London Irish 28-45 Exeter: Chiefs hold on for bonus point win to stay top of Premiership

Premiership leaders Exeter survived the shock of playing two men down for seven minutes as they held on to beat London Irish at the Madejski Stadium.

Olly Woodburn and Ollie Devoto were sin-binned for deliberate knock-ons.

But although Irish claimed a fourth try for a bonus point, that was as close as they got in a game of 10 tries.

Sam Hill (2), Dave Dennis, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Devoto and replacement scrum-half Stu Townsend got Exeter's tries, all converted by Gareth Steenson.

That keeps the Chiefs a point clear of second-placed Northampton, who also survived being reduced to 13 men to pull off a frantic last-gasp win over Wasps in Coventry.

Exeter's other three points came from the boot of Steenson, who calmed things down with a victory-sealing penalty, the final score of the game, when Exeter were still down to 13 men.

Stephen Myler also enjoyed a 100% record with the boot, improving the four tries from right winger Belgium Tuatagaloa, number eight Albert Tuisue, left winger Oliver Hassell-Collins and flanker Steve Mafi.

After Tuatagaloa's try had cancelled out Hill's early opener for the Chiefs, the visitors then appeared to have killed the contest when they scored three times in the space of six minutes just before the break, and another from Hill within two minutes of the restart.

But two tries in four minutes from Tuisue and Hassell-Collins pulled it back to 35-21.

Townsend restored Exeter's three-try cushion before first Woodburn and then Devoto were both shown yellow cards, just as they were in the European Champions Cup tie at Clermont in 2017.

But, although Mafi finally made the two-man advantage count to earn that fourth try and late point for Irish, Steenson's 67th-minute penalty had a calming effect. And there was no further scoring as Exeter saw out only their third five-point win of the Premiership season.

Irish's third straight Premiership defeat drops them below Wasps to 10th in the table and came at a further cost, with the first-half loss of Australia international lock Adam Coleman with a shoulder injury.

London Irish rugby director Declan Kidney:

"There were one or two things that happened around the 30-minute mark that gave Exeter momentum and we went in at half-time 28-7 down.

"Teams respond in different ways. And I am very proud of the way we came back into it. There were a lot of big individual efforts.

"It's only one point, but it is a point that could make a big difference at the end of the season.

"There were a lot of good things that we did, but we need to extend that to the 80 minutes."

Exeter head coach Ali Hepher:

"We are really pleased with the way the guys fought out there, especially after last week and the emotion we chucked into that.

"It is a tough situation when you do have such a big game mid-season, and then you have to respond to it, but this is what the side is getting much better at.

"In the past, we have slipped off the next week. This wasn't perfect. There were a lot of mistakes and discipline was obviously a factor, but we had enough fight to win against a tough side.

"We need to be a little smarter with how we deal with those situations when we are one or two down, but we hung in there enough and got a penalty to move outside a two-score lead."

London Irish: Veitokani; Tuatagaloa, Rona, Stephenson, Hassell-Collins; Myler, Meehan; Dell, Fainga'a, Hoskins, Van der Merwe (capt), Coleman, Mafi, Cowan, Tuisue.

Replacements: Maddison for Coleman (23), Porecki for Faingaa (56), Rogerson for Cowan (56), Campbell for Stephenson (61), Phipps for Meehan (61), Elrington for Dell (67), Atkins for Myler (71), Chawatama for Hoskins (67).

Exeter Chiefs: Hogg; Nowell, Devoto, S Hill, Woodburn; Steenson, White; Hepburn, Cowan-Dickie, Pieretto, Kirsten, Dennis (capt), Ewers, Armand, S Simmonds.

Replacements: Taione for Cowan-Dickie (43), Townsend for White (54), Moon for Hepburn (56), Kvesic for Ewers (57), Street for Pieretto (62), Dollman for Nowell (62), Lonsdale for Dennis (68).

Not used: J Simmonds.

Sin-bin: Woodburn (59), Devoto (62).

Referee: Christophe Ridley.