Rob Baxter believes things have changed at Exeter Chiefs

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter admitted it was nice to look at the early Prem table after their 38-15 win over Newcastle and see the Chiefs in second place compared to their disastrous start to last season.

England winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso scored a hat-trick of tries as Exeter got their home campaign off to a fine start and it took his tally to five in two matches since his return from a hamstring injury.

Ross Vintcent, Joseph Dweba and Harvey Skinner also crossed for the Chiefs with Henry Slade adding four conversions.

The Red Bulls crossed through George McGuigan and Alex Hearle.

It was round nine before Exeter won a league match last season, and Baxter said: “Eight points from two games and we are in the top four, and in the first block of five games last season we didn’t win a game, and we were bubbling away towards the bottom.

“It shows how quickly those extra points can change the feeling of things and we are in a position now where we know we have got something to genuinely fight for over these next three weeks, as we could easily, with some hard work and positive performances, be in and around that top four after the opening block, and that would be a fantastic place for us to be in after five games, when you consider where we were at this stage last year.”

“We had quite a lot of players who played well today. The work we put into the first half reminded me of our DNA.

“We probably didn’t get out of it what we deserved and we blew a couple of great chances really, which we worked really hard to create, but we knew that if we had a team prepared to work that hard and put that much pressure on the opposition, they weren’t going to be able to spend 80 minutes without breaking at some stage, and that’s kind of what you saw.

“We created enough of those damaging moments, and that’s what I want to see from this team.”

New Newcastle head coach Alan Dickens could not hide his disappointment after the defeat.

Dickens said: “It is a role I have probably been doing over the last year or so, but the club and rugby in the north is indebted to Steve (Diamond) for what he has done over the last 18 to 20 months.

“I am disappointed with today. George McGuigan (captain) spoke to the players at the end about the frustration that we let them in through our errors.

“A couple were at line-outs where we had the opportunity to put them under pressure and we just allowed Exeter to win the ball or clear their lines, but not taking anything away from Exeter, they were pretty clinical today.”