European Challenge Cup

Exeter (19) 31

Tries: Tchumbadze 2, Dweba, Heaven, Brown-Bampoe Cons: Slade 3

Cardiff (0) 0

Bachuki Tchumbadze scored an early double as Exeter Chiefs overcame a reshuffled Cardiff side to book a home tie in the last 16 of the European Challenge Cup.

The Chiefs’ tighthead prop went over twice at Sandy Park before hooker Joseph Dweba extended their lead to 19-0 at the break.

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Exeter revamped their forward line after a sluggish start to the second half and Dweba’s replacement Julian Heaven scored a further try to secure a bonus point.

Paul Brown-Bampoe dived over for the Chiefs’ fifth try late on, with Henry Slade adding three conversions.

Exeter will now host Munster in the knockout phase in early April, with Cardiff travelling to Benetton.

With Cardiff making 10 changes to their line-up, the home side quickly set about their task, applying pressure and forcing an early flood of penalties.

Although the visitors escaped punishment for what looked a high tackle on Harvey Skinner, Exeter immediately regrouped at a line-out and Tchumbadze burrowed over for the opening score.

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A foul on Stephen Varney then earned Cardiff’s Rory Thornton a trip to the sin-bin and, by the time the second row returned to the field, his side were trailing by 19 points.

Tchumbadze’s second try of the game was confirmed by TMO Marius Jonker and just a few minutes later, another dominant line-out and drive resulted in Dweba forcing his way over in the corner.

That gave the Chiefs a commanding lead at the turnaround but Cardiff raised their game at the start of the second period, running the ball to good effect and gaining territory as they forced the hosts back.

It looked as though Cardiff would gain some reward for their efforts when Ioan Lloyd sent a chip through for Tom Bowen to gather and dot down – only for the try to be ruled out for a knock-on in the build-up.

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Instead, it was Exeter who scored again after Ethan Roots won possession at the line-out and Heaven darted away to dive over the whitewash.

The Chiefs finished the game with a flourish as Skinner’s crafty ball set up Brown-Bampoe to complete the scoring late on.

Exeter Chiefs defence coach Haydn Thomas told BBC Radio Devon:

“The boys fought really hard in tough conditions. I thought we had great discipline, we went the tough route and didn’t go for any cheap fixes.

“You’ve got to look at how hard the forwards and backs worked and the quality of the set-piece was the foundation of it, turning over lineouts and that kind of stuff.

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“I thought we were fantastic with our territory, our kicking game and credit to the forwards with the mauls, the pick and go stuff. We were on it in that first half, that’s for sure.

“Cardiff got a foot in the game but we always stayed in the fight, never gave up on anything and came back with a nice bonus point try, then to get another try at the end was excellent.”

Exeter: Woodburn; Feyi-Waboso, Slade, Haydon-Wood, Brown-Bampoe; Skinner, Varney; Sio, Dweba, Tchumbadze, Jenkins, Zambonin, Hooper, E Roots, James.

Replacements: Heaven, Goodrick-Clarke, J Roots, Tuima, Pearson, Capstick, Chapman, Hammersley.

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Cardiff: Beetham; Grady, Smit, Jennings, Bowen; I Lloyd, Mulder; Southworth, E Lloyd, Wainwright, McNally, Thornton, Botham, Thomas, Basham.

Replacements: Hughes, Domachowski, Sebastian, Nott, Lawrence, Cottle, Davies, Winnett.

Referee: Griffin Colby