It was a gallant display from Quins, but for the second time this season they were undone by their inability to cross the Tigers line in a game that could so easily have gone their way.

"Sometimes when you come off the field and you know why you've lost. You feel that your lineouts have let you down or your rucking wasn't right, but Saturday (25th January 2003) was one of those days when your not quite sure why you've lost, which I think is a testament to their quality and the way that they play," said NEC Harlequins centre Will Greenwood.

"You never like to say that you've been beaten by a better side, but it seemed to be one of those days when they just seemed to have answers to what we were doing. They defended well in the 'red zone' and they live on the edge, as we saw with the sin-bin and a couple of penalties, and they don't like to see people crossing the whitewash."

"We had two or three chances and didn't take them, and they had two chances and took them, and that was the difference."

"We can't fault the way that we played. Maybe in the last five minutes we would have liked to have had a classic cup tie and have been camped on their line and thrown the kitchen sink at them, but their ability to keep playing saw them through."

"I think we beat Leeds in the last round because they stopped playing and let us back into it, and Leicester didn't stop playing and hence got the result."

Although naturally disappointed by the defeat, the England centre felt that if Quins can add steely edge to their game, which the Tigers often produce, they could turn the narrow defeats into narrow victories.

"We worked really hard on competing in the tackle area and we are top of the list in the Premiership in the fair play award and I don't think that is a good thing," continued Greenwood.

"We're not talking punching, we're talking penalties and offsides, and maybe you can be a little too clean. Leicester play to the letter of the law and they play right to the edge, and sometimes they get the punishment of the yellow card and then they rally round and as 14 men they defend brilliantly. They wait for the man to come back on and then they turn the screw again."

"What we can learn from them is let's not to be so squeaky clean. I'm not saying that we are going to cheat every week, but let's go down at rucks and let's get a second man competing at the breakdown, and we were certainly aware of that and that is where we were very very poor."

"I thought we didn't give them an easy ride. We were competitive and to those who are to proceed to the next round we salute you and good luck."

"We felt that we let them down by beating them in the last two years and not going on to win it, and now that they've beaten us I'll be cheering Leicester in the semi-final."