Premiership: Exeter Chiefs 42-22 Bath - Exeter come from behind to win

Billy Keast scored a crucial fourth try for Exeter as they took the lead against Bath

Exeter scored 35 unanswered points as they came from behind to beat Bath and stay in the Premiership's top four.

Joe Cokanasiga and Jacques Vermeulen traded scores, before Josh Bayliss and a second from Cokanasiga pushed Bath into a 22-7 lead.

But two quick tries from Dave Ewers and Patrick Schickerling meant there was one point in it at the break.

Billy Keast, Stuart Hogg and Santiago Grondona then all scored, as the Chiefs cruised to a vital Premiership win.

Fourth-placed Exeter are four points ahead of Northampton in fifth, but have played a game more and they visit Saracens in their next league game on 24 April.

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After a disastrous first half of the season, Bath's 2022 has been more promising and despite remaining bottom of the league table they came to Exeter with two wins and a draw in their most recent matches.

Cokanasiga, making his first start of the season following a long lay-off with injury, made a storming return crashing over to put Bath ahead at Sandy Park.

Vermeulen drew Exeter level, but second rower Bayliss side-stepped into the corner for Bath to retake the lead. Bath were dangerous down the right and Cokanasiga got his second in the corner as the visitors opened up a 15-point advantage.

But five minutes before half-time, Ewers went over from close range followed by Schickerling following an attacking line-out, to bring the Chiefs back into it.

A crucial TMO call just after the restart saw Will Muir have a try ruled out for Bath for a knock-on, while Tom O'Flaherty then similarly had a try scratched off for the hosts, due to an obstruction by Hogg in the build up.

Exeter kept piling on the pressure however and were rewarded for their gamble to take a tap-and-go penalty when Keast put them ahead for the first time with 15 minutes left.

Joe Simmonds then set up Hogg to win the bonus point as Bath fell apart, and Grondona capped the turnaround touching down from a scrum.

Exeter head coach Ali Hepher told BBC Radio Devon:

"To come through was pleasing. What we've got to make sure we do is we don't put ourselves in that position.

"Early in the game we held the ball well in that first period, created an opportunity in the corner and didn't take it. When we did that, we lost a little bit of spirit and mentally we just went on the negative side of things, as opposed to being positive that we'd done a lot of good work.

"When we started to keep the ball in the second half, we started to score tries. We were always dangerous.

"We were in a tough game for long periods there and we've got to make sure we get ourselves right mentally after that hard bit of work, because we've got to work hard over these next few weeks, because there's some tough games coming up."

Bath head coach Neal Hatley told BBC Radio Bristol:

"With 12 minutes to go it was 22-21 and we're in the game. We have an opportunity just after half-time, Will Muir knocks one over the line after a great kick from Clarkey [Will Clarke].

"They had the ball a lot in the second half, we didn't have a lot of ball. Set piece probably didn't function the way that we needed it to, so we lost a few line-outs, we lost a big scrum under our poles. One line-out resulted in a try, one scrum resulted in a try.

"We've just got to do better in those moments. We had chances in the first half where we've cut them from a set piece and we haven't made the most of it.

"I thought at 22-7, I thought we looked really comfortable. We were controlling the tempo, controlling the game, squeezing them at set pieces, getting a lot of set piece penalties, putting us into good field position. So to lose control for those four minutes and end up costing 14 points, I think that was a big moment in the match."

Exeter: Hogg; Woodburn, Whitten, Hendrickson, O'Flaherty; J Simmonds, S Maunder; Hepburn, Yeandle (capt), Schickerling, Kirsten, Gray, Ewers, S Skinner, Vermeulen.

Replacements: Innard, Keast, Street, Capstick, Grondona, J Maunder, H Skinner, Hodge

Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Joseph, Clark, Muir; Bailey, B Spencer; Morozov, Dunn, Stuart, W Spencer, Ewels (capt), Bayliss, Underhill, Hughes.

Replacements: Doughty, Cordwell, Rae, Williams, Richards, Simpson, Cipriani, Butt

Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU).

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