Chiefs do enough to get past Newcastle

IT wasn’t pretty, in fact it was downright ugly at times, but Rob Baxter won’t be complaining too much when he looks at the current Premiership table.

- MARK STEVENS

His youthful Chiefs moved back into the playoff picture courtesy of first-half tries from Greg Fisilau, Zack Wimbush, Scott Sio and Rus Tuima.

They were the highlights in a contest which failed to hit the ground running after the much-anticipated return to top-flight action.

There was plenty of huff and puff on offer from both sides, but in a game littered with penalties – 27 in total – it will be the Chiefs who take more for what promises to be a lively run-in to the end of the season.

“I am impressed with the lads, they could have got a lot wrong today, but instead they got a lot right,” said Chiefs DoR Baxter.

“We didn’t start well, we got a couple of things wrong defensively and we were seven points down. But we slowly worked our way back into the game, we scored our tries to get the bonus point.”