Harlequins v Exeter: Five takeaways as Danny Care gets ‘winning send-off’ thanks to ‘magic of Marcus Smith’

Lawrence Nolan
Danny Care played his final home game for Harlequins.

Danny Care played his final home game for Harlequins.

Following a 24-22 victory for Harlequins over Exeter Chiefs in the Sunday afternoon Premiership clash, here are our five takeaways from the game at The Stoop.

The top line

Harlequins’ slim hopes of making the end-of-season Premiership play-offs were extinguished despite their two-point round 17 home win over Exeter. A bonus point victory was the only outcome capable of keeping them in with a mathematical shot of overhauling fourth-place Bristol, but their three-try effort wasn’t enough to close the gap on the table to five points heading into the final round of fixtures on May 31.

They appeared to be on track for a comfortable success as they jumped 14 points clear after 20 minutes with converted scores from Cadan Murley and Will Porter. However, they inexplicably lost their way and found themselves trailing 14-19 on 43 minutes following tries from Rus Tuima, Tommy Wyatt and Stu Townsend.

A 60th-minute converted try riposte from the fleet-footed Marcus Smith, who missed Sunday’s first British and Irish Lions squad gathering, nudged Quins 21-19 in front.

But they had to rely on a 72nd-minute penalty from their fly-half to eventually clinch the win as a kick eight minutes earlier from Henry Slade gave the Chiefs a 21-22 advantage and had Rob Baxter’s struggling side of the cusp of a first away win in this season’s league.

Danny Care’s curious winning send-off

Rugby is a brutal business, with Sunday’s latest shenanigans in Wales providing a sharp reminder that its precarious finances lurch from one crisis to the next rather than provide long-term certainty that professional rugby can financially wash its face.

The magnificence of the sport, though, was on view some hours later when Danny Care walked onto the pitch at The Stoop with his kids to take the acclaim from Harlequins fans fondly farewelling him into retirement after 19 seasons playing for the London club.

One makeshift poster held aloft in the crowd while Care waved read: “Goodbye Danny, we will miss you.” It summed up the pleasant mood on the sunny May afternoon.

In a workplace where more and more players are constantly on the move, the loyalty the scrum-half showed to his London club was fantastic, a wonderful example that stars don’t have to keep looking for their next move. There is so much to admire about the respect fans have for long servants at their club and Harlequins were rightly proud of their man.

Having nursed a knee injury, Care started on the bench before being summoned in the 64th minute for his 395th Harlequins appearance. He was soon helping his team to win a pressure-relieving penalty after he tackled Tommy Wyatt and he then saw the danger of a kick through the cover on penalty advantage 10 metres from the line snuffed out by Paul Brown-Bampoe.

Care’s final involvements were curious, though. He got lucky when a blocked kick in his half bounced the way of his team and they went on to win a penalty in front of the posts. On came the kicking tee for Care to have a last-minute shot but the decision was instead taken to scrum down in the hope that the bonus-point try could materialise.

It didn’t but rather than play on about 10 metres short of the line, Care kicked the ball into the stands to end the match with the bonus-less win confirming Harlequins won’t be in the play-off permutations in a couple of weeks.

The immediate effect of Dave Walder

Sunday in London witnessed multiple steps forward for the struggling Chiefs. Yes, some of the soft errors they continued to make were still a frustrating eye sore. Look at how the needless second-minute obstruction by Richard Capstick resulted in a penalty conceded on halfway and turned into a walk-in at the corner for the opening try after Quins kicked to touch.

That flakiness was symptomatic of a misfiring defence that had conceded 69 tries in 16 regular season league games this season heading to The Stoop compared to giving up a measly 56 in 22 regular season games when winning the Premiership in 2020. There is much remedial work to be done in that area.

The good news, though, was that the installation of Dave Walder as attack and backs coach – an appointment officially confirmed on Saturday – yielded an immediate reward. Exeter were good value in getting around the corner and the scoring of three tries in an excellent 21-minute spell on either side of the interval can’t be sniffed at given how blunt Baxter’s team have generally been in 2024/25.

They have to feel encouraged by that response as this was a match that could have embarrassingly unravelled when they found themselves two tries down and on a yellow card by the end of the opening quarter. ‘Winning’ the remainder of the match 22-10 was a success for a squad low on confidence after a wounding season.

The magic of Marcus

It was just as well that Marcus Smith enjoyed a moment to treasure on the hour mark as Sunday’s fixture meant he was marked absent from the British and Irish Lions’ squad admin day which was taking place less than five miles away from The Stoop at Richmond Hill Hotel.

Making a good first-day impression is always important on a Lions tour but Smith had other business to attend to with Harlequins looking for the win needed to keep alive their play-off chances.

The fly-half can’t be blamed for not helping his team to harvest the necessary win bonus point but he can take delight in the fact that his team simply won a match that won’t live long in the memory as the calibre of rugby was generally low quality on an afternoon made for the beach.

Quins played like they were on holidays after jumping into their early lead and it took magic from Smith to finally awaken the London team from their Sunday snooze.

He had shown some unbelievable touches already, but his ridiculous feet when swaggering his way through the Exeter defence to touch down under the posts suggested he is primed to impress with Andy Farrell’s Lions when their tour gets going next month against Argentina in Dublin before the carnival moves lock, stock and barrel to Australia.

Isgro gamble is something other clubs should take

With the inept World Rugby making a disaster of its reimagined sevens circuit, Rodrigo Isgro chose well last year when deciding to pack in the short-game format and instead try his luck in XVs. The Argentine winger hasn’t disappointed in making the transition and he came into his 11th Premiership start with five tries to his name.

He didn’t add to that tally against the Chiefs but his appetite for involvement didn’t go unnoticed. Just minutes into the contest, he was on the receiving end of a juddering hit from Ethan Roots that would have left several other players taking their time getting back to their feet.

Instead, Isgro bounced back to his feet quickly to retake his position on the wing and go chasing the kick that materialised from the next phase of play, winning a penalty in the process.

That was a fine example of his enthusiasm in making good his switch from 7s to XVs and while there were some subsequent errors in his play, it won’t be a surprise to see more talent like Isgro bought in by clubs looking to take advantage of the troubled sevens circuit.

Kudos must go to the Exeter wide men, the pair of fit-again Tommy Wyatt and the industrious Paul Brown-Bampoe, in helping the Chiefs make a good fist of this fixture, and it was also encouraging to see Harlequins’ young midfielder Ben Waghorn given player of the match.

His effort was another example of the excellent talent coming through in the Premiership after playing in last year’s World Rugby U20 Championship title win in South Africa.

READ MORE: Furious fans call the WRU a ‘clown show’ following their alleged ‘bully-boy tactics’ in latest regional rugby crisis

Editor's Picks Danny Care Dave Walder Marcus Smith

Related Articles