Easter makes statement to Lancaster
The call for Nick Easter to make a return to the International stage seems to be gathering pace after an excellent performance against Leicester Tigers which saw him help Harlequins to a 32-12 victory on Saturday.
Harlequins secured a bonus-point win to drag themselves back into the play-off hunt thanks to scores from Danny Care, Jack Clifford, Marland Yarde and Tim Swiel but it was Easter who will dominate the headlines.
Following a suspected broken leg to Gloucester's Ben Morgan on Friday night, the England No.8 cupboard looks bare at present which could pave the way for Easter's return, with Quins director of rugby Conor O'Shea revealing Easter, at the tender age of 36, is keen to return for Stuart Lancaster's men.
The veteran forward was involved in everything good about Harlequins on his 250th appearance for the club and even set Care away for the game's opening score.
"Nick Easter wants to play for England. On that sort of performance today [he was incredible], as well as the Leinster game, when he played against Jamie Heaslip," O'Shea said.
"I also thought Danny Care was outstanding, I hope he has proven that when he plays the way he can that he's a match winner. I felt we have turned the corner. We needed a win like this to really get us buzzing, and speaking of buzzing, we have Wasps next week in Europe.
"I'm very happy to get that win because we needed it more than them. We needed to get ourselves back in the mix as it's so tight, it's going to be a dogfight right to the end for everybody, bar probably the top two."
The Tigers had lost just one Premiership game since the start of the October prior to kick-off and that confidence showed in the opening quarter as they started like an express train and dominated in the loose, with Owen Williams keeping the scoreboard ticking with the boot.
But after the 20 minute mark and Care's try, the game turned on its head and it became one-way traffic. It was fitting Quins should secure a bonus-point with their fourth try in the last minute after dominating the last hour.
"We didn't finish our opportunities, we created lots of opportunities, but in the end we got what we deserved," Leicester boss, Richard Cockerill said.
"It's disappointing we got nothing out of the game and conceded four tries, it doesn't quite tell the picture of how the game was, but that's the game.
"If you're a little bit off in this competition you get punished. I have got no complaints with the referee particularly, I'm really disappointed for ourselves, and the opportunities that we produced that we didn't take advantage of.
"We created a lot of opportunities and we gave away silly penalties, they played with a good tempo and Nick Easter's offload for the first try was very, very good."