If Exeter had lost this match the demons might have started circling but the place near the sea is just too sunny for any of that sort of thing to happen. And so they won – and won well – against a team from the Big Smoke, Harlequins, who might themselves find the odd imp appearing from out of the smog if they do not start playing better than this.
Exeter’s five tries were shared between a boy from Cornwall and one of the latest Australians to wend their way to the West Country as if it were a home from home. Luke Cowan-Dickie, the former, scored the first hat-trick of his life, all of them direct from lineouts, the first from a Harlequins lineout. But it is the brace of tries scored by Lachie Turner that announces a new weapon in the Chiefs’ armoury.
Turner is a Wallaby winger from Sydney who once won a race at Sydney Olympic Park to determine the fastest man in Australian football. He is nearly 30 now, but the legs still seem to convey him across the turf with indecent haste. Better still is the authority and wit with which he entered the line from full-back. He combined with his three-quarters to deadly effect three times in the first half, and the game was all but won. After a few months easing his way into Devon life, he now looks ready to make it tell.
“Lachie’s settling in now, which was always going to be the case,” said Rob Baxter, the Exeter director of rugby. “He came to us after quite an extended period of not playing. We brought him over early to get him some minutes last season, so he could start flat out this. It doesn’t surprise me he’s now on form.”
He has come to the right place. As Cowan-Dickie will attest with his hat-trick – although it is usually Thomas Waldrom – Exeter have a mean lineout and drive, but it is upon the pace and exuberance of their rugby by the sea that they have built their reputation.
It was too much for Harlequins, despite a late rally that yielded two smartly taken tries of their own. Until that point there were more than a few episodes of self-inflicted pain for the champions of only four years ago. The worst was the overthrown lineout that Cowan-Dickie gleefully swooped on for his first try. But the way Exeter were able to score their next as well, almost immediately, was as careless from Quins as it is unusual to see at this level. The Chiefs performed a manoeuvre, straight from a scrum, that was high on artistic merit and Quins barely laid a finger on any of the several backs involved, including Turner who looped round to run it in from 30 yards.
After a narrow win against Bristol at Twickenham on the opening weekend, this is a second consecutive away defeat for Quins. Next up are Saracens, then Wasps away. At least the Sarries match on Saturday is at The Stoop, the first at their proper home in their 150th anniversary season.
“If you can’t get up for a game against Saracens or for any Premiership game, then you shouldn’t be in professional rugby,” said Mike Brown, making his first appearance of the season after illness and combining nicely with Danny Care for the first of Quins’ late tries, their second overall. “We have got a lot of things to put right, but there’s no better team to put it right against than the best team in Europe.”
Exeter Turner (Short, 76); Woodburn, Devoto (Hill, 55), Slade, Whitten; Steenson (capt), Chudley (Lewis, 63); Moon (Hepburn, 53), Cowan-Dickie (Yeandle, 53), Holmes (Francis, 53), Parling, Welch (Atkins, 66), Armand (Dennis, 45), Salvi (Holmes, 77), Waldrom.
Red card Francis 72.
Tries Turner 2, Cowan-Dickie 3 Cons Steenson 4. Pen Steenson.
Harlequins Brown; Yarde, Marchant (Alofa, 59), Stanley (Lang, 76), Walker; Swiel, Care (capt); Marler (Lambert, 55), Buchanan (Ward, 48), Sinckler (Collier, 48), Twomey (Merrick, 48), Horwill, Robshaw, Wallace, Clifford (J Chisholm, 55).
Tries Buchanan, Care, Walker. Cons Swiel 2. Pens Swiel 2.
Referee Matthew Carley. Attendance 9,391.
