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EXETER Chiefs destroyed Nottingham 42-11 at Welford Road to extend their 100 per cent record in the Championship to a perfect 10 games.

The two sides started the day first and second in the divisional standings.

But from the fourth minute in Leicester, the Chiefs set about demonstrating just how wide the chasm on the field was between Rob Baxter’s outfit and Glenn Delaney’s admittedly understrength team.

A simple try from Matt Jess got the visitors’ party started, as the Green and Whites were guilty of some poor handling errors and failed to cope with Exeter’s movement in the opening exchanges.

And from there on it was pretty much one-way traffic in the first half.

Nottingham at times had pressure and possession inside the Chiefs’ 22, but unlike their opponents they never looked likely to unveil any real cutting edge.

Tim Taylor briefly kept his side within touching distance of Exe when he kicked a penalty soon after a penalty and converted try had put the Chiefs 10-0 up.

But Nottingham failed to capitalise on the spell of pressure which followed and Hooker Simon Alcott made them pay when he capped an excellent break from Exeter to touch down on the back of a rolling maul.

The rolling maul proved Nottingham’s undoing once more on the stroke of half-time when the impressive Haydn Thomas scored, ensuring Jess and Matt Cornwell’s earlier good work was not in vain.

Three tries to the good and in complete control, Exeter made it clear they would not be going home without a four-try bonus point, and James Scaysbrook handed it to them seven minutes after the break when he collected Thomas’ pass, shrugged off a couple of challenges and crashed over.

Just to rub it in, six minutes later prop Chris Budgen nipped around the back of another Chiefs maul to dot down a score of his own and Steenson kicked the conversion to bring up a 42-6 scoreline.

With nothing left to lose, Nottingham started to throw caution to the wind and tried to probe forward at every opportunity, before they were finally rewarded with a consolation try when Tim Streather touched down in injury time.

By contrast several Chiefs players spent the final half hour of the game searching for individual, rather than collective, glory and several fabulous chances to rack up more points went begging.

But Exeter had earned the right to become slightly complacent and other than those minor lapses in concentration there was little to spoil Baxter’s trip home to Devon.