Late show from Harlequins as Marcus Smith shines to help the Quins beat 14-man Exeter Chiefs

Thanks to Marcus Smith’s late conversion, defending Premiership Champions Harlequins a 14-12 victory over Exeter Chiefs.

The Quins welcomed back Joe Marler to their starting lineup along with Cadan Murley following their victory against Gloucester just a week ago.

On the contrary, the Chiefs were without their skipper and England international Luke Cowan-Dickie, one of five changes from their 19-13 victory over the Bristol Bears.

Harlequins were asserting themselves physically early on, dominating in the ruck and putting real pressure on Exeter. They were duly rewarded for this as England international Joe Marchant skipped past an array of the Chiefs players to touch down for the opening try of the game.

As the game reached the end of its first quarter, the hosts squandered multiple opportunities to extend their lead and really will have felt as though they should have been out of sight.

Smith set a precedent for the entire game by making a pinpoint crossfield kick to find Marchant, who would have gone over for his second if it was not for an innocuous bounce preventing him from gathering the ball.

Subsequently, Exeter turned the game on its head and made the Quins pay for their missed opportunities. A prolonged spell of pressure from the Devon side was withstood with some stout defending from the hosts. However, Joe Simmonds popped the ball up to Henry Slade who took advantage of the static Quins to go in at the corner.

Having just levelled the scores and got themselves right back into the game, the Chiefs quickly became masters of their own downfall with Alec Hepburn getting himself sent off.

It was a simple clearout situation at the breakdown which saw Sam Simmonds charge in with the initial hit on Joe Marler, however, it was the tip from Hepburn and the apparent force applied to drive the Quins man headfirst into the ground that sealed his fate as the referee correctly dished out the red card after a long review.

With the extra man, Harlequins had the wind in their sails and should have wrapped the game up on multiple occasions. The first, and arguably most glaring opportunity missed, came when the hosts had manufactured a three-on-one situation with the ball in hand.

Tyrone Green had the choice of going alone or finding the inside or outside options, but as the South African attempted to go for the outside option, he made an absolute hash of the pass and threw it into touch.

Unfortunately for Green, this was not the only opportunity he squandered. A long ball out to Marchant would have seen a simple try, but this time it was overcooked and his teammate was unable to gather the ball.

Harlequins continued to put rampant pressure on their weakened opponents, pushing for almost a full 10 minutes with attack after attack, but somehow Exeter defence held firm, and they were able the escape unscathed. After sustaining the constant threat from the Quins, this is when Rob Baxter’s Chiefs saw their opportunity.

After winning a penalty, many would have suspected that the visitors would go for the easy three points and look to get their noses ahead. Instead, they went for the try giving them their best chance of winning the game.

The initial chance from the line out was actually missed, but panic in the Quins defence led to a mistake, gifting the ball back to Exeter. At the second time of asking, Jack Innard was able to bundle his way over the line as the Chiefs took the lead,

Exeter were making life very difficult for their hosts and it was clear that it was going to take some real quality to break down this resolute outfit.

Marcus Smith stepped up to the challenge as he took up an almost quarterback role, picking out his targets with accurate kicks. The first kick came agonisingly close to coming off as the 22-year-old found Louis Lynagh, but the decision to let the ball bounce came back to bite the wing-back.

With minutes to spare in a crucial fixture at the top of the Premiership, these are the games where legends can be made and Smith took a giant leap towards such a title with his picture-perfect kick, this time finding Andre Esterhuizen who made no mistake and dove over in the corner.

However, with the scores level, once again the weight of the world was put on the shoulders of the 22-year-old. A conversion in the very corner, with a packed Twickenham Stoop watching in anticipation, Smith curled the ball beautifully in off the post to secure a Harlequins win.

It was a dramatic late victory for the Quins, who certainly made hard work of a game that they could have won far more comfortably.

With that being said, Exeter did remarkably well to defend so stoutly with a man down and were incredibly bold to go for the victory despite their obvious disadvantage. With Saracens losing out at home to Gloucester, Harlequins were able to close the gap as they target that home semi-final. Exeter meanwhile, have since dropped to sixth and still find themselves in a scrap to reach the play-offs.

Attentions now turn to European commitments for both sides with a European Champions Cup doubleheader on the horizon. The Quins look to seal their place in the knockout stages as they face Cardiff Rugby with the Chiefs welcoming the Glasgow Warriors.

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