Chiefs trounce Welsh to go second

For 20 minutes it was a decent enough contest, but then Exeter Chiefs kicked into gear and winless London Welsh simply had no answer to the might of the in-form Devonians.

Rob Baxter’s side steamrollered their way to second in the Aviva Premiership with a nine-try destruction of the Exiles. It wasn’t vintage stuff from the Chiefs – even though the scoreline suggests otherwise – but it was still more than enough to clock up an 11th league win of the season.

Free-scoring No.8 Thomas Waldrom added two more tries to his seasonal tally – he’s now on 12 and still top of the tree in the top flight – whilst Will Chudley, Tom James, Jack Yeandle, Matt Jess, Henry Slade and Ian Whitten also crossed, alongside the award of two penalty tries.

Slade converted five, Gareth Steenson four, while the former also booted two first half penalties as the Chiefs claimed another league double. Winger Seb Stegmann grabbed two tries for Welsh and prop Nathan Trevett another, while Tristan Roberts and Alex Davies added a conversion apiece to complete the scoring. Having collected league wins against Newcastle Falcons, Harlequins and Bath in as many weeks, it was little surprise that Baxter resisted the temptation to tinker with his winning formula from the previous week.

It meant an unchanged Chiefs line-up that took to the field for the visit of the lowly Exiles, who they defeated 52-0 in the corresponding fixture on the opening weekend of the season. Welsh, meanwhile, made five changes to their side from that which was defeated – for a 16th time in the top flight this term – by London Irish seven days earlier.

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