Match action
AFTER refereeing flawlessly for most of the match, Christophe Ridley gave Harlequins a bonus point victory by awarding a penalty try in added time that, in terms of the law book, was wrong.
Whether there was a poetic justice to Harlequins winning is a different matter, given that just before the start of a mad additional six minutes, the home side, trailing 30-27, were denied a perfectly good try after shunting Exeter off their own put-in at a scrum five.
However, as an unmarked Gabriel Ibitoye was poised to score after the ball had been whipped wide, Ridley forfeited the advantage by blowing for a Harlequins penalty – and then immediately apologised to their players for his mistake.
At the six five-metre scrums that followed there was a case for Exeter fans to harbour the suspicion that the referee was leaning towards eradicating his earlier error.
The yellow card given to Chiefs loose-head Alec Hepburn at the fourth of them was debatable – but not as debatable as the decision taken when Exeter got some traction at the final scrum, only to find themselves on the receiving end of a penalty try when the ball squirted out and Don Armand dived for it.
There was no question of a probable Harlequins try being scored – but the referee’s decision was final, and the Stoop erupted in celebration.
Harlequins had reason to celebrate because, despite their lengthy injury list, they gave the league leaders as good as they got during a cut-and-thrust contest.
Part of an intriguing script were head-to-heads between Alex Dombrandt and Sam Simmonds – two No.8s eager to force their way into England contention – and two of the league’s most promising young fly-halves, Marcus Smith and Joe Simmonds.
All of them finished in credit in an action-packed encounter, which began with Exeter’s veteran fullback Phil Dollman rounding off a foray by his forwards by selling a dummy and cutWith ting inside Smith to open the scoring with only two minutes played.
Joe Simmonds, who has hardly missed a goal-kick all season, added the extras, and although their lead was soon cut to 7-3 when Smith got Quins off the mark with a penalty from a scrum, he replied in kind to make it 10-3 after ten minutes.
Midway through the first half Harlequins squared it at 10-10 after a Smith chip had earned them a fivemetre scrum, which saw Paul Lasike blast through from a Danny Care tap penalty.
Smith converting, and then kicking a penalty which was soon answered by one from Joe Simmonds, it was 13-13 at half-time – although a close range try by bench lock Tevita Cavubati, converted by Smith, put Harlequins in the driving seat early in the second half.
This prompted Joe Simmonds to go into overdrive, scoring two tries in a threeminute blitz, the first with an outside-break which capitalised on a strong carry by brother Sam, and the second with a scintillating run which left James Chisholm, Mark Lambert – who was celebrating his 250th Quins appearance – and Care clutching at shadows.
The Exeter fly-half converted both to give the Chiefs a 27-20 lead – however, Smith was not prepared to be upstaged, and on the hour his touchdown after an electric outside-break saw him convert to level it at 27-27.
Soon afterwards, Exeter took a three-point lead from a Joe Simmonds penalty after Nick Auterac was sinbinned for a slap-down – and that is how it stayed until the refereeing conundrum closed the show in Harlequins’ favour.