Refreshing Exeter dream of Heineken Cup after thumping Northampton

Exeter 30-9 Northampton
Gareth Steenson Exeter v Northampton
Gareth Steenson kicked three penalties and three conversions as Exeter completed a comprehensive win over Northampton. Photograph: David Rogers/Getty Images

Exeter for the Heineken Cup? Anyone who had floated the prospect at the start of the season would have been mocked. The Chiefs were odds-on to go straight back to the Championship but their biggest Premiership victory of the season, against a side with title ambitions, even if they are rapidly fading, put them firmly in the European mix.

Exeter may be in ninth, but they are only four points behind Bath in fourth place and they have a game in hand on three other teams above them. The top six will qualify for the Heineken Cup, unless a team in the bottom half wins the LV Cup. The Chiefs are now three points behind Northampton, who only a couple of months ago led the table.

The Saints have lost six Premiership matches in succession, their worst run since 2004. They capitulated here after leading 9-3 at the interval, the clear winners of a dour, physical opening half in which the sunlight masked the darkness of the play. Exeter had scored six tries in their previous eight home league matches, half of them against Sale, and neither side offered an attacking threat in the first 40 minutes. Stephen Myler kicked three penalties out of four to Gareth Steenson's one from two. Northampton won most of the big collisions, grateful that Exeter's new recruit, the 21-stone Fijian wing Nemani Nadolo, rarely found himself in possession Myler came closest to scoring a try before the break, intercepting Luke Arscott's pass 60 metres out but only making 40 before being tackled by Phil Dollman as he looked around for support.

Exeter tried to play with continuity but they lacked penetration. They gradually got on top up front and were aggrieved when Brian Mujati won an early penalty, despite appearing to bore in. The first three scrums all ended with forwards squaring up and snarling and at one point the penalties outnumbered the passes. It was dull and attritional, which suited Northampton as they looked to rebuild confidence.

Exeter adopted a more direct approach in the second half, driving mauls and sucking in defenders, preventing Northampton getting over the gain line and winning penalties at the breakdown. Two Steenson kicks took them level within nine minutes of the restart, before two tries in 90 seconds tilted the match decisively.

The first came from a driving lineout, Exeter's eight powering on for 20m. Richard Baxter, Tom Johnson, Chris Budgen and Neil Clark were held up a few metres or inches short before play was switched left. The Saints prop Soane Tonga'uiha shot out of the defensive line and Johnson found his captain, Tom Hayes, unmarked on the left wing.

The second try was served up from the restart. Haydn Thomas's chip into Northampton territory had enough height and weight to ensure that when it was within reach of the Saints wing Paul Diggin, on the visiting 10m line, its arrival would coincide with that of Nadolo who, as Raymond Chandler would have said, was a big man, but no more than 6ft 5in tall and no wider than a beer truck. It was a contest that was only going to have one winner but it was not so much that Nadolo claimed the ball in his bucket-sized hands but that he had the presence of mind not to try to rampage through the last line of defence, Bruce Reihana, and instead fed an unmarked compatriot outside him, Sireli Naqelevuki. Exeter were in dreamland.

Northampton used their bench and Shane Geraghty made one weaving run to turn defence into attack but as the Saints went from one phase and one side of the field to the next, they made no ground and when Nick Sestaret's thumping tackle on Reihana caused the former All Black to lose control of the ball Johnson was there to pick it up, evade Geraghty's attempted ankle tap and run 60m to score.

There was enough time for Exeter to collect their first try-scoring bonus point of the season but Matt Jess, a replacement for Naqelevuki, was tackled into touch by Greig Tonks 15m out after another counter-attack.

Northampton finished the game looking anything but champion. "We need to look at ourselves," said their director of rugby, Jim Mallinder, whose only consolation was seeing the England lock Courtney Lawes, making his first start for two months, survive 80 minutes.

Exeter can dream of something refreshing. "If it happens, it happens," said their head coach, Rob Baxter. "There are a number of clubs close to each other. Some people thought the Challenge Cup would be too much for us but if we earn the right to be in the Heineken we will prepare properly and enjoy it, which has been our attitude in the Premiership."

Exeter Arscott; Nadolo, Dollman, Naqelevuki (Jess, 69), Sestaret; Steenson (Mieres, 73), Thomas (Poluleuligaga, 60); Sturgess (Moon, 62), Clark (Alcott, 69), Budgen (Elosu, 73), Hayes (capt), Slade (Gannon, 69), Johnson, Scaysbrook, Baxter (Phillips, 69).

Tries Hayes, Naqelvuki, Johnson Cons Steenson 3 Pens Steenson 3.

Sin-bin Sestaret 80.

Northampton Reihana; Ansbro (Geraghty, 53), Clarke, Downey, Diggin; Myler (Tonks, 76), Commins; Tonga'uiha (Waller, 73), Sharman (Long, 73), Mujati, (Mercey, 68) Lawes, Sorenson (Day, 68), Clark, Dowson (capt), Easter.

Pens Myler 3.

Referee JP Doyle (London). Attendance 8,977.