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| Exeter 29 - Harlequins 30 |
By Shaun Wren
Harlequins hopes of
getting into the play-offs are still alive with a bonus point victory
against Exeter who are out of the race for a spot in the European Champions Cup.
In
a match which saw Gareth Steenson scoring 19 points and Nick Evans
getting 15 points it was a good day to be a fly half, even better if
you were a Quins supporter.
Even before a ball was
kicked, the semi-final contenders had to make two last minute changes
which saw Six Nations player of the tournament Mike Brown fail a late
fitness test and was replaced by Ollie Lindsay-Hague. While winger
Sam Smith took a knock in yesterday’s team run and was replaced by
Ugo Monye who made his first appearance since March.
For the first eight
minutes Quins were in control, as it looked like Nick Kennedy scored
a try three minutes into the match but scrum half Danny Care knocked
it on. The Chiefs got back into the game as Dave Lewis showed his
threat with a 30 metre run.
Then on the eighth
minute, the Chiefs got the first points of the game with Gareth
Steenson’s penalty. A superb maul quickly followed from Exeter to
get them 3 metres from the line. Scrum half Lewis took his chances,
scoring the first try of the game under the posts. With Steenson
converting, the Devon side were 10 points up.
Their lead however was
cut in half within two minutes, as some quick hands got the ball to
Monye who had the strength to do the rest and scored his first try of
the season but Nick Evans missed the conversion with Chiefs still
leading 10-5.
Chiefs scored two more
penalties before half time with Steenson kicking over on the 23rd
minute and on the death of half time the Chiefs fly half kicked clear
from a scrum. But his chase along with Ian Whitten focused Monye to
penalise and Rob Baxter’s side went into half time 16-5 up.
HT – 16-5
Four minutes into the
second half and the Chiefs carried on from the first half after they
turned over the ball and went on the attack. Whitten set the ball up
brilliantly for winger Matt Jess, who dotted over the line and
Steenson converted to extend their lead to 18.
Harlequins finally woke
up and fly-half Evans sliced past the Exeter defence to score a
brilliant solo try which he converted. The Quins looked set to
overtake the home side with the score at 23-15 and they didn't stop
there.
Luck wasn’t on the
Chiefs side either, as second row Damian Welch was sin binned. With
Quins taking the three points and with 20 minutes left, they cut the
Chiefs lead with Evans converting another easy penalty.
Steenson replied
quickly with his own penalty but the Harlequins used their offloading
style to put Care under the posts with 13 minutes left to play.
Even though the boot of
Steenson kicked another three points, Harlequins scored off a line out with a cheeky one-two between hooker Dave Ward and replacement prop Tom
Guest. The saviour for Harlequins, which could put them into the
play-offs and which ended Exeter’s chance of getting into Europe
next season.
FT 29-30