Chiefs 29 Harlequins 30

Exeter Chiefs 29

Harlequins 30

Mark Stevens at Sandy Park

Exeter Chiefs saw their hopes of lining up alongside Europe's elite next season finally ended as a late Tom Guest have Harlequins a narrow victory in a pulsating encounter at Sandy Park.

The Quins' replacement crossed with just minutes remaining to ensure the Londoners - who had not led until that point - not only headed back to the capital with all five points, but at the same time kept alive their own hopes of being in the Aviva Premiership's end of season play-offs.

It was indeed a bitter pill to swallow for the Chiefs who, it has to be said, were much improved on their last home outing when they suffered a record top flight loss to Sale Sharks.

For head coach Rob Baxter, a summer of assessment and reflection now awaits following their final run-out at Newcastle Falcons this Saturday, but he will at least take heart from this latest display which did at least underline some of the traditional Exeter values of hard work, grit and determination.

Dave Lewis and Matt Jess both crossed for Exeter tries, whilst fly-half Gareth Steenson did the remainder of the damage with 19 points from his trusty right boot.

However, Harlequins were always able to stay in touch as their own playmaker, Kiwi ace Nick Evans, helped himself to half of his side's points, while Ugo Monye, Danny Care and Guest completed the scoring with a try apiece.

Having had a fortnight to wallow in the disappointment of the loss to Sale, the Chiefs came into this game having made four changes to their line-up. All of them came up front where Carl Rimmer, Luke Cowan-Dickie and Hoani Tui formed a new front-row and skipper Dean Mumm was restored to the second row having missed out last time due to a shoulder injury.

Early doors, though, it was Harlequins who set the tone as centre Jordan Turner-Hall threatened the home line with the first meaningful attack of the game after just four minutes of play. Unlike the Sharks game, the Chiefs defence was proving much tougher to crack and having absorbed the early pressure, Exeter ventured down field to claim the opening points on seven minutes when Steenson slotted the first of five penalties after hooker Dave Ward was penalised for coming in at the side of the ruck.

Not long after and Ward - along with Joe Marler - were both pulled up by referee Andrew Small for straying offside. This time, Steenson punted to the corner and from the resultant line-out, the Chiefs drove off Damian Welch's catch to set-up Lewis, who was able to snipe off the back of the maul and under the sticks for the converted try.

It was seemingly the perfect opening quarter for the Chiefs, but straight from the restart they allowed their rivals to regather possession, work the ball through a series of phases to returning winger Monye, who did the rest as he simply brushed aside the attentions of Steenson to score in the right-hand corner.

Exeter made light of the momentary blip and as the half drew towards the close, they extended their lead to 11 points as Steenson's metronomic right boot landed two more telling blows to give his team a comfortable lead at the interval.

HALF TIME EXETER CHIEFS 16 HARLEQUINS 5

Into the second period and the Chiefs were quickly into the stride once more, the forwards creating the platform for their backs to work space for Whitten wide on the right. Taking the ball on the charge, the Irishman pinned back his ears drawing the Quins' cover into range and then shipping the ball to the onrushing Jess, who did the rest as he sprinted clear of Monye to score under the posts. Steenson once more obliged with the additional extras to put his team firmly in command of proceedings.

Sadly, the Chiefs could not push on as they allowed former All Blacks star Evans to take centre stage.

First, he showed some fancy footwork to leave the home defenders bamboozled on his way to scoring and converting his own try; then with Welch sent to the sin-bin for deliberately halting Care as he looked to take a quick tap penalty, he slotted the easy three-pointer to put his side within touching distance of their Devon counterparts.

Suddenly with their tails up, Harlequins threatened once more as England skipper Chris Robshaw charged down a Lewis clearance to set-up Kyle Sinckler on the run. The tight-head prop, though, did not have the pace on this occasion to finish the job, Jess hunting him down with a brilliant try-saving tackle just before the hour mark.

Although thwarted on that occasion, Evans continued to punish Exeter - this time for collapsing a scrum deep inside their own 22 - with another penalty to make it 23-18 entering into the final phase of the game.

But anything Evans could do, Steenson was able to replicate just as well. The Dungannon-born back added his fourth penalty of the afternoon on 61 minutes when Marler was singled out for a late hit on Exeter's replacement scrum-half Haydn Thomas.

Marler soon atoned for his indiscretion as he combined cleverly with England colleague Robshaw to set-up the dashing Care, who darted clear of the home cover to score another converted try and leave just a point in it.

Steenson did his best to keep the visitors at bay with yet another penalty late on, but just as it looked as though the Chiefs may just have kept their European Champions Cup aspirations flickering for another week, Harlequins pounced to sink them in the dying moments.

Having won a penalty, Ward's short line-out move to Guest saw the two exchanges passes before the latter was able to cross with easy for a vital score.

Evans failed miserably with the testing touchline conversion, but it did not really matter as his team-mates happily collected the resultant restart and probed their way down field to sign off the match without too much issue.
Chiefs: P Dollman; F Vainikolo, I Whitten (T James 72), S Hill (H Slade 68), M Jess; G Steenson, D Lewis (H Thomas 60); C Rimmer (C Mitchell 68), L Cowan-Dickie (J Yeandle 60), H Tui (A Brown 60); D Mumm (capt), D Welch; D Ewers (J Scaysbrook 24), B White (J Phillips 71), K Horstmann.

Tries - Lewis, Jess; Conversions - Steenson (2); Penalties - Steenson (5)

Yellow Card: Welch

Quins: O Lindsay-Hague; T Williams (R Chisholm 71), T Molenaar, J Turner-Hall, U Monye; N Evans, D Care (K Dickson 77); J Marler, D Ward, K Sinckler; C Matthews, N Kennedy (T Guest 61); L Wallace (M Fa’asavalu 60), C Robshaw (capt), N Easter. Replacements (not used): R Buchanan, M Lambert, P Doran Jones, B Botica.

Tries - Monye, Evans, Care, Guest; Conversions - Evans (2); Penalties - Evans (2)

Referee: A Small

Attendance: 10,199

UP NEXT FOR THE CHIEFS: v Newcastle Falcons (A), Aviva Premiership, Saturday, May 10 (3.15pm)