Drewett has led the Chiefs to Twickenham in the past two seasons

Exeter Chiefs have sacked director of rugby Pete Drewett, citing his failure to win promotion to the Premiership.

The National Trophy semi-final defeat by Moseley on Saturday doubled as a league game, denting hopes of catching Leeds at the top of National One.

"Our expectation has always been to get in the Premiership and the board feel we could have done better this season," said chief executive Tony Rowe.

"We had some opportunities but I don't think we capitalised on them."

Rowe said he felt that, despite the gap often cited between the side relegated from the Premiership and the top sides in National One, Drewett had been given the tools he needed to bridge it.

"We've been working our way towards it for a number of years at Exeter and we believe that we've funded our squad to actually achieve our ambition," he told BBC Radio Devon.

"Pete's done a great job while he's been with us. We needed to move on and we needed to move on to a position where we could challenge and this year was our year when we could challenge."

The Chiefs have lost to leaders Leeds twice in the league this season, but the draw at home to lowly Esher in January and defeat at Moseley in the double-header on Saturday appear to have been the results that led to Drewett's demise.

A former England Under-21s coach, Drewett was appointed at Exeter in June 2006. His assistant, Paul Larkin, has also left the club.

The club have brought in former Cornish Pirates assistant coach and England prop Robin Cowling to run the squad for the rest of the season.

Cowling, who runs the Chiefs academy, will be assisted by fellow academy staff Rob Gibson and Ricky Pellow, who has been playing for Redruth this season.

"Robin has an international and top club pedigree and has worked with the Chiefs behind the scenes for the last 15 years," Rowe said.

"He has agreed to step into this management role temporarily and we are grateful for his support."

Robin Cowling has been put in charge until the end of the season

Drewett had guided the Chiefs to the upper reaches of National One, but never managed to take them the final step into the Premiership.

In his first season in charge, the Chiefs finished fourth in National One.

They were second last season, 27 points behind Northampton, and look set to finish second again this season.

Drewett also guided the Chiefs to two National Trophy finals, losing to the Cornish Pirates in 2007 and Northampton last year.

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