Exeter Chiefs put five tries past Sale Sharks on Saturday in a 37-12 Aviva Premiership thrashing at Sandy Park on Saturday.
The hosts were looking to bounce back from a narrow defeat to Bath a week earlier, while Sale were on a high following an entertaining victory over Wasps.
But it was Exeter who got off to the best start when Phil Dolman crossed for a try following great work from Jason Shoemark and Richard Baxter.
Igancio Mieres was wide with the conversion, but added two penalty goals shortly after the try to extend Exeter's lead.
Then, with half-time fast approaching, the hosts were over the line again. This time it was Baxter who did excellently to ground the ball under pressure. Mieres was this time on target with the conversion, leaving Sale with a mountain to climb in the second period.
But disaster struck for the visitors on 47 minutes, when Nic Sestaret finished off a superb team effort to score his side's third try.
Mieres was wide with the conversion, but it didn't seem to matter to the rampant Chiefs and, when Matt Jess struck less than ten minutes later, you knew it wasn't going to be Sale's day.
The visitors did stage a late rally in the closing stages, with substitutes Tony Buckley and Luther Burrell crossing for tries, but deservedly it was Exter who had the final say, courtesy of a penalty try in the final minute, awarded following persistent infringements at scrum time.
The scorers:
For Exeter:
Tries: Dollman, Baxter, Sestaret, Jess, Penalty Try
Cons: Mieres 2, Steenson
Pens: Mieres 2
For Sale:
Tries: Burrell, Buckley
Cons: Macleod
Yellow cards: Baxter (Exeter - 48th min); White (Exeter - 25th min
Exeter: 15 Phil Dollman, 14 Gonzalo Camacho, 13 Bryan Rennie, 12 Jason Shoemark, 11 Matt Jess, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Haydn Thomas, 8 Richard Baxter, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 James Hanks, 4 Tom Hayes (capt), 3 Craig Mitchell, 2 Chris Whitehead, 1 Hoani Tui.
Replacements: 16 Neil Clark, 17 Ben Moon, 18 Chris Budgen, 19 Aly Muldowney, 20 Ben White, 21 Kevin Barrett, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Nic Sestaret.
Sale: 15 Rob Miller, 14 Tom Brady, 13 Johnny Leota, 12 Sam Tuitupou (capt), 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Nick Macleod, 9 Dwayne Peel, 8 Andy Powell, 7 David Seymour, 6 Richie Vernon, 5 James Gaskell, 4 Kearnan Myall, 3 Vadim Cobilas, 2 Marc Jones, 1 Andrew Sheridan.
Replacements: 16 Joe Ward, 17 Ross Harrison, 18 Tony Buckley, 19 Wame Lewaravu, 20 Mark Easter, 21 Cillian Willis, 22 Luther Burrell, 23 Joaquin Tuculet.
Referee: Dean Richards
Comments
7redcards says...
Awesome chiefs!!! It's not enough to just survive in the Avila prem, they know they need to be ambitious and start to dominate sides if they are to be serious contenders for silverware and this might be the start of that. Baxter is doing a fantastic job, and how much longer can they ignore johnson for full honours?
Posted 03:38 04th March 2012