EXETER Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter says he is hopeful Garrick Cowley will be fit to face Leicester at the weekend.

The scrum-half took a knock on his shoulder and was withdrawn after just 12 minutes of Exeter A's 13-9 win over their Bath counterparts on Monday night.

But Baxter says the substitution was just precautionary and is hoping for good news when he receives the results of a scan on Cowley's injury today.

The Sandy Park chief said: "We hope he will be fine for the weekend. We are having a good look at it and Garrick is having a full assessment on it before we make a decision."

An injury for Cowley would make Haydn Thomas the Chiefs' only specialist scrum-half available for the trip to Welford Road.

But there is more positive news for the Sandy Park outfit's other No. 9, Junior Poluleuligaga.

The new signing's hamstring injury has not proved to be as serious as the Chiefs feared and Baxter believes the Samoan international may be fit to play again later this month.

"Junior's injury is not as bad as we first thought, it may be that in a couple of weeks he'll be close to playing," said Baxter.

"Other than that we don't have too many injuries to worry about. We obviously got knocked around on Saturday but everyone seems okay."

Despite Cowley's withdrawal, Exeter went on to beat Bath 13-9 at the Recreation Ground thanks to a try from full-back Drew Locke and eight points from the boot of Ryan Davis.

Included in the visitors' starting line-up were summer signings Davis and Andrew Higgins, who are both former Bath players.

Bath made the brighter start and they broke the deadlock on four minutes, when fly-half Paul Roberts stroked them in front with a penalty.

That lead proved short-lived though, as the Chiefs hit back immediately — Davis kicked a penalty of his own before he delightfully converted Locke's try on 15 minutes to make it 10-3 to the visitors.

On the stroke of half-time it was 14 men apiece as Guy Mercer was sinbinned for killing the ball just yards from his own line, before Exe's Argentinian prop Iganacio Elosu was dispatched to the cooler following an exchange of blows between the rival front rows.

Roberts scored the resulting penalty and added a third after the break to cut the deficit to one point.

Bath improved after the break but the Chiefs defended well and Davis made sure of the visitors' win when he kicked a second penalty.