Exeter Chiefs vs Harlequins

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Exeter Chiefs

15 Joe Simmonds
14 Jack Nowell
13 Henry Slade
12 Ian Whitten
11 Olly Woodburn
10 Harvey Skinner
9 Stu Townsend
1 Alec Hepburn
2 Luke Cowan-Dickie
3 Harry Williams
4 Ruben Van Heerden
5 Jonny Gray
6 Dave Ewers
7 Christ Tshiunza
8 Richard Capstick

Replacements

16 Jack Yeandle
17 James Kenny
18 Patrick Schickerling
19 Daffyd Jenkins
20 Sam Simmonds
21 Sam Maunder
22 Rory O’Loughlin
23 Stuart Hogg

Harlequins Starting XV

1. Joe Marler

2. Jack Walker - Captain

3. Wilco Louw

4. George Hammond

5. Irne Herbst

6. Jack Kenningham

7. Will Evans

8. Archie White

9. Lewis Gjaltema

10. Marcus Smith

11. Cadan Murley

12. Lennox Anyanwu

13. Joe Marchant

14. Nick David

15. Tyrone Green

Impact Players

16. George Head

17. Santiago Garcia Botta

18. Simon Kerrod

19. Dino Lamb

20. Matas Jurevicius

21. Danny Care

22. Tommy Allan

23. Luke Northmore

Referee: Ian Tempest

Assistant Referees: Joe James and Phil Watters.
TMO: Dean Richards.
Citing Officer: Brian Campsall

Weather Forecast
Sunny intervals and a gentle breeze from the north northwest.
Temperature will feel like 15 degrees
Low chance of rain

Television Coverage

SD Channel 408 BT Sports 1 from 1400
HD Channel 430 BT Sports 1 from 1400

Exeter Chiefs have won their last three Gallagher Premiership Rugby matches since their 33-40 defeat at Bristol on 20 May. Exeter have lost just twice at Sandy Park in Premiership Rugby in 2022, 26-27 to Wasps in February and 17-22 to Leicester in March.

Harlequins have won just one of their last four Gallagher Premiership Rugby matches: 40-31 at Newcastle in Round 1. That victory ended a run of three straight defeats on the road in the competition. Each club won its respective home game when the two teams met last season whilst Harlequins only victory at Sandy Park since 2014 was in the Premiership Rugby Cup in February 2020

Good looking team! Henry and Luke straight back in. God only knows what our best centre combo is!?
Harlequins not entirely full strength perhaps. Don't really know their team well enough tbh. Strong bench for us.

Chiefs 31 - 23 Harlequins

Will Collier is a big loss for them IMO, but Smith is arguably the most talented player in world rugby at the moment.
RvH has looked good when he's come on in the last 2 games. Huge back row!
2 very strong squads, should be a cracker.

Chiefs 25 Quins 18

Chiefs 30 Quins 23

Smith and Care can be a deadly combo, but Smith on his own is very good. Would rather have seen Yeandle rested but maybe his experience will be needed off the bench as LCDs first match back in a arduous position after injury.
We have the team to beat Quins, and if we keep the pace up expect Marler and Co to take the knee, have shoelace problems as they have done in the past to break up play. But they are a very good team on their day, and will have a point to prove after last week.

Chiefs 32-Quins 20



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:09:23:13:09:09 by clalan.

I think this could be high scoring.

Chiefs 35 Quins 28

Great squad with a strong bench. Think this will be a high scoring game, Chiefs 42 Quins 32.

Chiefs 32 Quins 27

Weather forecast good so, like others, expect a close, high scoring game.
Exeter 41 - 33 Harlequins

Good looking chiefs team, really looking forward to this one.
Staying positive
Chiefs 28 Quinn’s 21

Chiefs 28 - Quins 24

Should be an exciting game. Quins without Collier and Dombrandt a big loss for them. How the scrum is refereed and whether we can win our lineouts will be key. Marler v Harry very tasty as is Hepburn v Louw. Would have preferred Innard for Yendle, Jack Maunder for Sam and Kata for Whitts. Their back row is very good at turnovers. Kick chase needs to be good as they have good attacking ability from deep. Chiefs 37 Harlequins 30 with fingers very much crossed.

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cornwallchief
Should be an exciting game. Quins without Collier and Dombrandt a big loss for them. How the scrum is refereed and whether we can win our lineouts will be key. Marler v Harry very tasty as is Hepburn v Louw. Would have preferred Innard for Yendle, Jack Maunder for Sam and Kata for Whitts. Their back row is very good at turnovers. Kick chase needs to be good as they have good attacking ability from deep. Chiefs 37 Harlequins 30 with fingers very much crossed.

