Head coach Matt O’Connor says Australia international Matt Toomua was “outstanding” after starting at fly-half in Saturday’s win over Harlequins.

Toomua has played at inside centre for Tigers since his arrival last season, but moved to the No10 shirt in the Aviva Premiership Round 15 fixture, contributing 23 points in a 33-18 victory.

“He’s always been a 10,” said O’Connor. “I signed him out of school as a 10 and he has played a lot of rugby there in his career. Matt is a Test quality 10 and we saw that against Quins.

“We all know what Matt brings at centre but for a bloke who has not had much time at 10 recently, I thought he was outstanding. He kicked well, he was instrumental in a couple of tries, he moved the Quins defence around and got Manu and Telusa into space.

“I thought Matt and Sam Harrison at half-back managed the game very well and we had more momentum and from there we got points.”