Perhaps the best 80 minutes seen yet under Borthwick’s reign

AS we enter the latter stages of the season it has been apparent that Leicester do have the capacity for big performances, albeit they haven’t evidenced it for 80 minutes and possibly not often enough.

This is no surprise for a team and squad still at the development stage, but good passages of play are always welcome.

Against Harlequins, the Tigers put in perhaps their best 80 minutes yet under Steve Borthwick.

It doesn’t hurt that it’s the first top four team the Tigers have beaten for a long time, and the London-based side are having a good year and are very effective, know exactly what they want to do and have in-form players across the park.

However, Leicester had too much for them in every phase for most of the game.

In spite of being on the wrong side of the TMO for long periods Leicester were the better side and even when down to 13 men they “won” the period 3-0.

The close finish shows how good Harlequins are, but was as much to do with sensible protection of players for Leicester’s upcoming Challenge Cup final as it did with Harlequins’ improvement in the latter stages.

Removing Wiese (hopefully precautionary for what looked like a niggle), Genge and Nadolo removed most of Leicester’s heavy carrying threat, whilst Ford’s game management was missed at half-back

– but with a trophy to play for those changes were sensible and the team still had enough to hold on for the vital win.

On the issue of those players, Wiese was excellent, and Nadolo provided a massive threat whenever on or even near to the ball. His attacking prowess is obvious, but his defensive work was outstanding. Genge, particularly after a (as described by him) “bizarre” yellow card, was simply a force of nature.

All the talk pre-match was a changing of the guard at England fly-half, but while Marcus Smith’s time will no doubt come, only the most biased observer could think that George Ford’s performance left any doubt as to the best English fly-half on display.

Harlequins almost certainly won’t win the play-offs, but they probably will be there and were close to full strength on Saturday – so the victory for the Tigers can act as a benchmark going forward.

With the season drawing to a close, Tigers fans will hope for some more encouragement to come.