No Esterhuizen either. I've been following Anyanwu and although he has great potential, he was underwhelming last week.

It will be interesting to see how the centres match up.

Chiefs 24 Quins 14

Did Kata get a knock last week? IIRC, he came off at half time and didn't really seem to have done anything wrong to have been subbed.

Good to see we're getting some of the injured and rested back. I'm sure it'll still be a tough game but I'm going for Chiefs to keep their good start to the season going with something akin to our final game of last season .... Chiefs 45 Quins 36

I may be wrong though

Going for a Chiefs win this week, with the home support ringing out round the stadium we will nick the game right at the end, 37-36

Exe 28 - Quins 21 but I could be wrong.

Wow! Some seriously high scoring predictions here! Truly hope for a spectacle, but anticipate some cagey play that will slow the game down. Chiefs 27 Quin's 22

In Rob we trust.
By the way - cream on first. There's nothing to debate.

Expect Jack Maunder, Kata and Vermullen a bit miffed with selection, especially Maunder !

I’ll go for Exeter 34 Quins 17.

For a change I'm feeling positive for this one, quins missing 4 of there best players. We on the other hand have fielded our strongest team for some time. Chiefs 30 quins 21

Chiefs 38 - Quins 25

Two good sides going head to head but i think a few players will step up , spoke to Ian Whitton in the week and he said they were looking forward to this and really like to beat the quinns. so a cracker i expect with the chiefs coming out on top, 38- 17

I’m going high scoring too…. Excited about the starting 15 and strength on the bench. I also think that Dombrant and Esterhuizen are big losses for Quins…. But they always find a way to make this a close and high scoring contest
Chiefs 38 Quins 34
Really intrigued to hear what tunes the club come up with to build the atmosphere after listening to Robs pre-match….
Ex-zed-urrrrr, Ex-zed-urrrrr!!!

Chiefs 17 - 14 Quins.
Think this will be a tight game. Pretty sure JM will be a bit more than miffed !

Tight but LCD always give us something extra
And as others have said Dombrandt and Esterhuizen big losses
Chiefs win

Chiefs 21 15 Quins.

Strong looking selection and great to see the big guns coming back into the side. We had an exciting clash last time and they are generally close affairs, home win Chiefs 29- 24 Quins

We are Exeter, We are Chiefs

Chiefs 33 - 26 Quins

Chiefs 33 Quins 29

Going to be a great close match but our home strength against Quins should make the difference.
Mrs PC Exeter 34 Quins 31
PC Exeter 28 Quins 24

Going for Chiefs 31 Quins 29

Chiefs 35 Quins 28

Chiefs 40 quins 21

Try accompanied by racist chants. Some things never change

Not racist, don't bring that@#$%&on this site. Keep to your own.

Quote:

AH-64
Not racist, don't bring that@#$%&on this site. Keep to your own.

100%

Pathetic sour grapes.

Right result that we got the wrong way.

Sir not willing to police the break down and, at one point I thought Exeter were going to lose it by trying to play on the right side of the margins but, they wised up and started using some street smarts. Well done forwards for working it out in the end.

Quote:

Not Manichean
I think this could be high scoring.

What a game!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2022:09:25:17:35:32 by Chiefs!.

Christ was awesome today.. The young man is an absolute machine. Capstick looked good and both Jack and Woody looked hungry. But cannot overlook how easily Quins walked through our defence at times. That is unforgivable..

Also would like to address the 'Forward Pass' - You have to go not on the path of the ball, but by the players hands as the player had momentum on his side. Its explained better in this video than I can explain it and while a little dated, its still relevant.

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Chiefs!

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Not Manichean
I think this could be high scoring.

What a game!

Wasnt it?

Absolute cracker!!

Christ was superb today, that guy has real speed and we have to do everything possible to secure his contract long term. A weird game, Quins were really poor in the first half, which imo made us look better than perhaps we were, then second half we were really poor, which made Quins look better than they were !! We have a real problem with our defence, which is a hangover from last season, I have my views on this which I think I will keep to myself, but would like to hear others views on this ??

In my opinion the Hoggy pass was forward but not as forward as the final pass for Quin's first try so they cancelled each other out! 2 wrongs making a right result in this case........
It was a great result in the end. I did think our goose was cooked when Whitts gave away the penalty and his place on the pitch with 5 minutes left.
We didn't have to work very hard for our points in the first half,Quin's were more awful than we were brilliant imo. We did play well but were not as good as the half time scoreline suggested.
The first 5 minutes of the second half we should have put that game to bed but we have them an "in" and they took it.

