Harlequins 9-15 Leicester

Harlequins (3) 9
Pens: Evans 3
Leicester (3) 15
Pens: Staunton 5

Staunton landed five penalties to secure victory for Leicester

The 'Bloodgate' scandal may be over for Harlequins but that did not stop Leicester from putting the boot in as Jeremy Staunton kicked them to victory.

Both sides created chances to score but poor finishing in perfect conditions kept the Premiership encounter tryless.

A penalty apiece from Nick Evans and Staunton made it 3-3 at the end of a first half dominated by defences.

Evans then edged Quins into a 9-6 lead but Leicester took control and three Staunton penalties saw them to victory.

Harlequins assistant coach Tony Diprose:
"Leicester forced us to defend for long periods and that probably told in the end.

606: DEBATE

It wasn't a brilliant day out for either side - there were some entertainingly bad passes from both sides

Tigress

"If we want to play with tempo we need to hold onto the ball for longer.

"We didn't close out the game. We went 9-6 up with 20 minutes to go but we didn't quite get our basics right and we lost a couple of scrums."

Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill:
"With all respect to Jeremy Staunton, any team down to their third choice 10 is going to be a little bit different.

"We needed to win because two away games is a tough start.

"Not scoring tries in two games is not great for us but it is about getting results. I thought the boys battled really well and kept their composure when we needed to."

Harlequins: Monye; Strettle, Masson, Turner-Hall, Lowe; N Evans, Care, Jones, Botha, Lambert, Stevenson, J Evans, Robshaw, Skinner, Easter.

Replacements: So'oialo for Care (72), Fuga for Botha (53), Andress for Lambert (53), Guest for Stevenson (72).

Not Used: Croall, McMillan, Clegg, Smith.

Leicester: G Murphy; Hamilton, Smith, Allen, J Murphy; Staunton, Ellis; Ayerza, Chuter, Castrogiovanni, Blaze, L Deacon, Croft, Woods, Crane.

Replacements: Mauger for G Murphy (42), Davies for Chuter (42), White for Castrogiovanni (17), B Deacon for Crane (74).

Not Used: Harris, Newby, Youngs, Twelvetrees.

Sin Bin: Crane (47).

Att: 9,805

Ref: Dave Pearson (Newcastle).