Geoff Parling issues update as England star is sent for x-ray

Leicester coach Geoff Parling played down fears Jack van Poortvliet’s latest injury concern could harm his chances of wearing the England number nine jersey in the coming weeks.

Scrum-half van Poortvliet – named in Steve Borthwick’s training squad for this week’s build-up to the Six Nations – hobbled out of the action against Harlequins 10 minutes from time.

Van Poortvliet – who missed the Autumn internationals with a shoulder injury and has had a history of heartbreaking set-backs in his career at crucial times – had played a starring role including scoring one of his side’s tries in a 34-7 bonus-point win over Harlequins at Twickenham Stoop.

However, Tigers boss Parling insisted: “Jack’s gone off for some X-rays. We’re hoping it’s just a dead leg and nothing serious.

“He was excellent today. He’s had some injuries which have not helped him at certain times. His speed of delivery is good and he’s a top-notch number nine. He showed what he can do with that try too.

“Two other guys in Cameron Henderson and Tommy Reffell, who haven’t been picked for the Six Nations training squads, were also outstanding.

“I was really proud of that performance. We had a slightly disrupted build-up to the game in midweek when four of our staff came back from South Africa last weekend with E. coli, so we had to be careful in training to avoid others catching it. But the group has proved to be very adaptable and this was a fine win.”

Tigers lock Henderson added: “We came down here to put in one of our best performances of the season, and we are very happy with the way things went.

“Our mentality was right on it from the start. Quins can be dangerous so we needed to win the early phases and get on top of them and not let go.

“The evolution of our game has really come on nicely under Geoff. We are playing some strong rugby, laying the foundations and then attacking decisively. We now have a break from the Premiership, so this is a good way to go off and prepare for the next game.”

Tigers moved up to fourth in the table while Quins, who enjoyed recent success in Europe, suffered their fifth successive Premiership loss.

Some of the home crowd left before the end of a one-sided game out of frustration but head coach Jason Gilmore said: “Our fans have been brilliant. We had a sold-out Stoop today but I can understand their feelings.

“They are loyal to the team and club. We need to give them something to enjoy on the field.

“It’s not skillset, it’s mindset. We went on the back foot pretty quickly and couldn’t turn things around.

“We must see to what steps we need to put in place to regain that mindset. We need to build a squad which can hold out under fire.”