Leicester Tigers edge Harlequins in match packed with tries, cards, injuries and a shambolic scrum

Leicester edged a slow burner of a match that erupted in the second half with tries galore, a pair of yellow cards as the scrums descended into a shambles and injuries to three of Harlequins’ England squad stars.

Chris Robshaw went off concussed, Mike Brown was hobbling on a sore ankle and teenaged fly-half Marcus Smith was substituted with a tight calf as Quins led by 10 points with 46 minutes gone, only to be overhauled by dogged Leicester, with tries by Jonny May and Greg Bateman, and a pair of clinching penalties from George Ford.

Leicester were one of only two teams to win here in the league last season and by repeating the feat they have continued a mini-revival after opening defeats to Bath and Northampton, while Quins’ top-four candidacy took a heavy blow after their brilliant victory away to Wasps last weekend.

Eddie Jones, the England head coach and briefly a Leicester squad member in his playing days a quarter of a century ago, was here at The Stoop to see 11 of his 33-man training squad in action.

They including Ford at fly-half for Leicester, opposite his 18-year-old understudy Smith, whom Jones had predicted would be mainly “shining shoes” for Ford at the national team’s three-day camp in Oxford starting tomorrow.

There is plenty of polish about the pair of them, as well as a physical similarity, leaving aside the Grand Canyon-esque chasm of experience, as the 24-year-old Ford has 37 Test caps behind him. And both No 10s were required to think hard on their feet as two well-matched packs spent the first half in nip-and-tuck mode.

Quins had left Kyle Sinckler on the bench, the day after the barrel-chested Lions tighthead prop was omitted form Jones’s training squad, although The Independent understands he and Quins’ centre Joe Marchant are in the wider 45-man elite player squad from which the final group to contest the autumn internationals will be selected in late October.

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Will Collier wore the Quins No 3 jersey instead, and he was front and centre with his pack as Leicester applied a big squeeze at a series of a line-outs that ended with an 11th-minute try for full-back Telusa Veainu.

There was another period under the cosh for the home side at a succession of scrums until a stray hand, possibly from Leicester’s in-form loosehead Ellis Genge, dissipated the danger.

At the other end Smith dovetailed nicely with his longer-in-the-tooth team-mates Danny Care and Jamie Roberts. There were few examples of multi-phase play being built by Quins but they made enough ground for Smith to stroke over three penalty goals before half-time, and with two by Ford for Leicester, the 10-times former champions led 11-9 at the break.

The match burst into life with Quins’ quickfire tries from Care and No 8 Mat Luamanu – the first as the scrum-half tapped to himself following a surge by his side’s scrum and a glaring offside penalty conceded by Genge, the second when Smith reacted sharply to a knock-on by Veainu to send Marland Yarde clear.

Genge and Collier were sent to the sin bin together with 50 minutes played as referee Ian Tempest appeared to give up on the forwards being able to form a steady scrum.

While they were off, Leicester splintered Quins twice as England wing May burned off his international rival Yarde from set-up play by Ford and his inside centre Matt Toomua, then Bateman galloped through a tackle in vain by Brown – who had not trained much during the week after being a father for the first time.

Ford converted both tries but Quins, despite the injuries beginning to bite, managed a stirring response as Alofa Alofa scored and Smith’s replacement Tim Swiel converted.

A penalty kicked by Ford after Roberts failed to release tied the scores at 28-28 then Quins’ fans were howling for a yellow card as a TV review looked into in a double challenge on Yarde by Veainu and Genge as the Quins flyer chipped ahead.

The officials decided there was nothing to penalise, and in the meantime the play had swept deep into the Harlequins half where Roberts killed the ball to deny Nick Malouf a probable try. Ford knocked the penalty over with seven minutes remaining and Harlequins could find no way back.

Quins’ director of rugby John Kingston had no complaints with the overall result afterwards but hinted Genge’s lack of engagement at scrums had been let go unpunished by referee Tempest.

“The scrum was a mess, unsatisfactory,” said Kingston, a former prop himself, whose first-choice loosehead Joe Marler was absent with a rib injury. “Two mighty teams went at it, and we have to learn how to come back from the hurt.”

Kingston’s Leicester counterpart Matt O’Connor praised Ford, saying: “He’s a class act. He’s played with no second pair of hands at Bath, and at Leicester in the past, but now he and Matt Toomua are developing a combination that will thrive and blossom for us.”