Tigers tamed by Chiefs

Exeter climbed to the top of Pool Four of the LV= Cup after securing a commanding 35-10 victory over Leicester at Sandy Park.

The hosts narrowly lost their two Aviva Premiership meetings with the Tigers this season but made it third time lucky as they outscored the away side by five tries to two.

The contest was effectively over before half-time as the Chiefs ran in four converted tries without reply to go in 28-0 ahead at the interval.

Exeter boss Rob Baxter retained only three players from last weekend's Amlin Challenge Cup loss in Montpellier while Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill handed first starts of 2011 to Boris Stankovich and Dan Hipkiss, with much of the rest of the side made up of academy players.

The Chiefs made a bright start as captain Jason Shoemark broke into the Tigers half before feeding fellow centre Bryan Rennie, but Lee Robinson managed to bundle him into touch.

Another break from Rennie led to the deadlock being broken, with lock Chad Slade going over in the right corner after series of pick and drives. Fly-half Gareth Steenson added the extras.

Lead

The lead was increased shortly after when wing Andrew Higgins and number eight James Phillips created a try for blindside flanker Dave Ewers, with Steenson again converting.

Leicester were struggling to get out of their own half and fell even further behind when Exeter opted for a scrum from a penalty and worked the ball out wide for Neil Clark to score.

Haydn Thomas, who had played an important role in the previous try, then grabbed a score of his own to complete the first-half scoring.

Eight minutes after the restart, the visiting side finally got their first points on the board as scrum-half Sam Harrison broke free before playing in Hipkiss to score. Teenage stand-off George Ford missed the conversion, however.

Leicester went a man down as lock Ed Slater was yellow carded and the Chiefs took advantage to score their fifth try through prop Ben Moon.

The Chiefs were then forced onto the back foot for a period and had to come up with some big tackles when Leicester pinned them back in their own half.

The Tigers were held up over the line after a penalty kick to the corner but finally scored another consolation try as Stankovich touched down after a rolling maul.