Northampton Saints romped to a comfortable 33-3 Aviva Premiership win over Exeter Chiefs at Franklin's Gardens on Saturday.
Tries from James Downey, Paul Diggin and Scott Armstrong helped Northampton Saints to a convincing win.
Northampton did most of the damage during a fruitful first half and got off to the perfect start when in the third minute James Downey completed a length-of-the-field move to cross for a try.
Ryan Lamb added the extras and there'd be plenty more points to come from the boot of the Saints fly-half.
Ignacio Mieres got Exeter off the mark in the 21st minute with a penalty and in doing so reduced the deficit to just four points.
But any hopes the Chiefs had of continuing their excellent start to the season were dealt a blow as Northampton added 13 more points before the interval.
First, Paul Diggin latched on to a Lamb grubber to score a converted try on 26 minutes and put daylight between the sides, before two Lamb penalties - the second of which coming on the stroke of half-time - left the visitors with a mountain to climb.
And there'd be no comeback in the second period.
Penalties on 55 minutes and 68 minutes from Lamb extended Northampton's lead, before a late try from Scott Armstrong, following an eye-catching break down the left wing, wrapped things up for the hosts.
Defeat for the Chiefs sees them lose ground on the top two after a positive start to the season, while the win for Saints was richly welcomed, following a run of four consecutive defeats.
The scorers:
For Northampton:
Tries: Downey, Diggin, Armstrong
Cons: Lamb 2, Myler
Pens: Lamb 4
For Exeter:
Pens: Mieres
Northampton:15 Greig Tonks, 14 Paul Diggin, 13 Jon Clarke, 12 James Downey, 11 Scott Armstrong, 10 Ryan Lamb, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Phil Dowson (c), 7 James Craig, 6 Calum Clark, 5 Christian Day, 4 Samu Manoa, 3 Brian Mujati, 2 Brett Sharman, 1 Paul Doran Jones.
Replacements: 16 Mike Haywood, 17 Alex Waller, 18 Tom Mercey, 19 Mark Sorenson, 20 Roger Wilson, 21 Martin Roberts, 22 Stephen Myler, 23 Tom May.
Exeter: 15 Luke Arscott, 14 Josh Tatupu, 13 Sireli Naqelevuki, 12 Jason Shoemark, 11 Matt Jess, 10 Ignacio Mieres, 9 Haydn Thomas, 8 Richard Baxter, 7 James Scaysbrook, 6 Tom Johnson, 5 Aly Muldowney, 4 Tom Hayes (capt), 3 John Andress, 2 Neil Clark, 1 Ben Moon.
Replacements: 16 Chris Whitehead, 17 Brett Sturgess, 18 Hoani Tui, 19 James Phillips, 20 Ben White, 21 Kevin Barrett, 22 Gareth Steenson, 23 Bryan Rennie.
Venue: Franklin's Gardens
Referee: Greg Garner
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