Leicester Tigers ended their Harlequins hoodoo to progress to the semi -finals of the Powergen Cup.

After being knocked down by Quins in each of the past two seasons, it was certainly not a case of first time lucky - but Leicester ensured they did it the hard way.

They looked to be sitting pretty when scrum-half Jamie Hamilton crossed to touch down behind the post in the 40th minute.

But what they thought was their third try was ruled out when referee Chris Whyte noticed a touch judge flagging on the halfway line for an earlier discretion by their French prop forward Franck Tournier and the try was disallowed.

Harlequins fly-half Paul Burke capitalised by landing the third of his four penalties to keep his side in contention as Leicester had to grind out their victory.

Tries by Stimpson and England flanker Lewis Moody, on the back of the powerful first half of the display, should have seen Tigers comfortably home but the squandered disallowed try was compounded by two missed conversion attempts and an off target penalty kick from Stimpson.

But Leicester, beaten 22-18 in the quarter finals by Harlequins two years ago and 22-20 in the semi-finals by the same adversaries last season, did enough.

The fact that coach Dean Richards could produce forward stalwarts of the calibre of Neil Beck and Darren Garforth from the bench in the second half to reinforce the pack effort, demonstrated just what Harlequins were up against.

Then, in the closing stages, Leicester dominated territorially to ensure there was no repeat of last year when Burke captured a last-gasp injury time victory for Harlequins with a tremendous 57-metre match winning penalty before Stimpson had the final say with his own penalty kick in injury time.

As the match entered its crucial stage they limited Burke to just one long range kick, which he narrowly missed from inside his own half.

Harlequins fought gamely but Zurich Premiership champions Leicester, who are not doing so well in the league this time around, showed that they are still well on course in the cup competitions - both at home and in Europe.

After falling behind to Burke's opening penalty in the seventh minute, they shrugged off the 10-minute absence of Moody who was sent to the sin-bin for conceding the kick after Alex Codling had been brought down.

While he was off the pitch Stimpson equalised with a 45-metre penalty and then dived over in the right-hand corner for the opening try after taking a pass from Hamilton following a marauding forward drive.

Harlequins were reduced to 14 men when Ace Tiatia was sin-binned in the 22nd minute and, just before he came back Moody celebrated his return by diving over following an incisive break by Irish international and man-of-the-match Geordan Murphy, who beat two men on a storming run before releasing his pass to perfection.

Leicester had Harlequins in disarray again when winger Leon Lloyd exposed some weak tackling to burst through the middle but the chance was wasted by his needless forward pass.

Then came the disallowed try which turned what had briefly looked a commanding position into a battle still to be won.

Teams:

Harlequins: N. Williams, Luger, Greenwood, Satala, Gollings, Burke, Bemand, Leonard, Fuga, Dawson, Davison, Codling, Tiatia, Vos, Diprose.

Replacements: Cardinalli, Miall, Evans, Sheriff, M. Powell, Moore, Jewell.

Sin Bin: Tiatia (23).

Pens: Burke 4.

Leicester: Stimpson, Murphy, Smith, Kafer, Lloyd, Vesty, J. Hamilton, Rowntree, West, Tournaire, M. Johnson, Kay, Moody, Kronfeld, Corry.

Replacements: Freshwater for Rowntree (56), Garforth for Tournaire (56), Back for Kronfeld (64).

Not Used: Chuter, Balding, Booth, Tierney.

Sin Bin: Moody (7).

Tries: Stimpson, Moody.

Pens: Stimpson 3.

Att: 8,123

Ref: Chris White (RFU).