Try-scorer: Mike Brown
Harlequins continued their 100 per cent record in Aviva Premiership 2011/12 with a hard-fought 19-13 win over Exeter at Twickenham Stoop.
A try from Mike Brown and fourteen points from the boot of Nick Evans helped Quins to the points.
Fans had to wait until well into the second-half for the first try to be scored, but Exeter's indiscipline in their own half gifted Quins a 9-0 interval lead courtesy of three Evans penalties. The home side's cause wasn't helped by the sin-binning of George Robson during the opening period.
The Chiefs had struggled to build pressure during the first half but were much brighter following the interval, and their early dominance yielded two opportunities for Ignacio Mieres to boot the visitors back in contention.
That made it 9-6 to Harlequins and the Chiefs took the lead minutes later through a try from Bryan Rennie. The South African got over the line after team-mate Sireli Naqelevuki had made an eye-catching break to put the visitors in a good position. Mieres added the conversion to make it 9-13 to Exeter, but their lead would last less than ten minutes.
Brown was the man to put the home side back in front, capitalising on the opportunity created by a tremendous team effort from Quins. The try came after Evans had reduced the deficit with a penalty and he was on the mark again with the conversion.
Exeter poured forward in the closing stages in search of the try that would win them the game but the Quins' defence held firm to secure victory.
The scorers:
For Harlequins:
Try: Brown
Con: Evans
Pen: Evans 4
For Exeter:
Try: Rennie
Con: Mieres
Pen: Mieres 2
Harlequins: 15 Mike Brown, 14 Seb Stegmann, 13 George Lowe, 12 Jordan Turner-Hall, 11 Sam Smith, 10 Nick Evans, 9 Karl Dickson, 8 Nick Easter, 7 Luke Wallace, 6 Chris Robshaw (capt), 5 George Robson, 4 Ollie Kohn, 3 James Johnston, 2 Chris Brooker, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Joe Gray, 17 Kyle Sinckler, 18 Tim Fairbrother, 19 Tomas Vallejos, 20 Maurie Fa'asavalu, 21 Richard Bolt, 22 Rory Clegg, 23 Matt Hopper.
Exeter: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Bryan Rennie, 13 Sireli Naqelevuki, 12 Jason Shoemark, 11 Matt Jess, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Haydn Thomas, 8 Richard Baxter, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 James Hanks, 4 Tom Hayes (capt), 3 John Andress, 2 Chris Whitehead, 1 Brett Sturgess.
Replacements: 16 Neil Clark, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Hoani Tui, 19 Chris Bentley, 20 Ben White, 21 Kevin Barrett, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Josh Tatupu.
Referee: Sean Davey
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