"With their soaring "Tomahawk Chop" chant rolling out of the stands and away over to Dartmoor, the kings of the Premiership's new frontier sent Gloucester back to Kingsholm to salve their bloodied scalps. Exeter Chiefs arrived in the top flight with an uproarious win in something approaching a cup-final atmosphere and though their stalwart coach, Rob Baxter, wisely restrained any notion of a lap of honour and declared his preference for apple cider over champagne, it was quite just that the promoted club's supporters in this small but happy part of England's west went wild. It is Leicester away next week, but that can wait.
"This had always looked a decent first-up fixture for Exeter, who spent 13 years in the second division before making the longed-for leap via wins over Bristol, home and away, in May's Championship final. Gloucester came into this one with their captain, Mike Tindall, fretting over his side's tendency to repeat defensive mistakes. As one of the four clubs never to have been relegated since leagues began in 1987 – Bath, Leicester and Wasps are the others – they have the history and yesterday they had seven England internationals to the Chiefs' none. But Gloucester have weak links in the pack, their line-out fell apart in the second half and the sometimes breath-taking flashes from James Simpson-Daniel in the backs never quite complemented the good work the forwards did in the scrum."
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