Exeter Chiefs made it back-to-back Premiership victories with a hard-fought win away to Harlequins on Saturday.
Much like the previous week's thrashing of Newcastle, Henry Slade was influential as he finished with a superb personal haul of 27 points.
But it was Exe's stoic defending which also caught the eye, with a bodies-on-the-line display halting countless Quins attacks.
The visitors found themselves down to 13 players inside as many minutes, with Ian Whitten harshly sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on before Phil Dollman was correctly shown yellow for a no-arms tackle in the corner.
Nick Evans finished off a fine move to put the hosts ahead, but the Chiefs responded with Ben White charging down Danny Care's box kick to dot down.
Slade converted and booted a penalty to give Rob Baxter's side a surprise lead, with the Chiefs fly-half then swapping penalties with his opposite number Evans before the half was out.
Turning around 16-11 up at half-time, Exeter withstood more heavy Quins pressure before Slade showed silky running skills to go with his unerring kicking, slicing through the home defence for a fine try.
More penalties were exchanged before former Wessex player Matt Hopper dotted down to give Harlequins hope.
But a Slade penalty stretched the Chiefs' lead again, and not even a late sin-binning for Thomas Waldrom could see the hosts force their way back into the game. Exeter Chiefs: Dollman (McGuigan, 47); Whitten, Nowell, Hill, Jess; Slade, Chudley (Lewis, 69)); Moon (Rimmer, 41), Cowan-Dickie (Yeandle, 56), Francis (Brown, 69), Mumm, Welch (Lees, 64), Ewers, White (Johnson, 69), WaldromScorers: tries – White, Slade; cons – Slade (2); pens – Slade (6)Rep not used: SteensonHarlequins: Monye (Lindsay-Hague, 55); Yarde, Hopper, Casson (Botica, 44), Walker; Evans, Care (Dickson, 69); Lambert, Ward, Sinckler, Matthews (Talei, 51), Robson, Clifford, (Trayfoot, 69), EasterReps not used: Buchanan, Marfo, ShieldsScorers: tries – Evans, Hopper con- Evans; pens – Evans (3) Referee: Matthew Carley
