Clegg leaves it late
Rory Clegg kicked a late penalty to earn Harlequins an 11-9 win at Exeter as the Premiership leaders avoided back-to-back defeats.
Last Updated: 01/01/12 10:11am
Rory Clegg kicked a late penalty to earn Harlequins an 11-9 win at Exeter as the Premiership leaders avoided back-to-back defeats.
The Quins fly-half had missed five out of six kicks at goal and faced his most difficult attempt of the game from the right touchline with four minutes left.
But he finally struck one sweetly and denied Exeter a victory in front of their biggest Premiership crowd at Sandy Park.
Both sides went in to the game after post-Christmas defeats, with the Chiefs suffering their first loss in five games at London Irish, while Harlequins lost their first Premiership game of the season to Saracens at Twickenham.
There was a new look to the Chiefs front row of Brett Sturgess, Neil Clark and former Quins' player John Andress, Aly Muldowney came in to the second row while the sole change among the backs saw Jason Shoemark recalled at inside centre.
Quins were without former All Black Nick Evans due to a minor injury so Clegg started at fly-half.
The visitors looked dangerous from the start and made the Chiefs pay for their errors with scrum-half Danny Care taking a quick tap penalty 10 metres out before scrambling over the line.
Clegg missed the touchline conversion and a penalty attempt from a similar position five minutes later but his opposite number Ignacio Mieres showed that he could find the target when a Chiefs catch and drive was pulled down.
Clegg had another opportunity to increase the Quins advantage with 12 minutes of the half remaining, but his kick from out on the right hit the near upright, before Mieres put the Chiefs in front from just inside the visitors' half.
Exeter's forwards were beginning to dominate, particularly at scrum-time, but the visitors' defence held firm and Clegg finally found his mark with a penalty on the stroke of half-time to give Quins an 8-6 interval lead.
Upper hand
The Chiefs started the second half strongly and had the upper hand in the scrums and the loose play as they forced the visitors to defend, but when Quins did break into the Exeter half they were awarded a 25 metre penalty which Clegg saw sail past the far upright.
He had another opportunity a couple of minutes later, this time from the right, and again he failed miserably.
Exeter continued to pin the visitors back but Gareth Steenson, who had been on the field for just three minutes having replaced Mieres, saw his penalty attempt from halfway fall just short.
Moments later he had another chance from 10 metres closer and this time the ball crept over - confirmed by the vieo ref.
But after Arscroft was pinged for a deliberate knock-on, Clegg got one right.
The Chiefs had a final chance to win it after forcing a five-metre scrum, but Steenson's drop-goal attempt sailed agonisingly wide.
