Premiership reaction - Saturday
November 22 2008
Harlequins boss Dean Richards admitted his side were their own worst enemies as ruthless Leicester seized on mistakes to go third in the Guinness Premiership with a 27-14 victory.
Richards watched his outfit fumble the first kick-off, allowing wing Johne Murphy to score before Tigers fly-half Derick Hougaard stole the show with seventeen points.
And Richards, who was also angered by Matt Smith's second-half try, insists the defeat was self-inflicted.
"We gave Leicester the first thirteen points," he said.
"The first kick-off, we have lost it and they have scored. We get a kick-off again and we have dropped it again and they have scored another.
"They are 10-3 up with only ten minutes gone. You can't allow yourself to come to a place like this and have to try to claw yourself back into a game early on.
"Matt Smith's try was well over the dead-ball line yet it was still given. It was a game-changing decision, the wrong decision.
"If you don't get help here you are never going to win. I am not going to blame the ref because all in all the blame lies with ourselves because of our poor start."
After Quins failed to claim the Leicester kick-off Hougaard gathered before combining with centre pairing Aaron Mauger and Dan Hipkiss to send Murphy over in the corner.
Hougaard converted and exchanged two penalties with All Black fly-half Nick Evans before Leicester got their second try after 32 minutes.
The same midfield combination was involved for the Tigers. Hipkiss smashed through two tackles before offloading to Mauger who fed Hougaard to touch down.
Just before the break an Evans' penalty cut the gap to make it 20-9 to the home side at half-time. And the game was effectively settled by Leicester's third try after 44 minutes when Smith latched on to his own grubber kick to touch down.
Leicester failed to get the bonus-point try and instead replacement hooker Chris Brooker maintained Quins' run of scoring a try in every match this season with three minutes remaining.
Tigers boss Heyneke Meyer reserved special praise for Hougaard, who played despite a torn hamstring.
"Derick has been struggling with a hamstring injury of late and he has a 3cm tear but he has been working very hard," he said.
"He should not have played today but his all-round game including his kicking was good and he scored a try today for us.
"We really needed him and he has been superb for us. We have been struggling for injuries and we had to rely on a lot of our academy players as replacements today.
"I am very proud of the guys they showed a lot of character."
Elsewhere, Bath coach Steve Meehan admitted his side were fortunate to claim a draw after the Guinness Premiership leaders survived a stirring fightback by Northampton at Franklin's Gardens.
A late try by flank Jonny Faamatuainu, converted by Butch James, levelled the scores at 28-28 to ensure Bath remain unbeaten on their travels this season.
However, Meehan, who saw Northampton overhaul the 21-10 lead his side established in the first half, bemoaned the eventual result.
"At half-time we'd put ourselves in a position to get four points but we let Northampton have too much ball," he said.
"But in all your Premiership matches, if you went away and came home with two points you'd probably be happy by the end of the season."
Meehan was also disappointed to lose captain and centre Alex Crockett with a hamstring injury after only half an hour.
"He's been playing very well and losing him doesn't help, but we've got players with enough experience and ability to do the job with or without him," he said.
"They came hard at us all day. In the second half they did very well, had a lot of possession and put a lot of it to good use.
"We had one opportunity to score a try in the second half and we took it but we've got to give ourselves a few more opportunities than that."
Northampton were denied two tries when referee David Rose ruled that they had been held up over the line.
Confirming that centre James Downey believed he had grounded the ball, director of rugby Jim Mallinder admitted his frustration that TV officials and video replays are not used at all Premiership matches.
"Last week at Bristol we lost the game on one of those decisions. Today we didn't win the game because of that decision," he said.
"The referee's got to be in the right position, that's his job. We need consistency and we need the refs to make the right decisions at the right times.
"If they are consistent we are happy with it and today we didn't think he was consistent.
"I was disappointed with our defence in the first half. I thought we conceded a couple of relatively weak tries but we knew - and we said at half-time - that if we kept playing the spaces would appear and I was delighted with our second-half performance.
"I thought we attacked with pace and intensity and moved the ball well. On another day we would have won the game."