly annoyed' with an old Leicester player named Clive Woodward. The England manager had been at Leeds offering comments for Sky television and, at the end, said Richards: 'Our supporters saw him stand up and punch the air in delight as Leeds celebrated their victory.' Richards said: 'Many people have complained to us that it was inappropriate behaviour.'
Had Woodward been at Welford Road yesterday he would have seen some familiar sights: Tim Stimpson's immaculate penalty kicks giving Leicester an early lead, plus a try scored in time- honoured fashion - a line-out and drive from which Neil Back emerged triumphant. Actually it was the third line-out in a row from which the Tigers searched for a try, as Harlequins' efforts to get out of the corner kept displeasing the referee.
The visitors badly missed fly-half Paul Burke, with a knee injury, because young David Slemen seemed a bit rushed under pressure and also missed two kickable penalties. Two wayward drop-goal attempts from good positions by Ben Gollings also harmed Quins as they went into the interval 13-6 down and then went scoreless in the second half.
Leicester continued to make an astonishing number of simple, unforced errors - mainly knock-ons - but they were strong and focused at pivotal moments. And they were given a lift when Austin Healey came to centre stage. The fly-half who last week had sometimes put his colleagues in trouble with his lateral, exploratory excursions, started yesterday with a more simple, direct game - with passes spun out wide or reversed to a supporting forward - but in the third quarter a midfield dalliance suddenly turned into a show-and-go. He almost made it to the line and then, after the defence had been further reduced, Steve Booth went in almost unopposed.
A third try came from a five-metre scrum when Quins were shunted back alarmingly, for Jamie Hamilton to pounce. The fourth - and a bonus point - came in the last minute as Healey spun the ball wide to Booth, who put in Stimpson.
So it was a good day for Stimpson, who also set up field position with some booming touchfinders. One, from a penalty, went diagonally from the right-hand side of Leicester's 22 to the right-hand side of Quins' 22. Nevertheless, no one could accuse Richards of being overly downbeat when he said afterwards: 'We stuttered at times. we haven't found form.' But then, when did the Tigers need to be bang in form to win at home?
Leicester: Stimpson; Booth, Smith, Naufahu, Tuilagi; Healey, Ellis (Hamilton 40); Rowntree (Freshwater 48), West (Chuter 40), Tournaire, M Johnson (capt), Kay, Corry (Short 75), Back, W Johnson (Kronfeld 34).
Harlequins: Williams; Moore, Greenwood, Bell (Satala 43), Gollings; Slemen, Powell (Bemand 35); Leonard, Tiatia (Caputo 71), Gomez, Rudzki, Davison, Sheriff, Sanderson, Diprose (Evans 71).
Referee: N Williams (Neath).