Once the momentum swung we were blown open by countless individual errors backed up by more errors and it was embarrassing at times. Some of the errors and back to back penalties given away were quite shocking.
One thing I couldn't quite understand was making a raft of changes early in the second half that seemed to completely blow our cohesion.
We brought off Van Heerden who looked excellent to me,a real find,Ewers and Heppers all within a couple of minutes. They seemed to be our 3 main and most successful carriers in the first half.
I get that Heppers coming off was a bit unlucky in the circumstances but I personally wouldn't have taken off VH and Ewers at exactly the same time.
I would have quite happily taken that final score before the game but we have quite a lot of work ons before the next game.
Centres are a massive problem defensively and Joe was exposed a couple of times for their tries ,turning his back on the ball and not knowing where the ball was.
Christ was excellent,a real Motm performance. The only problem with that is Wales will call for the November internationals!
Great result,great entertainment and still lots of improvement to come hopefully 🤞

In Spain, didn’t see the first half but assumed it was in the bag. Arrived home to watch the second half and could hardly believe what i was seeing, but what an ending! Similar to how the Leicester game ended, last play of the match.
Looked to be a sparse crowd, what was the attendance?

Perfectly put Zyder.

IMO when Maunder came on the team slowed down, the days of both Maunder players have gone.

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Broken arrow
Christ was superb today, that guy has real speed and we have to do everything possible to secure his contract long term.

This is my concern.. Christ is Welsh Qualified and now capped for Wales also. So if he does re-sign with us, he won't be eligible for Wales (Unless he exploits the Craig Mitchell loophole and extends his current deal). I fear that keeping hold of Christ will be easier said than done as one of the regions can offer international rugby, something we cannot offer him...

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Chief Fire Water
IMO when Maunder came on the team slowed down, the days of both Maunder players have gone.

CFW is your tongue in your cheek hoping for a response from a certain contributor to the forum?
I was hoping for SM to come on to give things a bit of structure and leadership which we were lacking in 3rd quarter. To an extent he did that but was guilty of giving away a needless penalty on halfway at a crucial time but more damaging was his poor positioning at the uncontested scrum from which Northmore ran through Skinner. Had he placed himself on the open side of the scrum the defensive gap would have been narrower.
As for Stu you know what you’ll get but he keeps back rows on task and I don’t believe either SM or JM would have scored the try he scored.
I still miss Nic White!

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Thomas Hawk

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Broken arrow
Christ was superb today, that guy has real speed and we have to do everything possible to secure his contract long term.

This is my concern.. Christ is Welsh Qualified and now capped for Wales also. So if he does re-sign with us, he won't be eligible for Wales (Unless he exploits the Craig Mitchell loophole and extends his current deal). I fear that keeping hold of Christ will be easier said than done as one of the regions can offer international rugby, something we cannot offer him...

At the time I thought his signing was quite strange because of the Wales selection situation.
I can only guess that because of the previous problems with Tomas F for example that Rob and co have put something in place that circumnavigates this? It would seem very strange that we sign him and develop him then he goes off to a region when we know those rules are there without doing something to prevent it?

Quote:

Ljs399
Looked to be a sparse crowd, what was the attendance?

About 9500. Can't be more accurate than that.

In Rob we trust.
By the way - cream on first. There's nothing to debate.

I think i read somewhere that the welsh boys are on effectively open ended deals to avoid the Tomas Francis syndrome. How it is supposed to work goodness only knows.
My concerns were twofold from todays performance.
Once again our scrum was fragile, and we were damn lucky Marler and Collier were not available for Quins. As it is we leaked penalties at the scrum, and generally (14 in all-a number normally death to a win).
We were sliced apart almost at will by Quins backs, showing up our general lack of searing pace in the backs.

A good win but lots to work on.

RowanCroft / CFW, tempting, but not playing that game any more, my views are well known and haven’t changed. I do agree with your points about SM today though.

What a great game of rugby not for the fainthearted, the first half we blew them away but as always the quinns never lay down and die so fair play to them. personally I believe Ali will learn here as Imv
he removed a few key players at once which upset the balance. Hoggy made a difference but the best change was for Patrick to come on .He grafted, scored and during the end didn't get pushed over the line which was the key to winning. The boys did great today and they should be proud of themselves.On another note the attendance should be noted less than the Leicester match which must be making bells ring upstairs.

I raised the question of our defence after we conceded ten tries in the two pre-season games.

Either we have a new defensive structure that the players are not buying into or we have no idea about how we want to defend. Given the new defence coach's employment history I suspect that the latter is nearer the truth.

There aren't many games when you concede 6 tries and still win.

I think it disappointing that the Quins board is almost 100% blaming Tempest for the result. I thought he was worse for us than for them except in the final decision. It is my opinion that Dean Richards (TMO not ex DOR Newcastle) does not like Exeter. He reffed our first ever Premiership away game at Leicester and we were winning until he decided (IMO) that it was not acceptable for the new boys to win at Welford Road and the last 20 minutes of that game was one of the worst displays of reffing that I have witnessed in 50 years, so it came as no surprise that he wanted to deny us at the death.

