EMBARASSING LOSS AT EXETER: Exeter 39 - 13 Harlequins

Sandy Park has all too often been a graveyard to Harlequins’ hopes and victories and so it proved again as an abject performance saw  Exeter inflict a crushing defeat by 39 – 13.  It was a performance that left Conor O’Shea embarrassed and angry and disappointed.  “I feel pretty embarrassed, if I’m honest, pretty emotional and pretty frustrated too, because we didn’t look like a top side out there. It just wasn’t us and that is what is so hard to take.”

The hard and unpalatable truth is that this was an abject, error strewn performance that positively invited Exeter to inflict Quins’ second defeat of the season.   A very early penalty allowed Botica to open the scoring, but a long range kick from Slade balanced the scores and then Steenson added another three points for an unnecessary offside,

Quins’ lack of accuracy and Exeter’s line speed and physicality were leaving Quins little room or time to develop an attack. Then disaster struck as Botica’s clearance was charged down and Thomas Waldron was able to follow the ball, gather it and score a try that was duly converted by Steenson. Botica had two more chances of points but the first kick rebounded from the right hand post although the second scored so the score was 13 – 6. Then, in the last five minutes of the half, two more penalties were successfully kicked by Slade, from distance and Steenson to leave Exeter leading 19 – 6 at the interval.

The start of the second half gave some hope that Quins would tighten their performance and start to play as they can. Botica broke a tackle and a run from Lindsay-Hague and Quins were in their opponents’ territory. An attack involving Yarde and Brown appeared to have given the full back an easy score, but it was disallowed for an alleged knock on. Quins were awarded a penalty at the subsequent scrum and sought to drive from a lineout. Gradually the ball was worked nearer the centre and nearer the try line until it reached Tikoirotuma who crossed for the try. Botica added the extras.

However, it was a false dawn. Unforced errors continued and Lindsay-Hague dropped the restart kick. The pack conceded a penalty at the subsequent scrum and Steenson gleefully took three more points. Quins continued to be under pressure at both scrum and lineout and could not benefit from the yellow card shown to Nowell for a dangerous tackle on Mike Brown.

Instead they failed to defend the winger’s channel and a fine cross-kick fell into the hands of the Exeter full back, Dollman, who put Yeandle over for a try. The conversion followed and worse was still to come as a long pass out to the same wing found it undefended and Slade duly went over for a good try. The conversion brought the final score to 39 – 13.

This was a poor performance from Harlequins and must be encouraging to those teams about to face them. No wonder the Director of Rugby was embarrassed!