Harlequins head coach Jason Gilmore admitted that a big improvement in his side’s second-half discipline paved the way for their impressive 31-28 victory at Exeter.

Quins led 14-0 after only 11 minutes, but they then allowed the Chiefs back into the contest by giving away nine penalties for the game to be tied at 14-14 at the break.

Gilmore said: “We attacked well and defended well in the early stages, went 14-0 up, and I thought we looked comfortable, and then we went eight or nine penalties on the bounce against us, which was poor, and a yellow card, and we gave Exeter good field position.

“They have a big, physical pack and they went to their power game, and their pick and drive, and I was really disappointed with the boys in that 20-minute period. I thought a lot of those penalties were unnecessary on our behalf.

“I said to the boys at half-time, if we can stop giving penalties away and get our hands back on the ball, we will be alright, and I don’t think we gave away a penalty again until the last minute of the game, when we went back-to-back and the boys gave me a bit of a heart attack, but I am really proud of them.”

It is less than a month ago that Quins were hammered 48-0 at Gloucester, but they have won their last three games in all competitions. However, Gilmore explained they have not changed anything to bring about such a dramatic turnaround.

“We are building and there are going to be bumps in the road, and Gloucester just wasn’t good enough, but it was more about just getting back on the horse and the boys having confidence and belief in what we have been doing, and we are now so clear on our game model that we are just not deviating from that,” he said.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter was very disappointed with the amount of ball his players coughed up during the match, and on that basis he was satisfied with two points.

“It was a little bit the tale of our season, and when I looked at the stats on the laptop in the first half we had made 10 turnovers in the first 15 minutes, and we were losing ball over and over again, and for us to still be in it at the death after the number of basic mistakes we made is probably a credit to our work ethic and resilience,” he said.

“I don’t think we are that far off where we need to be but our individual focus is all over the place.”

Despite only winning one of their opening five league games, Chiefs are still only six points off the play-off places.

And Baxter added: “If we can get three wins back to back when we resume in December, we will probably be in the top four, and that’s not beyond us.”