Dean Richards Rails at Length of Coaching Ban

After a summer dominated by the fake-blood scandal, autumn has arrived with another unkind cut for Harlequins. Being trapped at the foot of the Premiership is bad enough for the club that finished second behind the Tigers in the table last May. But being kicked to defeat by the man whose missed pot at goal when he wore a Quins shirt helped relegate the club here five seasons ago borders on the sadistic.

Jeremy Staunton's five penalties gave the champions their first victory of the season in Quins' first home match since the Bloodgate affair that saw Dean Richards resign as director of rugby last month. The game was about as pretty all those repeated shots of Tom Williams and his mouth full of tomato ketchup five months earlier with nothing as vivid as David Strettle's new pink boots.

But the drama is forever off the field at The Stoop nowadays. Yesterday Richards went public in his first interview since his resignation on 8 August, 10 days before the International Rugby Board confirmed his three-year worldwide coaching ban. Richards said that he may turn his back on rugby which is in his view was "not the game I signed up to 10 or 15 years ago". He also expressed his annoyance that he was portrayed as a bully by Williams and claimed the ban was "disproportionate".

Harlequins, desperate to put the affair behind them, will wish Richards had kept quiet although the former director of rugby did the chief executive, Mark Evans, a favor by exonerating him from blame in the subsequent cover-up. Evans used his program notes here to apologize to their supporters. "The reputation of Harlequins has taken a deserved battering and we will need to redouble our efforts over a long period of time to restore it," he said.

On this evidence, though, it may be a while before Quins can also restore the sort of vibrant form that helped them to that fateful Heineken Cup quarter-final against Leinster. Nick Evans, the former All Blacks fly-half whose controversial return to the field against the eventual European champions sparked the controversy, could not spark a Quins backline in a match almost devoid of try-scoring opportunities.

Evans did, however, create one chance after the interval. After a break by the young wing George Lowe, Evans hoisted a cross-kick towards Strettle who collided in mid-air with the Leicester No8 Jordan Crane. Quins may have had justification for claiming a penalty try especially as Crane was shown a yellow card moments later for killing the ball. But, although Evans edged Quins into a 9-6 lead with two penalties, they were unable to capitalise with Leicester bringing on Julian White to batter the Londoners in the scrum and Staunton's boot did the rest.

Real blood flowed with three Tigers players, the captain, Geordan Murphy, Harry Ellis and Crane all leaving the field to have stitches. "And they are real ones," joked Leicester's head coach, Richard Cockerill. Cockerill says he is not too concerned at a start in which the champions' only points in two games have come through the boot of Staunton although they will be grateful when their leading playmakers Sam Vesty and Toby Flood return to inject pace in the Tigers' backline this autumn.

Of more concern to Cockerill was the disappearance early in the second half of the flanker Ben Woods, their best forward until then, who limped away with a broken bone in his foot to be added to a lengthening injury list. Harlequins were spared further punishment by the Rugby Football Union last Friday when Twickenham announced it had insufficient evidence to support a misconduct charge but it was the only shaft of light in another black week for the men in the multi-colored shirts.

Harlequins Monye; Strettle, Masson, Turner-Hall, Lowe, N Evans, Care (So'oialo, 72); Jones, Botha (Fuga, 52), Lambert (Andress, 52), Stevenson (Guest, 72), J Evans, Robshaw, Skinner (capt), Easter.

Pens N Evans 3.

Leicester G Murphy (capt); Hamilton, Smith (Mauger, 60), Allen, J Murphy; Staunton, Ellis (Youngs, 58); Ayerza, Chuter (Davies, h-t), Castrogiovanni (White, 60), Blaze, L Deacon, Croft, Woods (Newby, 48), Crane (B Deacon, 74).

Pens Staunton 5.

Sin-bin Crane, 47.

Referee D Pearson (Northumberland). Attendance 9,805.