NATIONAL ONE: Exeter Chiefs 36 Pertemps Bees 0

New Pertemps Bees director of rugby Allan Lewis has a massive job on his hands if he is to save his side from relegation from National Division One.

The Bees never looked like getting anything from their visit to second-place Exeter and did not even manage to trouble the scorers.

However, during parts of the first half, and the last quarter of the game, they showed enough to give some optimism for the future - and they will have been buoyed by the fact their relegation rivals, Sedgley Park and Cornish All Blacks, also both failed to improve their league points tally on Saturday.

It means bottom-of-the-table Bees are still ten points adrift of safety, with seven matches remaining.

Exeter director of rugby Pete Drewett had words of comfort for them afterwards, saying: "Bees have been pushing sides very close recently and to nil them was fantastic.

"We looked a little bit slow getting into the game, but we needed to do that to break the opposition because they are a much better side than their position in the table suggests."

The Bees were swept away by four tries in the opening 20 minutes of the second period - including three in a devastating seven-minute burst - but they did well to frustrate the Chiefs in the first half and the Devon side only led 10-0 at the interval.

An eighth-minute penalty for offside by full back Gary Kingdom edged Exeter ahead, but they had to wait until the 24th minute for their first try. Fly half Danny Gray wriggled clear on the Bees' 22, only to be stopped just short of the try-line by a despairing tackle from winger Marika Vakacegu. But Gray managed to pick himself up again to dive over, with Kingdom adding the extras.

It took Bees until the 40th minute to carve out a real try-scoring opportunity, but the chance went begging.

Vakacegu burst away down the right flank and passed inside to centre Alex Grove, and when he kicked ahead he looked favourite to beat Exeter scrum-half Kevin Barrett to the touchdown. However, just as he prepared to dive on the ball, it reared up and he failed to get any downward pressure as it squirmed over the dead-ball line.

Just moments later, the impressive Grove was almost driven over by his forwards, and even though they were held up by the Exeter defence, it was an encouraging end to the half for the visitors.

Exeter, however, took the game by the scruff of the neck with a catch-and-drive line-out try by prop Craig Dunlea in the 43rd minute, and then three more in seven minutes just before the hour mark.

The first two came from centre Wade Kelly and winger Jason Luff picking beautiful lines to run through the Bees' defence, but the third was totally down to Bees' ineptitude.

Winger Cameron Mitchell failed to deal with the initial kick ahead, and when the ball was hacked on into the Bees' in-goal area, full-back Reece Spee made a complete hash of dotting it down, and Luff gleefully accepted his gift.

Kingdom converted three of the four tries and Exeter were out of sight at 36-0.

Bees, to their huge credit, kept going until the end in their search for points, but they were frustrated by handling errors and some excellent home defence.

EXETER: G Kingdom, J Luff, J Fatialofa, W Kelly, J Drauniniu, D Gray (M Fatialofa 61), K Barrett (C Stuart-Smith 61), S Kingsland (S Bennett 64), S Blythe (S Nelson 54), C Dunlea (J Horn-Smith 64), C Bentley, J Hanks (L Stevenson 60), T Johnson (C Slade ht), A Miller, R Baxter (capt).
BEES: R Spee, M Vakacegu, A Grove (S Young 55), D Knight (A Maggs 73), C Mitchell, J Higgins (capt), P Knight (N Griffiths 73), J Reddlinghuys (M Long 50), S Pearl (D Bick 75), P Bucknall, A Davidson (M Gabey 48), U Kazombiaze, W Matthews (J Preece 64), R Earnshaw, G McComb.
Referee: Llyr Apgeraint Roberts (RFU).
Tries: Gray, Dunlea, Kelly, Luff (2); Cons: Kingdom (4); Pens: Kingdom.
Attendance: 3,718.