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Exeter Chiefs ended the regular season on a high today as they scored 10 tries to defeat Birmingham-Solihull 62-12. Mark Foster ran in a hat-trick and the pack was hugely impressive as the Chiefs made it six wins on the bounce in the league.

Chiefs went into this game after making three changes from last week's win at Plymouth. Phil Dollman was a late withdrawal after his fiancée gave birth to baby girl Lucia at 2.13am today, meaning that Steve Jones was given another chance to impress at full-back, and Drew Locke was promoted to the bench to make his first appearance in a Chiefs match day 22.

Chiefs looked in determined mood from the kick-off as the forwards managed to steal and retain possession, eventually leading in a Neil Clark try off the back of a driving maul after just three minutes. The Chiefs maul continued to dominate and Birmingham had to resort to pulling it down three times within the first nine minutes. The third offence led to a sin-bin for second-row Alex Davidson, and Haydn Thomas was able to score behind yet another driving maul from the resulting penalty and lineout.

While the Chiefs forwards were at their imposing best, the Birmingham-Solihull pack, including former Chiefs No 8 Adam Clayton, presented a stark contrast as they looked unable to prevent to home side's domination of the set-piece and the contact area. Their captain Ross Noonan was sin-binned just minutes after Davidson, leaving his side down to 13 men who were unable to halt a Chiefs move that allowed Jones to cross on the overlap after 16 minutes to stretch the lead to 17-0.

After a period of Birmingham pressure, a great break from Gareth Steenson from inside his own half on 27 minutes was halted by a thumping hit from Birmingham centre Ronnie McLean, but the ball was recycled quickly enough to allow James Scaysbrook to run home comfortably. Just three minutes later, and Foster showed his finishing skill to beat his man and score the Chiefs' fifth try and the first of his hat-trick, stretching the lead to 31-0.

Birmingham, well adrift at foot of the table and in financial peril, were looking to salvage some pride in a miserable regular season that has seen them fail to win a match. The Chiefs looked determined to prevent such an occurrence, until Steenson telegraphed a long pass and Anthony Elliot was able to run in an intercept try, denying the chance of a whitewash and rewarding the visitors for some of the attacking endeavour they had showed in spite of a far inferior pack.

However, with Birmingham consistently giving away penalties at the breakdown as they struggled to cope with Chiefs’ physicality, the hosts were able to run in two more tries before half-time to bring the score to 41-7. Steenson atoned for his earlier error as he scored a try of his own following a lovely step when the visitors expected a pass; then Nic Sestaret scrambled over the line following a dominant scrum after the visiting forwards gave away yet another penalty.

Following a first half in which eight tries were scored, the second period was always going to struggle to live up to the standards set, especially given the importance of both sides' upcoming fixtures. Elliot scored another breakaway try for the visitors to bring their score to double figures, continuing Chiefs' recent worrying trend of conceding soft tries against the run of play. Foster then scored his second and third tries in quick succession on 57 and 63 minutes respectively, and both were scored under the posts following drives up the middle by the impressive pack.

The game ended as it began, with the visitors hauling down a maul on their try-line, resulting in a penalty try and a perfect 10 for the Chiefs in the last game of the regular season. Steenson made it six conversions with the last kick of the game before he picked up the man of the match award following a performance in which he controlled the game exceptionally well.

Teams:

Exeter Chiefs - Jones; Jess, Sestaret (Locke 46mins), Cornwell, Foster; Steenson, Thomas (Stuart-Smith 52mins); Sturgess, Clark (Alcott 58mins), Budgen (Tui 58mins), Hayes (capt) (Gannon 40mins), Hanks, Scaysbrook (Johnson 34mins), Miller, Baxter (Slade 40mins).

Birmingham-Solihull - Foden (Penn 56mins); Elliot, McLean (Lawson 56mins), Tomlinson (Mitchell 56mins), Holtby; Petty (Tomlinson (blood) 64 mins), Williams; Long (Reid 72mins), Phillips (Garner 56mins (Phillips 64mins)), Sperando, Davidson, Betts (Pitfield 56mins), Noonan, Bell (Preece 56mins), Clayton.

Scorers:

Chiefs – Tries: Clark, Thomas, Jones, Scaysbrook, Foster (3), Steenson, Sestaret, penalty; Cons: Steenson (6).

Birmingham-Solihull - Tries: Elliot (2); Con: Elliot

Officials:

Ref – Michael Tutty; TJs – Luke Pearce & Lloyd Jackson

Attendance:

3,477