{"id":296944,"date":"2023-11-11T23:56:37","date_gmt":"2023-11-11T23:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/?p=296944"},"modified":"2023-11-11T23:56:37","modified_gmt":"2023-11-11T23:56:37","slug":"leicester-25-29-harlequins-tigers-too-tame-but-visitors-move-top","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/rugby-union\/leicester-25-29-harlequins-tigers-too-tame-but-visitors-move-top\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester 25-29 Harlequins: Tigers too tame but visitors move top"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Leicester 25-29 Harlequins: Tigers too tame as they fail to get back on track despite welcoming back their World Cup stars&#8230; with the visitors moving top after bonus-point triumph<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Leicester missed out on the chance to return to form after losing to Harlequins\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>A top-four spot looks unlikely at this early stage despite several players returning<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Head coach Dan McKellar claims his side were the masters of their own downfall\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This was the day Leicester were supposed to get back on track.<\/p>\n<p>It didn&#8217;t happen. South Africans Handre Pollard and Jasper Wiese were cheered as World Cup winners before kick-off and the Tigers had their England stars back too.<\/p>\n<p>Dan McKellar&#8217;s side still didn&#8217;t have enough for victory. Leicester have now lost four of their five Premiership games so far this season. It is still early days, but a top-four spot looks unlikely.<\/p>\n<p>Leicester did most of the running but were outscored five tries to three and made too many errors. Harlequins went top with a bonus-point success even with Marcus Smith producing a poor display in his No 10 battle with Pollard.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The glum look on Dan Cole&#8217;s face as Leicester tried and failed to push for what would have been a late, match-winning try said everything.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/11\/21\/77688857-12738103-image-a-109_1699737018408.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Leicester Tigers&#8217; top four hopes slipped further away after their defeat by Harlequins<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/11\/21\/77688865-12738103-image-a-110_1699737028270.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Despite welcoming back several World Cup stars, Leicester crashed to a home setback<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/11\/21\/77691007-12738103-image-a-47_1699739096448.jpg\" height=\"437\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Marcus Smith was back to star at No 10 for Quins on his return from World Cup duty in France<\/p>\n<p>Leicester head McKellar&#8217;s face looked haunted at the final whistle as he digested a game his team should have won. The only consolation was a losing bonus.<\/p>\n<h3>MATCH FACTS<\/h3>\n<p><span>Leicester Tigers\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Tries:<\/span>\u00a0Liebenberg, Steward (2)<\/p>\n<p><span>Cons:<\/span> Pollard (2)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>Pens:<\/span> Pollard (2)<\/p>\n<p><span>Harlequins\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Tries:<\/span>\u00a0Dombrandt, Lamb (2), Green, Porter\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>Cons:<\/span> Smith (2)<\/p>\n<p><span>Referee:<\/span> Ian Tempest (RFU)\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>Attendance:<\/span> 20,433\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><span>Star man:<\/span> Dino Lamb (Harlequins)<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We beat ourselves,&#8217; said McKellar. &#8216;There were errors at critical moments. We did enough to win but we didn&#8217;t take the opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Defensively we need to be much better. It was five soft tries conceded at home. That&#8217;s got to change. We have to beat Northampton next week &#8211; it&#8217;s as simple as that.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;We are in a position now where we can&#8217;t drop many more games.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Smith was back to start at 10 for Harlequins after the World Cup. He jumped for joy at the final whistle.<\/p>\n<p>It won&#8217;t console anyone of Leicester persuasion, but this was another entertaining Premiership game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There were five first-half tries, away No 8 Alex Dombrandt getting the scoring going.<\/p>\n<p>Dino Lamb got the visitors&#8217; second and Tyrone Green produced another acrobatic finish for the second weekend running.<\/p>\n<p>Hanro Liebenberg and Freddie Steward kept Leicester in the contest.<\/p>\n<p>So too did Smith&#8217;s errant kicking from the tee.<\/p>\n<p>England full-back Steward grabbed his second at the start of the second half, bravely calling for the ball to finish when clearly struggling with injury.<\/p>\n<p>Will Porter sold the Leicester defence a wonderful dummy to snipe over.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/11\/21\/77688875-12738103-image-a-112_1699737064410.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Freddie Steward (centre left) notched up two tries, but both ultimately proved to be in vain<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/11\/21\/77688873-12738103-image-a-111_1699737048905.jpg\" height=\"423\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Will Porter powered over for the visitors after selling a wonderful dummy to snipe over<\/p>\n<p>But when Pollard nailed a penalty to put Tigers ahead by a point, it looked like the Springboks No 10&#8217;s kicking &#8211; as it was for his country at the World Cup &#8211; would be enough to give his team victory.<\/p>\n<p>But Lamb scored another close-range effort and even though Smith missed the conversion and Tigers pushed hard at the death, they made too many mistakes to win.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It&#8217;s a sprint and you can&#8217;t wait until Christmas to start winning games,&#8217; said Harlequins attack coach Nick Evans. &#8216;We knew we had to start fast but we won&#8217;t get ahead of ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I&#8217;m pleased and proud. If you get a result here you have to earn it and I thought we did. The game got messy but we stuck in it. I think we got our preparation right.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/rugbyunion\/article-12738103\/Leicester-Harlequins-Tigers-World-Cup-bonus-point.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leicester 25-29 Harlequins: Tigers too tame as they fail to get back on track despite welcoming back their World Cup stars&#8230; with the visitors moving top after bonus-point triumph Leicester missed out on the chance to return to form after losing to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296943,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Leicester 25-29 Harlequins: Tigers too tame but visitors move top - Sports-Life-News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sports-life-news.com\/rugby-union\/leicester-25-29-harlequins-tigers-too-tame-but-visitors-move-top\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leicester 25-29 Harlequins: Tigers too tame but visitors move top - Sports-Life-News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Leicester 25-29 Harlequins: Tigers too tame as they fail to get back on track despite welcoming back their World Cup stars&#8230; 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