Danny Care's final appearance at The Stoop ends with Harlequins victory
Harlequins marked Danny Care 's final appearance at The Stoop with a hard-fought 24-22 victory over struggling Exeter.
Earlier in the week, the 38 year old scrum-half announced his retirement after a record 395 appearances for the club to add to his 101 England caps and he came off the bench in the 64th minute to see his side regain the lead and ensure a fairytale ending.
Cadan Murley, Will Porter and Marcus Smith scored Harlequins' tries with Smith converting all three and adding a penalty.
Tommy Wyatt, Rus Tuima and Stu Townsend scored Exeter's tries with Henry Slade adding two conversions and a penalty.
It took Quins less than three minutes to open the scoring when a pre-planned three-quarter move was perfectly executed to present Murley with a 25-metre run to the line.
Exeter soon suffered two further setbacks when first centre Tamati Tua was yellow-carded for a high challenge on home skipper Alex Dombrant before Porter capitalised by forcing his way over from close-range.
The first quarter ended without a single attack from Chiefs but with their first they made it count when Josh Hodge made a clean break to set up the opportunity for Tuima.
Tua returned from the sin-bin and in time to see his side score a second try through Wyatt but Slade missed the conversion to leave Exeter trailing 14-12 at the interval.
Three minutes after the restart, Exeter took the lead for the first time when Townsend crossed the line to reward strong runs from Tuima and Wyatt and that was the only score of the third quarter.
It was one-way traffic during that period as Harlequins penned their opponents in their half but a lack of passing accuracy and spirited defence from Chiefs prevented the home side from benefitting.
However, from nowhere Smith produced a moment of magic by wriggling past two defenders for an excellent solo try but Slade responded with a 30-metre penalty.
That made the score 22-21 in Exeter's favour whereupon Care was immediately introduced and six minutes later, Smith knocked over a simple penalty to set up a tense finish.
With two minutes remaining, Wyatt was yellow-carded for a deliberate offside but Quins were unable to secure a fourth try, which would have kept alive their slim hopes of a play-off spot.
Exeter fought to the very end and were unlucky losers but ultimately the day belonged to Care.
PA
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