Another Prem match, another comeback win. So common are they these days that it hardly needs mentioning that this one had Harlequins overturning the 17-point deficit by which they trailed after little more than half an hour, only to score 34 unanswered points in the next 50 minutes of rugby.
Their interest in the playoffs ended some months ago, such has been their form this season, but their hopes of European rugby have been helped no end by this romp at the big stadium across the road.
Exeter are still in contention for those playoffs, but if you were to tell them after that first half-hour they would be coming away with only the try bonus point they had just secured, they might not have believed you.
After their vital win over champions Bath the previous Sunday, the legs of their heavy forwards started to look weary, as the six-day turnaround started to tell in the wide-open spaces of HQ. Exeter remain in fourth, but they could have put themselves all but out of reach of the chasing pack had they not fallen away.
Boris Wenger was the unlikely figure to apply the icing on the Harlequins cake, intercepting a forced pass as Exeter tried to run the ball out from their 22 with the clock red, and milking the stadium’s euphoria as he ran to the posts for their sixth try.
Will Evans, another replacement, had just put the game to bed, when he finished out wide after Alex Dombrandt and Chandler Cunningham-South, Quins’ excellent performers in the back row, had scattered the Exeter defence with five minutes to go. All that after a rare kicked penalty by Marcus Smith had put the hosts in front for the first time with only 10 minutes to go.
Quite the turnaround then, but if comeback wins are de rigueur these days, there was something of an edge missing throughout, more jolly day out than intense crucible. The visitors were the first to capitalise on the looseness. They had a bonus point shortly after the half-hour mark, when Len Ikitau picked a killer line which took him through Jamie Benson and over the whitewash.
Benson was playing out of position at full-back, and the fly-half had a torrid time with the heavy-duty runners coming at him. Paul Brown-Bampoe also trampled over him on the way to Stephen Varney’s try, Exeter’s second, in the 10th minute.
Quick Guide
Harlequins 41-24 Exeter teams and scorers
Show
Harlequins Benson; Anderson (Isgro 67), Northmore, Bradley, Murley; M Smith, Friday (Porter 59); Hobson (Wenger 63), Riley, Delgado (Streeter 53), Carr (Evans 53), Williams (Green 59), Cunningham-South, Kenningham (Driscoll 59), Dombrandt. Tries Kenningham, Northmore, Murley, Porter, Evans, Wenger. Cons M Smith 3. Pen M Smith.
Exeter Woodburn; Brown-Bampoe (Feyi-Waboso 55), Slade, Ikitau (Haydon-Wood 55), Ridl; Skinner, Varney; Sio, Norey (Dweba 53), Iosefa-Scott (Tchumbadze 53), Jenkins, Zambonin, Hooper (Tuima 75), Tshiunza, Vintcent (Worley-Brady 67). Yellow card Tchumbadze 72. Tries Ridl, Varney, Norey, Ikitau. Cons Slade 2.
Referee Matthew Carley.
Not that he was alone in missing tackles. Neither side’s defence was great, the half-full stadium, if that, and chill breeze lending proceedings a half-throttle feel. Not that the occasion lacked its moments, those two tries probably the pick of the first half, but this strangely uncompetitive season has meant a lot of these games as the sharp end approaches are lacking a certain bite.
Campbell Ridl opened the scoring in the seventh minute, finding himself with an age to gather Harvey Skinner’s cross-kick following an attacking lineout. Varney’s try followed quickly, before Jack Kenningham scored Quins’ first, picking and going off Bryn Bradley’s hard carry from a lineout. Max Norey finished smartly at the front of another attacking set piece to keep Exeter in credit, before Ikitau earned them that bonus point.
Luke Northmore’s amble to the line through a massive hole for Quins’ second five minutes before the break, following a fumble backwards by his centre partner Bradley, suggested all might not be well with the Chiefs’ defence either. Further evidence was to follow early in the second half.
Quick Guide
Bath back in form after thrashing Newcastle
Show
Henry Arundell scored four tries as Bath tightened their grip on second place in the Prem with a dominant 69-12 home victory over Newcastle.
By ending a run of three straight losses, Bath closed to within four points of leaders Northampton while pulling six points clear of third-placed Leicester ahead of the Tigers’ clash with Sale on Sunday and crunch trip to the Recreation Ground.
England wing Arundell crossed twice as Bath were unstoppable in racing to a 31-0 lead with five tries before half-time and Santiago Carreras was among those who got in on the act with six more following the break.
Newcastle finally managed to respond with a brace of tries from Alex Hearle but there was no real crumb of comfort the Red Bulls could take from another heavy defeat.
Quins, it should be said, were now playing with the snap we used to expect from them, which last week’s romp at Newcastle might suggest has returned. A lovely counterattack by Cameron Anderson set up Sam Riley for a gallop down the left, and another carry later Lucas Friday found Cadan Murley with a fabulous cut-out pass for Quins’ third.
Their fourth followed in similar fashion, early in the final quarter. Benson showed off his attacking wares with a brilliant run on the counterattack, holding the ball up like the playmaker he is to put Will Porter over. That drew Quins level with quarter of an hour to play. And they were not done.