A compelling comeback roared on by a fiery home crowd; Geoff Parling will never forget his first league win as Leicester Tigers head coach. Years from now, the scoreline alone will come nowhere close to summarising a chaotic occasion that was buffeted by the gusts of Storm Amy.
Just 90 seconds remained when Will Wand slipped over the try-line off the shoulder of Billy Searle to bag his second try and secure a bonus point for the hosts. Harlequins, conversely, headed back to London empty-handed.
Searle was not even supposed to have started. With the last kick of the captain’s run 24 hours previously, Orlando Bailey had felt tightness in his hamstring and pulled out. Having continued a nomadic career by joining Leicester this summer, the 29-year-old Searle became an unlikely hero in an unlikely rear-guard.
At 19-0 behind with less than half an hour remaining, a far grimmer outcome seemed probable for Parling and Tigers. Harlequins, fired by a stunning Will Porter try, had defended defiantly and deserved to be on the road to what would have been an impressive victory. But, regardless of who is at the helm, toppling Tigers at Mattioli Woods Welford Road should be mightily difficult.
“In the first half, I actually thought we did lots of good stuff,” Parling said afterwards. “Then, once the good things didn’t turn into good outcomes, we looked like we were getting a bit ratty with ourselves, started conceding penalties and getting on the back foot.
