Matt Toomua says Leicester Tigers made the most of their chance to command the scoreboard from early on in Saturday’s Gallagher Premiership win over Harlequins.

A score from Jonah Holmes followed an early penalty from George Ford as Tigers led 10-0 after 15 minutes and the wing dotted down a second to stretch the lead to 23-9 at half-time on the way to a 34-25 bonus-point triumph.

“It’s a while since we’ve been first tryscorers,” said Tigers centre Toomua. “To take the lead was really good because we’ve played a lot this year from behind and then you have to over-play a bit. So it was nice to build a lead and maintain that through the game.

“Quins mixed their linespeed really well and with Paul Gustard in charge he’s obviously very good at defence so they were tough to attack but we found some chances and got the tries.

“Those two tries in the first half help because it starts to open the game up. Myself and George Ford were keeping an eye on the chance to get a bonus point and it we did with about 15 minutes left which is pretty good.”

Victory – and the end of an eight-match losing run in all competitions – came at the end of a week disrupted by illness in the camp, particularly in the backline where Toomua, Manu Tuilagi, Ben Youngs, Gareth Owen and Ben White had been among those affected.

“I think I may have started it,” admitted Toomua. “I’m a bit worried that I spread it!

“It was a bit ‘clunky’ in the week, we cancelled two sets of training but we got to matchday and you crack on. Sometimes it can be a good thing because you just simplify things and play and maybe that helped a bit. All things considered, we have to be happy with the five points.

“But now, after a couple of days over Christmas, we go to Bath and we have to look to get some momentum going.”