Premiership: Exeter Chiefs 74-19 London Welsh

Exeter Chiefs moved two points ahead of third-placed Bath

London Welsh are all but relegated after Exeter Chiefs enjoyed a club-record Premiership win at Sandy Park and moved up to second in the table.

The visitors led early on after tries by Nathan Trevett and Seb Stegmann.

But Will Chudley, Tom James, Jack Yeandle and Matt Jess all crossed to put Exeter in command before the break.

Second-half tries from Henry Slade, Thomas Waldrom (2), Ian Whitten and two penalty scores demoralised the Exiles, before Stegmann's late consolation.

For Welsh, who are still chasing their first Premiership win of the season, it was the 12th time they had conceded more than 40 points in a game so far this campaign and a Newcastle win at home to Leicester on Sunday will see the Exiles relegated with five games still to play.

Welsh's early play showed no lack of enterprise, as first Trevett crossed before Stegmann scored their second try after Tristan Roberts' clever chip.

However, Chiefs had the game as good as won by half-time, thanks to scores from Chudley, James, Yeandle and the impressive Jess.

Mobile hooker Jack Yeandle crossed for Exeter Chiefs in the first half

The hosts were dominant in the scrum as well as on the scoreboard and added six tries after the break, the first of which came just 80 seconds after the re-start from Slade - his sixth Premiership try of the season.

The heavy win saw Chiefs eclipse their previous club-record winning margin of 52 points, despite Stegmann's second try of the afternoon reducing the deficit late on.

Exeter Chiefs assistant coach Ali Hepher said:

"We knew from our analysis that London Welsh can be a dangerous side and they produced some great offloads.

"They are a good team, everyone is writing them off, so it becomes a tough mental battle in the approach.

"We got through to half-time and then upped our game in the second half. Defensively we put in a better shift and were a lot more aggressive with it. The scrum is going well for us at the moment."

London Welsh assistant coach Ollie Smith said:

"We knew we had to come out firing against Exeter on their own patch. We came out of the blocks and got stuck into them and looked quite dangerous at times, which was quite pleasing.

"In the end their quality and physical shape probably overdid us as we ran out of steam. We struggled in the scrum - some weeks it goes your way but that wasn't the case today.

"We saw them destroy Bath's scrum last week so we tried our very hardest in that area of the game to get something to play off. But if you don't have that platform at the scrum then you are always going to struggle."

Exeter Chiefs: Dollman; James, Whitten, Hill, Jess, Slade; Chudley, Rimmer; Yeandle, Francis, Mumm, Welch, Ewers, Armand, Waldrom.

Replacements: Steenson for Slade (57), Lewis for Chudley (57), Sturgess for Rimmer (58), L. Cowan-Dickie for Yeandle (51), Brown for Francis (58), Lees for Mumm (57), White for Ewers (60).

London Welsh: Kear; Stegmann, Reynolds, Tincknell, Awcock; Roberts, R Lewis; Trevett, Morris, Vea, West, Down, McCaffrey, Thorpe (capt), Fonua.

Replacements: May for Tincknell (66), Robinson for Roberts (47), Davies for R Lewis (47), Aholelei for Trevett (55), Elloway for Morris (55), Gilding for Vea (27), Corker for West (61), Hala'ufia for Fonua (61).

Attendance: 8,721

Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys