Last-gasp Ewers try earns Chiefs win over Quins
EXETER’S famous determination enabled them to cling on to second place in the Premiership table as they pulled off the great escape after trailing for 75 minutes.
They finally snatched victory when Dave Ewers, on his 150th top-flight Chiefs appearance, dived over five minutes from time and sure-boot Joe Simmonds landed the crucial conversion.
“That was a big game which could have launched them into second place so it was a superimportant four points for us,” said Exeter forwards coach Rob Hunter.
Danny Care is surplus to requirements with Eddie Jones but the 84-cap former England scrumhalf is still pulling all the strings for resurgent Harlequins and he had put them in pole position to achieve victory over the English and European champions.
But you should never write off Exeter and they overturned a 20-7 deficit to snatch this one-point win.
Early on, Marcus Smith and Care made significant contributions in both defence and attack as Harlequins thwarted two Exeter breakaway attacks before taking the lead.
The Quins fly-half produced a last-ditch tackle to deny his opposite No.10 metres from the line after Joe Simmonds evaded the first tackle and turned on the burners to evade Mike Brown.
Then it was last-man Care to the rescue in a similar position after Tom O’Flaherty collected a high ball inside his own half, evaded his challengers and raced 60 metres towards the line.
Harlequins responded with a well-crafted try to open the scoring. Smith’s short pass inside to James Chisholm wrong-footed Exeter and Alex Dombrandt made the hard yards before releasing Care on his run to the line.
The Chiefs drew level after Joe Simmonds guided a penalty into touch just short of the Quins line.
Jannes Kirsten claimed the ball and, instead of producing the trademark Exeter driving maul, passed down to scrum-half Stu Townsend who rounded the mass of forwards to touch down and, with Joe Simmonds converting from wide out, the Chiefs were level.
Smith restored Harlequins’ lead with a penalty from in front of the posts but, with Exeter defending desperately, Care squandered their chance of another score with a miscued drop-goal attempt to close the half.
Harlequins produced a typical Exeter-style try to move further ahead with a lineout drive taking former Wales hooker Scott Baldwin over with Smith landing the touchline conversion.
Care’s sublime sidefooted kick between the posts for Ben Tapuai to touch down appeared to have produced a peach of a try for the visitors but it was ruled out for an earlier knock-on.
Smith’s second penalty extended the lead to 20-7 before Exeter hit back when, with Harlequins expecting a penalty into the corner Townsend cheekily decided to tap and go. He was stopped just short but three drives later Harry Williams – an England prop earlier in the Six Nations – drove over and, with Simmonds landing the touchline conversion, the deficit was down to six points.
With Exeter’s bench players making the bigger impact, the late surge produced their third try for Ewers after the two Simmonds brothers had both gone close.
With Brown and Smith at the forefront, Quins launched a final surge but conceded a penalty at the breakdown and Exeter survived.