Stuck at the wrong end of the Premiership, Harlequins can ill afford to forget rugby's basics if they are to gain the momentum needed to boost their fragile confidence. But their start here was sloppy. Essentially, though, they need a win. It did not arrive, and they have now equalled the club's record of eight defeats on the bounce: seven this campaign to add to the reverse in the final game of last season. And, with a trip to Munster next up in the Heineken Cup, these are, to say the least, tough times.
Twice early on, indiscipline allowed easy penalties and, as Quins chief executive and head coach Mark Evans will have reminded them at half-time, this is particularly blameworthy when the league leaders are in town. Tigers fly-half, Andy Goode slotted both opportunities.
But Quins improved, and this is something for Evans and the Stoop faithful to cling on to as the season unfolds. 'I thought we played well first half and didn't deserve to be down,' said Evans. 'But then the game just dribbled away from us.'
That Andre Vos's team matched Leicester in performance, at least early on, was indicated by them entering the break trailing by the odd missed penalty from Staunton's boot. In open play, Quins were the brighter in the first half and could boast the deeper foray into enemy territory when Tani Fugi broke through midfield. Staunton duly collected his second penalty.
No player could take control. Goode has some attrac tive devil about his play, but when he made half-breaks through the Quins three-quarters, he proceeded to drop the ball or pass to no one. The home crowd sensed that Leicester could be beaten. But as the game crawled along insipidly you felt, actually, that Johnson's men would gradually wear Quins down.
Which they did. Goode missed two penalties after the break and converted one. Quins never looked like threatening as they had earlier and could not even boast a missed penalty to their name in the second period.
The game had, essentially, been played in midfield with a healthy element of feeling that had featured, among other things, the fists of Quins' lock Simon Miall, some Johnson skulduggery at the ruck and the decision of Matt Henjak, Quins' little scrum-half, to get intimate with at least four Tigers forwards.
'It was a bad game but we won it,' said Leicester coach, John Wells. 'All credit to them for not giving an inch. Balls were flying from each side. The top team played the bottom and there was only six pints' difference. That's how tough this league is.'
The deficit means last season's Parker Pen champions gain a bonus point. That is some cold comfort at least. Leicester, meanwhile, have lost just once. And it is European rugby time again. The Tigers will fancy it just a little more than Quins.
HARLEQUINS : Duffy; Harder, Greenwood, James, Keogh; Stanton, Henjak; Jones, Fuga, FitzGerald (Lambert 62) Winters (Rudzki 57), Miall, Easter (Tiatia 59), Vos (capt), Diprose.
LEICESTER: Murphy; Vesty, Smith (Cornwell 21), Rabeni, Holtby; Goode, Bemand (Ellis 57); Morris (Rowntree, 60), Chuter, White M Johnson (capt) Kay, Corry, Back, W Johnson.
Referee: D Pearson.
