WITH nothing tangible to play for, Exeter Chiefs were always likely to find the going tough against a Bath side with one foot in the LV= Cup semi-finals last weekend.

With that in mind, head coach Rob Baxter opted to use the game at Sandy Park as a chance to hand a host of promising youngsters their first-team debuts.

That brought its rewards as the eight academy players used in the match gained valuable experience.

Winger Jack Arnott made his first start and there were debuts for James Lightfoot-Brown – he had previously been an unused replacement – Tom Cowan-Dickie and Sam Blanchet.

As well as the academy players, senior pros Chad Slade and Ben Moon made their return from injuries after 11 and nine weeks out, respectively.

Also on the stats front, the game brought to an end to Gareth Steenson's run of 38 consecutive appearances in the squad. By comparison, the longest run now is four by Ben White and Phil Dollman.

Baxter was full of praise for the youngsters who featured in the match for his side.

"Sam Hill had a couple of good carries and was involved in 21 tackles, either as the tackler or assisting the tackle," he said.

"He had a big defensive effort, looked strong and was physically able to cope with what was thrown at him.

"Dave Ewers is thriving this season, he's a big strong guy for a young guy, he had some big carries and worked hard in the contact areas.

"It was probably hardest for Jack of them all because he has played the least senior rugby and everybody knows he hasn't developed fully physically yet but that will come. He is not in a full-time rugby environment and never has been."

Exeter were caught napping three times in the first half as Bath winger Tom Biggs ran in a hat-trick, twice from kicks through the defence and the other from an interception.

Olly Barkley converted two of the tries and Myles Dorrian replied with a penalty for the Chiefs as they trailed 19-3 at the break.

Olly Woodburn and Josh Ovens crossed in the second half, with Barkley kicking one conversion, to hand Exeter a heavy defeat. Yellow cards for Chris Whitehead and Bryan Rennie didn't help.

The defeat didn't matter in terms of the group as Northampton's 57-10 defeat of Wasps on Saturday had already dumped the Chiefs out of the competition.

However, Baxter was disappointed by some aspects of the display. He said: "It's always disappointing to lose a game, especially when you've been in pretty good form.

"There were some parts of the game I wasn't happy with. I think we could have kept the ball for longer and had a bit more of a go.

"Our defence was generally solid but our back-field organisation was caught for a couple of relatively soft tries.

"The more I have looked at the game the more I believe there were positives, we just didn't link it all together well."