Exeter Chiefs beat London Scottish, Bristol Bears outscore Doncaster Knights in Premiership Rugby Cup

Exeter Chiefs beat London Scottish in a rout during their Group C Premiership Rugby Cup match on Saturday evening.

Chiefs have now won four out of four in the Cup and are through to the knock-out rounds with a game to spare.

It wasn't a free-flowing contest that fans would be used to seeing from the side, but with several youngsters involved, Exeter still managed a 47-10 victory.

Elsewhere in Group C, Tommy Freeman scored a hat-trick of tries as Northampton Saints beat Bath.

The visitors initially took a 35-19 lead, but Saints galvanised in the second-half to win the contest 43-42.

The Newcastle Falcons managed their first loss of the season as the red-hot Leicester Tigers continued their impressive run.

The visitors found themselves trailing 39-0 at halftime in a challenging encounter as the hosts displayed their dominance with a formidable seven-try performance in the first half.

Although Falcons demonstrated considerable improvement in the second half, Tigers won 60-7, leaving them top of Group B.

Against Ampthill, Bedford Blues found themselves 12-0 down early on, but a late Sean French try secured the 29-14 victory leaving the hosts bottom of the group.

Sale Sharks, Ealing Trailfinders, and Nottingham all also managed victories in their cup clashes.

On Friday evening, Bristol Bears defeated Doncaster Knights 57-41 in their Group D Premiership Rugby Cup match on Friday evening, while Gloucester trounced Hartpury University.

Doncaster took the lead with a Sam Olver penalty, but first-half tries from Will Capon, Joe Owen (two), Ed Holmes, and academy winger Harry Rowson had the away side looking likely to head into the tunnel ahead.

However hooker Tom Doughty scored in added time, and Olver converted to leave the scores at 19-19.

Four minutes after the restart, another academy prospect, Macenzzie Duncan, was in the sin bin, and that allowed Doncaster the advantage to exploit, with Davidson to put Doncaster back in front. There were tries for Doncaster from Ehize Ehizode and, in injury time Harry Davey, but three from Kieran Marmion, George Kloska and Piers O’Conor in a 17 minute period gave Bristol the win.

Ealing top the group with three wins from three, while Doncaster sit second with 13, and Bristol third with 10.

In the other Friday match, underdogs Hartpury University were downed 40-14 by Gloucester.

Gloucester are more than familiar with Hartpury, as the two teams once shared training facilities and occasionally provide academy players to the university team.

It briefly appeared that there was an upset on the cards when Bradley Denty scored a try after the first minute, but after that, Harry Bazalgette’s three penalties were the only time they bothered the scoreboard.

For the away side, a 20th minute try from Jack Clement was followed by more from Seb Blake, Matthew Jones, Cameron Jordan and Santiago Socino late on, with Clement also grabbing a second. George Barton converted all but one of the tries to leave Gloucester well in front.

The result leaves Gloucester top of Group A with a 100% record from four matches, on 19 ponts, while Hartpury are fifth out of six, with just four points and a single win so far.

The third scheduled game of the evening between Cornish Pirates and Jersey Reds was postponed after the latter ceased trading just 24 hours earlier due to ongoing financial troubles.

On Sunday, watch Harlequins take on Saracens live on TNT Sports.

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