Monday 30 November 2015 09:54, UK
Harlequins boss Conor O'Shea lavished praise on under-pressure England captain Chris Robshaw after his team suffered a 26-25 Aviva Premiership defeat to Exeter at Sandy Park.
New England head coach Eddie Jones officially starts work next Tuesday and must decide if he should replace Robshaw as skipper for the Six Nations campaign later this season.
Despite Quins being denied victory in Devon, rugby director O'Shea hailed Robshaw's performance as the Londoners secured two losing bonus points.
"I never single people out, but I thought Chris Robshaw was outstanding today," O'Shea said. "I hope people take a long, hard look at that before they start writing him off.
"He has been one of the outstanding back-row forwards in this country for many a year.
"He made yards today when you didn't think he could make yards, and he was turning ball over, he was tackling, he was working.
"I am gutted for us as a team, but I am incredibly proud of the performance. We are going to be in this for the long haul this season - 100 per cent - and we are going to get stronger and stronger.
"There is a genuine fight and drive within this group to prove a few things to themselves and to a few others."
Exeter remain unbeaten at home in the Premiership since early January, and even at such an early stage of the campaign, they look strong title play-off material.
"I thought Harlequins were very good, particularly in the first-half," Exeter head coach Rob Baxter said.
"They took advantage of what was quite a passive and timid performance by us in the first half.
"The try we scored just before half-time was crucial for us, and then we started to show some proper qualities.
'Enough to edge it'
"We got our set-piece going, and we probably showed enough for us just to edge it. We fought and fought.
"We are frustrated at parts of the performance, but ultimately, sometimes you have got to look at the scoreboard. Teams that hang around for long periods in the top four, that's what they do.
"Sometimes, you win games and you kind of wonder how you have won them.
"You look at all the mistakes you've made, and between us, both teams today will think the winning of the game was there for them."
