Premiership: Exeter Chiefs 21-33 London Irish - Exiles shock Chiefs for first win in 210 days

Ollie Hassell-Collins scored London Irish's fifth try as they won for the first time this season

London Irish ran in five tries and defended superbly to upset Exeter and win 33-21 at Sandy Park.

Agustin Creevy and Curtis Rona went over inside the first 10 minutes as Irish started impressively, but Will Witty and Stuart Hogg scored in a four-minute spell to put Chiefs level.

Irish got a bonus point through Benhard Janse van Rensburg and Ben Loader's tries early in the second period.

Ollie Hassell-Collins got a fifth Irish try before Jack Nowell pulled one back.

The loss was Exeter's third of the season, and second at home, as Irish won for the first time in six attempts this season, 210 days after their last win.

The Chiefs - who have reached the last six Premiership finals and lost just five regular-season games last season - are now sixth in the Premiership while Irish are ninth, two points further back.

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Nick Phipps' excellent break inside the Exeter 22 set up Irish's opener as Albert Tuisue fed Argentina hooker Creevy, who scored for the fifth successive game as he went in from close range.

The Exiles looked good early on and broke through again in the 10th minute through centre Rona before Irish lost Creevy to a failed head injury assessment.

But Exeter began to grow into the game and struck midway through the half as Tom Hendrickson broke through and earned a close-range penalty with Witty scoring a few phases after.

Centre Hendrickson was again the provider for Hogg's try three minutes later as he took Henry Slade's well-disguised pass before sending the Scotland skipper clear, while Sam Simmonds was held up over the Irish line seven minutes before the break.

But Irish started the second half as well as the first as Van Rensburg, on as a replacement, went over in the corner after pressure on the Chiefs line and wing Loader went in under the posts shortly after.

Witty had a second try chalked off just after the hour when replays showed Richard Capstick had knocked on in the build-up, and Irish defended superbly as Exeter threw everything at them.

The visitors sealed victory with 17 minutes left as replacement scrum-half Ben White played a lovely switch-pass on the Exeter 22 that opened up a two-on-one for Hassell-Collins to score in the left corner.

Nowell got his first try of the season as he skipped through two tackles to run in from the 22m line but it proved no more than a consolation as Irish ran out deserved winners.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter:

"We were lacking something. Rugby's a good game in a lot of ways in that you win the games you deserve to win and lose the games you deserve to lose.

"That's exactly what it feels like now. It doesn't feel like a blood and guts loss, it feels like a pretty poor loss.

"Individually our intensity was off and because of that our team intensity was off, so you get a result like that.

"It's clear right here and now that the consistency of our mental approach to the game is our biggest problem."

London Irish head coach Les Kiss:

"It was a big win but we've been close before this but didn't take our chances at times and gave away too many easy moments.

"We're happy with this because we know it's a big ask to come here and beat them.

"We're not surprised we could get this result because we've been playing pretty well. I'm immensely proud of the effort the boys put in."

Exeter: Hogg; Nowell, Slade (capt), Hendrickson, O'Flaherty; J Simmonds, Maunder; Moon, Yeandle, Nixon, Witty, Hill, S Skinner, Capstick, S Simmonds

Replacements: Innard, Hepburn, Williams, Lonsdale, Armand, Hidalgo-Clyne, H Skinner, Devoto

London Irish: Parton; Loader, Rona, Hepetema, Hassell-Collins; Jackson, Phipps; Goodrick-Clarke, Creevy, Hoskins, Mafi, Simmons, Rogerson (capt), Pearson, Tuisue.

Replacements: Willemse, Dell, Van der Merwe, Nott, Cooke, White, Jennings, Van Rensburg.

Referee: Hamish Smales (RFU).

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