Harlequins maintain the smallest of leads at the top of the Aviva Premiership, but with Saracens playing London Welsh on Sunday, it is likely the quartered men will head into the Premiership's break in second position.

The Chiefs outplayed Harlequins in the sunshine at the Twickenham Stoop and looked as dangerous going forward as they did earlier in the season at Sandy Park.

Harlequins by contrast failed to gain real momentum and pressure and were not able to maintain possession. The attacks regularly broke down through knock-ons and ill-discipline which allowed Exeter to enjoy the majority of possession.

The hosts started the match strongly with Ugo Monye carving through the defence from first phase rugby to open the scores. Ill-discipline allowed Exeter's Gareth Steenson to kick the Chiefs back into the match and at half time, the scores read 10-9 in the hosts' favour.

In the second half, both kickers exchanged numerous penalties, before tries from Damian Welch and Luke Arscott gave the Chiefs a commanding lead. With an 11 point advantage, Harlequins went looking for a losing bonus point, but the Chiefs defence was heroic in the final moments to shut out the hosts.

It was a bruising encounter and there are worrying signs for Ollie Lindsay-Hague who badly rolled his ankle while being tackled. The young full back had made two promising runs in the early stages of the game, but was replaced by Ben Botica after just 19 minutes.

This change forced Nick Evans to the full-back position, while Botica assumed the role of fly-half.

Harlequins enjoyed the early possession and after kicking a penalty for a lineout inside the Exeter Chiefs 22, the Stoop was treated to the opening score.

Clean lineout ball from Tom Guest allowed Karl Dickson to fire the backs into play. The ball found Jordan Turner-Hall and the dummy lines of Matt Hopper and Lindsay-Hague allowed Ugo to cut in off his wing and score. The conversion from Evans was successful on six minutes.

Steenson was able to kick the Chiefs back into the game in the following ten minutes with two kind penalties for the Exeter Chiefs. Captain Nick Easter put in a tremendous tackle on Arscott and turned the Chiefs' full-back in the process. Easter failed to roll away however and Steenson slotted his first points.

When Karl Dickson instinctively played the ball in an offside position after 16 minutes, Steenson was again on form with the boot.
Following Lindsay-Hague's departure, Evans had the opportunity to extend the lead. From out on the left, the Kiwi failed to convert.

Both sides exchanged a penalty before the break, which gave Harlequins a narrow 10-9 lead.

In the early stages of the second half, Botica, who had taken over the kicking duties from Evans, matched Steenson with two penalties which gave the Londoners a 16-15 lead on 53 minutes.

From here, Exeter began to dominate and Arscott was unlucky not to score midway through the second half. Steenson broke up field after sliding off Maurie Fa'asavalu and found Phil Dollman in the Harlequins 22 who then passed to Matt Jess.

At this point the try line was gaping and as Jess tried a switched with Arscott, the full-back fumbled the ball.

Although disappointed, the Chiefs did not need to wait long for their next scoring opportunity. Steenson once again played an integral role to the build-up and his break put Chiefs right on the line. After two phases between the forwards, Welch powered over.

The conversion missed which left Harlequins four points behind and an ability to win the match. Exeter did well to pressurise Harlequins and regularly put in deep kicks to pin the home side back. This lead to numerous 22 drop outs and as a direct result, the Chiefs put the game beyond doubt.

With six minutes left, Arscott gathered the 22 restart on the Harlequins 10 metres line, slipped the defence and scored. The conversion this time was added to give the visitors a commanding lead.

Harlequins worked in the final moments to salvage some points, but the defence stood firm and eventually the Chiefs took the victory.

Harlequins will return to the Stoop next week to face Bath rugby in the Semi-Final of the LV= Cup, kick-off 12.15pm. Tickets are available to purchase by clicking here.