Quins snatch dramatic win as Exeter pay heavy penalty

Paul Gustard endured a gamut of emotions before Harlequins eventually got the better of a dramatic arm-wrestle with Exeter Chiefs and forced their opponents into submission.

A controversial finish to a breathless contest saw referee Christophe Ridley lift his arm for the umpteenth time to punish the visitors’ scrum. This time, rather than another penalty, it was to award the hosts a penalty try to lower the colours of the Premiership leaders.

Ridley infuriated Gustard and his players 90 seconds from time by failing to let Quins play on after signalling a penalty. Danny Care’s pass had been caught and run over the line by wing Gabriel Ibitoye, but Ridley stopped the action. A try then would surely have given Quins, trailing 30-27, the victory.

Several scrum penalties later, deep into time added on, Ridley awarded the penalty try, having already sent prop Alec Hepburn to the sin bin. Gustard’s fury was replaced by relief at his side leaping into sixth place in the table.

“I’m an emotional person at the best of times,” he said. “My frustration was we had penalty advantage and threw the ball over to score a try, which wasn’t allowed to stand. We kept going and kept going, and the referee finally got the decision right at the end.”

Rob Baxter, Exeter’s director of rugby, was diplomatic despite feeling Ridley had wrongly awarded the try. “I just asked him what was the rationale behind his decision, because I didn’t see a try being scored there.”

Both number 10s, Quins’ Marcus Smith and Exeter’s Joe Simmonds, were outstanding. Simmonds contributed 25 points, with two fine tries.

Full-back Phil Dollman charged over for a fourth-minute try for the visitors, but Quins centre Paul Lasike bulldozed his way through to help level at 13-13 at the break. Prop Tevita Cavubati surged over for only his second Quins try, but Simmonds scored two fine tries, which he also converted.

Not to be upstaged, Smith dashed across and added the extras to level. A Simmonds penalty, after Quins’ Nick Auterac had been shown a yellow card for a deliberate knock on, gave the visitors the advantage. Chiefs lost Ollie Devoto to the sin bin before a storming finish from Quins and a series of reset scrums led to the penalty try.