This time a year ago, Harlequins put an end to Exeter's quirky start to their first season in the Premiership with a good old hiding; this time round Exeter nearly put an end to Harlequins' best start to a season in, well, it is getting hard to remember how long now. Quins were staring at a 13-9 deficit early in the second half and a forward platform that was disintegrating alarmingly, but they responded immediately with an impressive 10 points in three minutes, and now it is nine wins from nine. Impressive was the word. A year ago, this was the sort of game they would have lost.

What a difference the winning habit makes. The close ones start going your way, confidence becomes self-reinforcing, the points keep rolling in, and suddenly you are top of the table and 18 points clear of a team like Leicester.

Quins needed all their confidence and team spirit to get out of this one. The job was far from done, even when they responded with those 10 points. Exeter, these days, carry themselves as if they feel they belong in this sort of company. And that they do. They dominated much of this game, and Rob Baxter, Exeter's head coach, was angry enough about the outcome to trot out the old "we'll be making our complaints through the official channels" line. In other words, he was livid with the referee, whom he approached on the touchline to remonstrate with in the first half and then had words with at the end.

Baxter was reluctant to be drawn on the matter, but he made it clear that he expected more decisions to go his way when his side were so clearly in the ascendant, particularly at scrum time. Meanwhile Conor O'Shea, his Quins counterpart, was also having a pop at the poor old ref. His beef was with the way Exeter flopped all over things at the breakdown. On balance, Baxter probably had the stronger case, but either side could have laid claim to the full points.

The first half passed slowly. Sireli Naqelevuki and Matt Jess worked a move down the left which took them to within 10 yards or so, but Quins eventually handled the invasion well enough. Then another Exeter turnover of a Quins scrum, followed by a chip by Ignacio Mieres, forced Mike Brown to carry over. A penalty went in the home side's favour at the subsequent scrum, which was when Baxter sent his first volley towards the referee's ear.

The teams went off at half-time with Quins 9-0 up, most of their threat coming from the outside backs, George Lowe, Sam Smith and Seb Stegmann. But they did not look right and that was translated into Exeter points in sharp fashion after the break. The monstrous Hoani Tui was brought on at tighthead, and any impression Quins had given of being able to handle the Exeter scrum gave way to carnage. Two Exeter penalties were converted by the 11th minute of the second half, and from the restart following the second, Naqelevuki hared away, and Bryan Rennie finished for the game's first try.

So, suddenly facing a deficit, Quins turned to their pace. They forced an easy penalty for Nick Evans with their first foray, then a dazzling move from their own half, featuring the hands of around half the team, backs and forwards, culminated in Brown crashing over on the hour. Mutiny quelled.

There was more work for them, though, with Exeter setting up camp in the Quins 22 for most of the final quarter. The defence was unyielding.