Exeter Chiefs cruise to first place, Northampton Saints hammer London Irish
Exeter Chiefs moved top of the Aviva Premiership in style as they hammered Wasps 31-17 on Sunday, with Ollie Woodburn and Henry Slade in fine form.
Woodburn got two of Exeter's four tries in a blistering first-half display - going over inside five minutes only for Ashley Johnson to respond with a converted try that gave Wasps the lead.
Jimmy Gopperth's boot made it 10-5, but Exeter - with the sensational Slade pulling the strings - swiftly rallied through Dave Dennis and Don Armand before, on the stroke of half time, Woodburn cantered through for his second.
With a 24-10 lead heading into the interval, Exeter did not let up after the break, Shaun Malton putting the result beyond all doubt prior to Josh Bassett's consolation.
Exeter now lead the way with 16 points from their four matches, while Wasps' place in the top four was taken by Northampton Saints, who secured a comfortable 40-25 victory over London Irish in Sunday's other encounter.
In their first game at the Madjeski Stadium since returning to the top flight, Irish never looked likely to claim a result against a rampant Saints, who had a bonus point secured before the break thanks to Rob Horne's double and further tries from Nic Groom and Mike Hayward.
Alex Lewington's try made it 26-13 as Irish attempted to gain a foothold, only for George North to all-but wrap up the points for the visitors.
It represents a third victory in a row for Saints, who move up to third place, while Irish stay 11th.
Latest Comments
How do you feel about Schmidts progress now?
When you say turners then around - they were horrendous and got absolutely pumped by wales at the World Cup and by Argentina recently
So it’s not hard to improve from that
And now they play a decent side (albeit still not top four) and get pumped 4 tries to 1
The ABs have their own issues but I’ll take our 6 class props and other areas of improvement every day
Go to commentsUmaga-Jensen at 26 has the attributes of a 2nd-5 and has moved past injuries that hampered his earlier elevation to AB status. I agree with TI that we persist with playing people out of position and ignore the best positional players from selection.
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