Some relief for England but still no satisfaction for a winless Exeter. If the sight of Henry Slade proving his fitness before the opening stanza of the Autumn Nations Series on Saturday was a boost for the national head coach, Steve Borthwick, there was only more pain for the out‑of‑sorts Chiefs as they slumped to a club‑record sixth successive league defeat.
Slade, playing his first game since mid-July after shoulder surgery, was busy on both sides of the ball and played 54 minutes before being whistled ashore. England are desperate to pick him in their midfield against New Zealand if possible and the chances of him performing some kind of role against the All Blacks have duly been enhanced.
A six-day turnaround is far from ideal but Slade stressed afterwards that he would be available for selection. “It’s an exciting week,” the 31-year-old said. “I look forward to putting my best foot forward and hopefully I’m involved.”
Exeter’s director of rugby also confirmed Slade had reported no post‑match problems with his shoulder. Rob Baxter said: “For a guy who’s been out as long as he has, he looked pretty good, didn’t he? He got some good game minutes into him and he’s come off without injury. He looked a little bit rusty but that’s to be expected.”
All is certainly not fine and dandy with Exeter, though, their confidence clearly sapped by a depressing start to the season. With a third of the campaign over they have yet to win and this game was a microcosm of their campaign to date. With his side worryingly porous in the first half and outgunned at the breakdown, Baxter made no attempt to sugar the pill. “The truth is we look a little stuck in the headlights. We’ve got a lot of hard work to get done. Soul-searching is not the right word but we’ve got a lot of manning up and standing up to do.”
Following their gruesome defeat at Newcastle last time out, only four players retained the same jersey number they wore at Kingston Park. Not since the 2013-14 season had they lost five successive league games in the same season while Quins had not won in Devon for a decade.
Defensively, though, Exeter were all over the place in a helter‑skelter first half. Quins had three tries on the board inside 25 minutes and could easily have had two or three more. The visitors found ominous space both out wide and increasingly through the middle, and the relative hush around the ground for lengthy periods spoke volumes.
Slade and Olly Woodburn had already been required to make last‑ditch try-saving tackles before Oscar Beard opened the scoring for Quins and, after a sharp response from the athletic Ross Vintcent, Exeter endured a truly nightmarish few minutes. No sooner had the impressive Argentinian Rodrigo Isgró smashed past Woodburn to score than Quins were surging through another huge midfield hole and Will Evans, guilty of butchering a clear chance earlier, was poaching the first of his two tries.
Even without their England contingent Quins were creating plenty and 25 missed Exeter tackles inside the first half-hour reinforced the creeping sense of local unease. It was a considerable bonus then when Exeter did finally exert pressure with ball in hand and their hard-running inside-centre Will Rigg, who was representing Coventry in the Championship last season, surged straight ahead to ensure his side trailed by only five points at the interval.
It hardly required a psychology degree to foresee some pretty blunt messages being delivered in the home dressing room at half-time with the defence coach, Omar Mouneimne, understandably animated. Exeter’s game is based around certain non‑negotiables and 12 clean breaks by a supposedly below-strength Quins in the opening 40 minutes underlined the collective lack of cohesion.
Suitably reminded of their responsibilities, the hosts came close to scoring in the left corner through Paul Brown-Bampoe and received a huge slice of fortune when a spectacular try finished by Tyrone Green was ruled out for a forward pass by Quins’ captain, Cadan Murley, in the buildup.
Their luck was about to change, however, as a low pass rebounded off James Chisholm’s shin and wrongfooted the Chiefs’ defence to allow Evans to snaffle his second try and secure a try bonus point. A penalty from the quietly excellent Jarrod Evans stretched the gap to 10 points and, with Chiefs down to 14 men after the departure of a limping Woodburn, a late try for Murley completed a notable Quins away day.
