EXETER Chiefs may have secured themselves a home quarter-final in this season’s Premiership Rugby Cup, but they’ll win nothing if they play like they did against visiting Gloucester.

The Cherry & Whites claimed their first win at Sandy Park since December 2018 with a performance that was not only packed full of heart and desire, but one which underlined that the Chiefs - despite recent victories - are still someway short of the progress their leaders will have you believe.

Having come into the contest with a perfect ‘five from five’ record, the Chiefs started brightly enough, taking the game to a youthful Gloucester outfit, who themselves still harboured their own hopes of sneaking into the last eight.

Scrum-half Stu Townsend gave the Chiefs the dream start, picking his way over from close range with just ten minutes played on the clock.

And it could have been even better, just moments later, centre Will Rigg fly-hacking the ball through towards the posts, only to knock on with the try-line within sniffing distance.

Little did the natives know at the time, this would be one of a catalogue of unforced errors that would compound a disappointing day at the office for the Chiefs.

Gloucester made the most of the let-off, not only clearing their lines but, with their first meaningful venture into enemy territory, they claimed their first points of the afternoon.

Having kicked a penalty deep into the Exeter 22, they used the resultant line-out as the foundations to unlock the home defence, Messrs Chapman, Adderly-Jones and Atkinson combining sweetly to release the charging Louis Hillman-Cooper, who was able to storm his way over for the score.

Charlie Atkinson added the extras to that effort, but failed when offered a second chance, which came courtesy of Gloucester’s latest score, delivered by winger Jack Cotgreave, who was able to squeeze his way down the left touchline after being released by a clever offload from Jake Morris.

The Chiefs looked to summon a rapid response as half time closed in, but although they sharpened their blades in attack with a series of pre-planned moves, when it came to inflicting the decisive blow, their weapon of choice was more a wooden spoon, rather than the all-important sledgehammer needed to get over the line.

It didn’t get much better after the break for the Chiefs who, it has to be said, were the creators of their own downfall more often than not. Poor decision-making, naivety, indiscipline and a plethora of handling errors would all come back to haunt them as they struggled to make headway against their rivals.

If the coaches were frustrated, spare a thought for the Exeter natives, wh+o were equally exasperated at what they were seeing played out in front of them.

Fly-half Charlie Atkinson extended Gloucester’s lead to two scores with a penalty before the Chiefs turned to their bench in a bid to reignite some energy into their cause.

Initially, the new blood brought little difference, that was until replacement centre Tamati Tua broke through the Gloucester defensive line to create the simplest of tasks for Josh Hodge to find his way over with just minutes remaining for a converted score.

Now just a point behind, you expected the Chiefs to fly into the final throws of the match with a real gusto. Instead, they handed the initiative - and the game for that matter - back to the visitors, who wrapped things up with a late penalty try.

Tom Wyatt’s blatant slap down of a Gloucester attack just yards from his own line, not only saw him see yellow for his actions, but saw referee Harry Walbaum award a penalty try in the process.

It kind of summed up the day for the Chiefs.

“Obviously it’s a disappointing changing room,” said Chiefs coach Ricky Pellow. “We had everything in our control coming into this game with regards to finishing as top seeds. We knew what we needed to do, but we didn’t put that into practice on the pitch.

“We had to battle through some tough games earlier in the competition to get to where we are, but that’s a super disappointing game to be involved in, both as coaches and as players, because we just didn’t show our true selves.

Pellow added: “Every coach will say when teams are playing well, everyone will be talking, the comms are clear, the direction will be clear. Today, we weren’t probably there as a team, so we will have a good look at that.

“Everyone could see it with the unforced errors that came into the game, they are not normally there, but maybe we weren’t quite mentally where we needed to be.

“What we have to do is grow the players and work with them and only games can improve that. Yes, there are areas we are disappointed with, but we also have to learn and grow from. We’ve got a young group and at some point, these guys do have to step up.”

Exeter Chiefs: T Wyatt; B Hammersley (J Hodge 61), J Hawkins, W Rigg (T Tua 69), P Brown-Bampoe; W Haydon-Wood, S Townsend (T Cairns 61); S Sio (capt, K Blose 55), D Frost (J Yeandle 53), J Iosefa-Scott (M Street 55), L Pearson (C Tshiunza 72), R Capstick; E Roots, J Vermeulen (M Moloney 61), G Fisilau.

Tries: Townsend, Hodge; Conversions: Haydon-Wood (2)

Yellow Card: Wyatt

Gloucester: J Morris; L Hillman-Cooper, W Butler (capt), M Adderly-Jones, J Cotgreave (I Jones 75); C Atkinson, C Chapman (M Austin 50); A McArthur (A Benz-Salomon 65), G McGuigan (M Nelson 65), A Petch (J Benz-Salomon 65); F Clarke, C Jordan; F Stevens, C James, O Allport. Replacements (not used): D O’Reilly, G Knowles, M Knight.

Tries: Hillman-Cooper, Cotgreave, Penalty; Conversion: Atkinson; Penalty: Atkinson 65

Referee: H Walbaum

Attendance: 10,599