Quins hold off Exeter for Premiership win

Tries from Jack Kenningham, Louis Lynagh and Will Joseph secured Harlequins' first Premiership victory of the campaign against Exeter Chiefs.

Winger Lynagh burst through for his side's second score before Joseph went over to make it 19-7 at half-time.

Dan Frost's converted try narrowed the gap, but Quins held firm and denied Exeter a losing bonus point at the end.

Having blitzed champions Saracens with 11 tries in their Premiership opener last weekend, the Chiefs picked up where they left off by going ahead in the fifth minute.

The visitors rattled through several phases, winning a penalty at the breakdown, and Painter crashed over for a first try since joining the club from Northampton Saints, with Henry Slade adding the conversion.

But Quins responded quickly, exploiting gaps out wide as Alex Dombrandt fed Kenningham to score - and Lynagh then put his side in front, galloping past three tackles to dive over between the posts.

Exeter suffered a further setback when full-back Josh Hodge, who scored a hat-trick of tries in the 65-10 rout of Saracens, was forced off a dislocated elbow, landing awkwardly as he went up to catch the ball.

Speaking after the match, Chiefs boss Rob Baxter said Hodge will hopefully have a scan tomorrow to determine the extent of any ligament damage.

In the same incident, Luke Northmore's try was chalked off for having a foot in touch, but the visitors' relief was short-lived as Harlequins capitalised on handling errors for Joseph to cross in the corner.

That stretched their advantage to 12 points at the turnaround but Exeter again started strongly in the second period, bursting repeatedly into home territory - only for the final pass to go astray.

Tyrone Green might have wrapped up the win with a fourth try for Quins, racing on to George Hammond's kick, but Immanuel Feyi-Waboso scampered back to win the race for the ball.

Exeter replaced their front-row trio in one fell swoop and it was one of those new arrivals, Frost, who rekindled their hopes by forcing his way over from close range with nine minutes to play.

However, another late break by Will Haydon-Wood foundered and the Chiefs would leave empty-handed as Will Edwards kicked a last-minute penalty to extend Harlequins' winning margin to eight points.

Harlequins director of rugby Billy Millard:

"It was very frustrating what happened last week but today we showed resilience and worked very hard to hang in there.

"We are happy to take the win at home but we did have four opportunities in the second half to finish the game off but we weren't accurate enough, so there's still plenty to work on.

"Our aim is to be more consistent as we don't want to be winning by 40 points one week and then losing by 40 the next."

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon:

"We had good intensity, the loads had good physicality and we created our options - where we thought we would and some where we thought we wouldn't, with some good individual play.

"We just didn't take our opportunities - I imagine Harlequins would say similar but they certainly took more than we did, and that was the tale of the game.

"But I've not gone into the changing room and said to the lads 'you've got to cut all these errors out' because that's ridiculous - we're a team that's learning and while we're learning we just need the enthusiasm to keep creating opportunities and work hard."

Harlequins: David; T Green, Joseph, Northmore, Lynagh; J Evans, Porter; Baxter, Riley, Collier, Launchbury, Hammond, Kenningham, W Evans, Dombrandt

Replacements: Jibulu, Els, Kerrod, Lamb, Chisholm, M Green, Edwards, Beard.

Exeter: Hodge; Hammersley, Slade, Hendrickson, Wyatt; Skinner, Cairns; Sio, Yeandle, Painter, Tuima, Pearson, Roots, Vermeulen, Fisilau.

Replacements: Frost, Keast, Iosefa-Scott, Davis, Vintcent, Armstrong, Haydon-Wood, Feyi-Waboso.

Referee: Adam Leal