'It's very disappointing... it's the worst I've felt since being here'

Harlequins head coach Tabai Matson appeared deflated after seeing his side convincingly beaten 27-19 by a fired-up Leicester at the Stoop.

The final scoreline flattered the hosts as they trailed 17-0 with only 10 minutes remaining and two tries in the last three minutes nearly saw them pick up an undeserved bonus point.

Tommy Reffell scored two tries for Leicester with Julian Montoya and Anthony Watson also crossing. Freddie Burns added a penalty and two conversions.

Cadan Murley scored two tries for Quins and Danny Care also touched down, with Marcus Smith kicking two conversions.

Matson said: “It’s very disappointing when they were best in every area and it’s the worst I’ve felt since being here.

“We needed to celebrate Joe Marler’s 250th appearance for the club and he had to put up with that.

“They were brutal in the collisions and our breakdown was not good enough but they forced errors from us out there and were pretty flawless.

“You’ve got to keep the scoreline close right to the end and keep the tempo up but we could not do that either.

“We missed Alex Dombrandt as he’s top shelf and world-class and without his influence, it became an arm-wrestle, which did not suit us.”

One of the rare plusses for Quins on the day was the performance of Murley, who will have impressed watching England head coach Eddie Jones.

Matson added: “Cadan is the best left wing in the league and he looked dangerous all the time but we must work out ways of getting him more possession as we did not do that today.”

Leicester bounced back after defeats to Sale and Saracens.

Head coach Steve Borthwick said: “The boys proved us a point today as we are building cohesion bit by bit but the tries we conceded at the end was not good enough.

“We have a new squad with a lot of young players and they need to spend more time together to allow us to improve.

“We are continuing to keep things simple as I don’t get carried away too much, whether we win or lose.”

Leicester’s stand-out performer was flanker Reffell, who gave a timely reminder to the Welsh coaching staff ahead of next Tuesday’s squad announcement for the autumn internationals.

Borthwick said: “Tommy reads the game really well and has comeback from Test rugby against South Africa in the summer a more rounded player.

“He’s still young and there’s still a lot of growth in him.”

Next up for Leicester in the league is a home fixture against crisis club Wasps on Sunday.

Borthwick said: “We are preparing for the fixture as normal until I’m told otherwise.”