Only 80 minutes into the season and the Zurich Premiership has already been turned upside down. From the moment their first-team coach Jon Callard found a fiver lying in the street on his way into work this was a day for Leeds to cherish and, on this evidence, last year's gallant underdogs are the competition's lithe new whippets.
What with Yorkshire's triumph at Lord's, it was definitely a weekend for the Headingley connoisseur and Leicester, despite their status as four-time champions, could easily have lost by more. Given they have dropped their opening matches in two of the past three seasons and still comfortably won the title each time, the Tigers will not panic, but already they will sense the rising standards behind them.
If much of the credit has to go to a bristling Leeds pack, who never contemplated a backward step and were particularly effective at the breakdown, normally Leicester's preserve, it was impossible not to share the visible pride and joy among the off-field architects of the Tykes' finest hour.
Their director of rugby Phil Davies could have taken an easier job elsewhere but instead signed a fresh contract in the belief that his task at Leeds was not yet complete. As for Callard, shabbily treated by Bath last season, the Yorkshire air has proved restorative.
In his darkest unemployed days, after being discarded in a manner he now likens to "a public execution", his confidence plummeted; suddenly the glint is back in his eye and he is visibly relishing his new role. "He'll keep smiling up here," predicted Davies. "My jokes are good."
Mark Regan, another west country refugee, is also a man transformed to the point where his wife has apparently never known him happier. Mix in the sharp new half-back pairing of the Irishman Derek Hegarty and the young Scottish fly-half Gordon Ross, the Samoan muscle of the splendidly named George Harder and the chirpy Pumas winger Diego Albanese and there is a cutting edge that the Tykes did not possess last season.
It is worth recalling that without Rotherham's failure to meet the criteria for premiership entry Leeds would have been playing National One rugby this season, which, for all those connected with the club, would have been a terrible waste. This time around Davies senses there will be no repeat of last year's scenario, when they enjoyed a stirring opening win over Callard's Bath and still finished 12th. "There was a lot more shape and structure to what we did today. We're getting better all the time."
There was certainly no point in Leicester, also well beaten here last season during the November international period, blaming back-line injury problems for their discomfort. Leeds, looking mustard-keen after a summer partly spent training with the Light Dragoon Guards, lost their ace goalkicker Braam van Straaten after half an hour yet still pressed forward at every opportunity and deservedly scored first when Harder gathered a rolling chip ahead and gave an overhead pass to the supporting Dan Scarbrough.
Leicester did rally somewhat in the second half after Ben Kay was sin-binned for a retaliatory offence, Austin Healey scoring from Neil Back's pass with his side effectively down to 13 men as a result of Steve Booth receiving treatment. Mostly, though, they had as much trouble getting the ball in the right areas of Headingley as England's seam attack recently did against India.
A drop-goal and three penalties from the influential Ross, who belatedly found his range after an earlier attempt embarrassingly failed to make the 22-metre line, put Leeds back in front and five missed Tykes kicks were forgotten when the talented Scarbrough, the second highest try-scorer in last season's premiership, posted his second try in injury-time.
"Sitting in the dressing room you'd have thought we'd lost the European Cup final," said Richards, hinting that the Tigers would, as ever, use the disappointment to bounce back stronger. Already one senses they may have to.
Leeds: Scarbrough; Harder, Davies, Van Straaten (Hall, 25; Emerson, 65), Albanese; Ross, Hegarty (Dickens, 57); Shelley (capt), Regan (Holt, 77), Kerr, Murphy (Campbell, 57), Palmer, Mather, Hyde, Feaunati.
Tries: Scarbrough 2. Cons: Van Straaten, Ross. Pens: Ross 3. Drop goal: Ross.
Yellow card: Hyde 80.
Leicester: Stimpson; Booth, Smith, Hipkiss (Naufahu, 51), Tuilagi; Healey (Vestey, 80), Hamilton (Ellis, h-t); Rowntree (Freshwater, 60), West, Tournaire, M Johnson (capt), Kay, Kronfeld (W Johnson, 66), Back, Corry.
Try: Healey. Con: Stimpson. Pens: Stimpson 2.
Yellow card: Kay 49.
Referee: C White (Cheltenham).
