Leicester Tigers Academy (Under-17s) were defeated 19-40 at Mattioli Woods Welford Road in the first match of a Double Header on Friday.
It took just two minutes for the first points of the game and it was the Tigers pack who did the damage. From a lineout deep in the Harlequins half, the ball was brought down and driven towards the try-line, guided by hooker Marcus Southwell, who dotted it down for the opener.
Lochie Glackin was on target from the tee to make it a 7-0 lead.
Both sides traded blows in the ten minutes to follow before Harlequins had their first through lock Stewart Coleman on the back of a patiently worked set of phases within striking range of the Leicester line. Full-back Sam Marshall added the conversion to level it up at 7-7 after 11 minutes.
The visitors had a second ten minutes later when hooker Josh Andrews did it all on his own with a rampaging run from outside the Tigers 22m line before, just minutes after the second, they added a third when back-rower Jack Kemp broke away down the blind side and dived over out wide. Marshall was on target with his third attempt to make it a twelve-point, 7-19, lead.
Leicester turned the tide back in their favour within minutes when, on the half-hour mark, the ball was moved quickly to the right into the hands of wing Freddie Ferguson, who stepped and weaved his way through to cut the deficit to seven. Glackin added the extras to make it 14-19.
Not content with a five-point deficit, Tigers turned it on with only a minute remaining to work their way back into a scoring position and fly-half Alfie Stevenson finished in style with a dummy and a step to level it at 19-19.
The conversion attempt went wide meaning the teams couldn't be separated after the first half, however, the second told a different story with 21 unanswered points from Harlequins, including a second for Jack Kemp and scores for replacement hooker Jakob Thompson and Leo Dickinson, as well as three from three from the tee, meant it finished 19-40 to the visitors.
