Leicester cope remarkably after illness swept through their squad but Quins cannot bring Champions Cup form to the Prem

English rugby long ago gave up trying to explain the phenomenon that is Harlequins. Quantum physicists would struggle. Two weeks ago here, we watched this same team put 60 past the thitherto unbeaten Stormers from South Africa on the way to qualifying from the Champions Cup, a competition for the best domestic sides in Europe and, as if that were not enough, South Africa, a land of frightening beasts and double World Cup-winners.

This is the same team that won in La Rochelle only last weekend to clinch that home tie in the last 16. Ridiculously, it was Quins’ win against all odds on the west coast of France that afforded Leicester last-gasp entrance by default into that very same elite of the elite. Well, you would never have guessed it, had you been here to witness the latest capitulation at the Stoop, a 34-7 humiliation on Saturday.