And yes we were told that Christ and Jenkins were on open ended contracts to avoid them being poached by a Welsh regional side when we have developed them but, of course, they will be absent in the international windows.

It appeared to me that the defensive shortcomings were more a result of players not completing their tackles rather than systemic failings.

Well, what a game……………...
15 points: Dumnoniinomad;
11 Points: Mike the Shirt; Bold Eagle; Scottish Chief; Ouch that hurts;
10 Points: Cornwall Chief; Osmium;
9 Points: Andy15.1; Stokecanon; Moosechief; Lowerwatha;
8 Points: Currychef; Cully Chief; Chief Firewater;
7 Points: Plympton Chief; Keithbar54;
6 Points: Whiptonchief; Hankey; Ex58; Alain le Chief; Clalan; Broken Arrow; Rowancroft73; Not Manichean
5 Points: ExTedd Chief; Lapo;
4 Points: Mrs PC; Ljs399; Big Chief Little Chief; Last of the Beercans; Exeterfan; Fisher;
2 Points: Seaside Chief
Next week Sale away. They will have had a week off and we will be “welcomed” by Jonny Hill and Flats. It will be interesting to see what changes are made after some very poor tackling.

As a neutral it was a great game to watch. IMO the pass was flat and certainly not clear and obvious.

But mainly came to say what a player Christ Tshiunza is. I hadn't heard of him before this match. Haven't seen someone of his size with such superb all round abilities for a long time.

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APigUnderEachArm
As a neutral it was a great game to watch. IMO the pass was flat and certainly not clear and obvious.
But mainly came to say what a player Christ Tshiunza is. I hadn't heard of him before this match. Haven't seen someone of his size with such superb all round abilities for a long time.

Itoje? The Welsh coaches must be drooling!

Lots to work on in defence, some of the their scores were embarrassing, we gave them far to much respect and made them look better than they are.
They had a try from a forward pass, but that the way if goes sometimes, the slow mo shows our final was ok.
Great heart by both teams who both showed skill, the great thing is we never gave up, and got some rustiness out of those returning from injury.
We will need the play better than that again Sarries etc, and not go to sleep for large parts of second half.
Well done both teams.

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Lowerwatha

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APigUnderEachArm
As a neutral it was a great game to watch. IMO the pass was flat and certainly not clear and obvious.
But mainly came to say what a player Christ Tshiunza is. I hadn't heard of him before this match. Haven't seen someone of his size with such superb all round abilities for a long time.

Itoje? The Welsh coaches must be drooling!

I have only seen this match but on today's evidence, better than Itoje. At least from a speed around the park perspective.

Quote:

clalan
Lots to work on in defence, some of the their scores were embarrassing, we gave them far to much respect and made them look better than they are.
They had a try from a forward pass, but that the way if goes sometimes, the slow mo shows our final was ok.
Great heart by both teams who both showed skill, the great thing is we never gave up, and got some rustiness out of those returning from injury.
We will need the play better than that again Sarries etc, and not go to sleep for large parts of second half.
Well done both teams.

Totally. Defense was truly worrying. Quins have a fantastic back three, but we will need far more than that to make the playoffs. Over to you Omar...

Quote:

plymptonchief
It appeared to me that the defensive shortcomings were more a result of players not completing their tackles rather than systemic failings.

Completely agree. 1 try your ten gets run over and another Whitten stepped in when he didn't need to. First try happened due to 2 silly penalties being given away.

Kenny scrummaged well before it became uncontested and Quins are arguably the best scrummaging team in the prem. Hopefully Sio will be able to help Hepburn out with game time. Not convinced Skinner is a top 4 club starting fly half.

What a fantastic advert for rugby two sides deciding not to kick the leather off the ball all day but run each other into the ground. Yes there were mistakes in defence on both sides but largely created by the skills of attacking rugby, Smith at his best is always a delight to watch, his balance and vision are a real talent.

Our returning internationals looked slightly off the pace and will improve for the game time but for our very young first season players a marvellous experience of premiership rugby at full on. They will quickly pick up the pace and intensity of premiership rugby. Christ worthy of MOM a very strong performance reminds me of a young Tom Johnson.

The tedious comments from all the quins coaches about the last try do nothing for the game I’m afraid- was it clear and obvious of course it wasn’t and they should have an eye test if they think it was. Such poor losers.

Negative for us was our scrum gave them their momentum in the game something we need to improve.

A much better start to the season than last year and so pleasing to see the next crop of young players coming through.