Exeter Chiefs suffer heaviest every Prem defeat at hands of Gloucester

Gloucester stayed firmly in contention for a Gallagher Premiership play-off place after crushing hapless Exeter 79-17 at Kingsholm.

George Skivington’s team are one point behind fourth-placed Bristol with three regular season rounds remaining following a 13-try rout of the Chiefs.

Seven of those scores came during an embarrassing first half for the visitors that saw Gloucester claim a try bonus-point after just 20 minutes.

Jack Clement, Seb Blake, Lewis Ludlow, Gareth Anscombe, Seb Atkinson, Chris Harris and Tomos Williams all breached Exeter’s defence during the opening period, while Santi Carreras kicked four conversions and Exeter were left with the consolation of a Josh Hodge try that Henry Slade converted.

England head coach Steve Borthwick looked on as Atkinson – a strong contender for the summer tour to Argentina – added his second try after the break, with Jack Singleton claiming a hat-trick in 10 second half minutes and Christian Wade and Jamal Ford-Robinson also crossing, and Carreras finishing on six conversions and Anscombe one.

Exeter replacements Will Rigg and Will Haydon-Wood scored the game’s final tries, and it was the most points Gloucester had scored in Premiership history.

Gloucester were off and running inside six minutes, putting Exeter under pressure through their all-court running game that led to them securing an attacking lineout, from which Clement crashed over for the game’s opening score.

The home side suffered a 10th-minute injury blow when prop Val Rapava-Ruskin went off and was replaced by Ford-Robinson, before Clement departed for a head injury assessment.

Gloucester, despite that disruption, had a clear early edge in the forward exchanges, and they struck again from a short-range lineout, with Blake this time the beneficiary.

Exeter were at sixes and sevens, and Gloucester extended their lead after Anscombe kicked into space and skipper Ludlow grasped possession to score, before Carreras’ conversion opened up a 17-point advantage in as many minutes.

The Chiefs were already chasing the game, and Gloucester collected a bonus-point inside the opening quarter when a free-flowing move from deep was rounded off by Harris.

Exeter were their own worst enemies, unable to construct anything worthwhile and seeing their defence repeatedly shredded, which was underlined as Atkinson sprinted through a huge gap for try number five.

Carreras’ conversion made it 29-0, and there was more to come before the interval as Gloucester found it all too easy.

Anscombe added their sixth touchdown, again converted by Carreras, although Exeter finally stirred through Hodge’s fine finish, and Slade added the extras.

But normal service was quickly resumed as a gruesome first half for Exeter ended with Williams touching down to take his team past 40 points and Carreras converting.

The one-way traffic continued six minutes after the restart when Ford-Robinson touched down from close range – Exeter had somehow turned a promising attacking position into them defending their own line – then Wade collected his 90th career Premiership try as Gloucester clocked up a half-century.

Atkinson and Singleton continued the procession as Exeter found themselves 60 points adrift with an under an hour gone, then Singleton added two more before Rigg and Haydon-Wood completed the scoring.