Match action
IT HAS not been plainsailing for Matt Toomua since he joined Leicester, with his first season at the club wrecked by a knee injury.
However, the Australian centre is such a rich talent that he was never going to be a bystander at Welford Road, and yesterday against Harlequins he stole the show in a match that was effectively a Premiership top four eliminator.
That Toomua was the pivotal figure in this tussle was reflected not just in his 23point haul from a try, three conversions and four penalties, but the way he put a spring in the step of an otherwise struggling Leicester side when he wore the flyhalf shirt for the first time.
It could not have been a more timely intervention because a fourth home Premiership loss this season for the Tigers would have ended their title hopes.
That Harlequins were in the same boat ensured that this was always going to be edgy, especially when a stuttering Leicester performance saw the Londoners ride out the sin-binning of teenage flyhalf Marcus Smith to take a 13-9 second-half lead until Toomua’s 58th minute try turned the tide.
Harlequins came out of the blocks fastest when Aaron Morris came into the line and broke past Manu Tuilagi before putting wing Alofa Alofa in at the corner. Smith could not add the conversion and the 5-0 Harlequins lead turned to a 6-5 Tigers advantage when Toomua kicked two of his first three penalty attempts.
On the half-hour Harlequins wasted a golden opportunity to retake the lead when Kyle Sinckler – who had already given away two penalties – was held up over the line by a try-saving Gareth Owen tackle.
However, although Smith’s penalty from a Leicester scrum infringement immediately afterwards put the visitors 8-6 ahead, it did not last long. Just before half-time a sustained Tigers attack spearheaded by Mike Williams saw them battering at the line, and when a Greg Bateman pass designed to give Williams another go was picked off by Smith he was sufficiently offside to merit the yellow card shown him by referee Wayne Barnes.
Toomua’s penalty made it 9-8 to Leicester at the interval, but they soon discovered that Harlequins have had plenty of practice playing with 14 men, given that it was their fourteenth sin-binning of the season.
Quins stormed back after the break, and when a big charge by Jamie Roberts set them up in the Tigers 22 a floated pass by Morris saw Luke Wallace score in the corner – and with Smith returning from the naughty step at 13-9 up they looked in good shape.
Or at least they did until Toomua sold a dummy on the edge of the 22 and shot through the wide gap between Sinkler and Stan South to score under the posts. Two minutes after the Aussie had converted his own handiwork to give Leicester the lead again he produced another gem, this time in the form of a pinpoint chip which sat up nicely for Sione Kalamafoni.
When he was stopped just short and Graham Kitchener picked up to wrestle his way over, Toomua’s conversion stretched the Tigers lead to 23-13.
Quins battled back to score a third try when Charlie Matthews touched down from a line-out drive, but when Toomua kicked a penalty to make it 26-18 there was no way back.
Their misery was complete in injury time when Adam Thompstone intercepted a Dave Ward pass.