The Blue, Black and Whites were much improved defensively and made things extremely difficult for the Exeter attack for entire match.

Visiting Number 8 Sam Simmonds gave the devastatingly late blow to secure the win for Chiefs but head coach Hatley believes the team’s improvement was down to their hard work and attention to detail in the week.

“The way the players came out and the effort they put in was immense,” he said.

“When the game goes the way it did, you always feel like you probably deserved more but you know the game doesn’t always work that way.

“I thought we defended miles better and having people like Sam Underhill and Josh Bayliss back, putting their bodies on the line with everyone else was brilliant.

“We worked all week on pressurising their line-out and squeezing their scrum which I thought we did well. We made better decisions and the work the guys did in the week went towards that.

“We had opportunities to see out the game and some of those go for you on a different night. We needed to be a little bit to get out of the pressure they put on us in the final five minutes or so and we gave them one too many opportunities.

“There are a few things we need to fix up and try keep moving forward and working hard going into the Northampton match.”

Reaction: Hatley praises squad effort

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