NATIONAL ONE: Moseley 3 Exeter Chiefs 36

Moseley chief coach Ian Smith feels his side has a lot to work on after he saw his side again suffer a heavy defeat against one of the title favourites.

Exeter Chiefs made the long journey to Billesley Common and came away with a big win, though the scoreline was slightly flattering to the full-time West Country outfit.

The visitors ran in four tries after the break as the pressure on Moseley told. But up until half-time the game was more even, and the home defence coped well with the threat of leading try scorers Jason Luff and Josh Draniuni.

Yapp, the club's record points scorer, eventually picked up 16 points from the game with a try in the second half.

Smith said his side had made it difficult for the visitors at times but needed to translate this into a strong performance over 80 minutes.

He said: "They were a well drilled forward line and in both the first and second half we had to soak up a lot of pressure from them.

"At times we did that well, particularly in the first half when we had some good possession ourselves but our application when we had the ball needs to be looked at.

"It was discussed in the changing room afterwards and nobody is hiding - we all know what we have to do to put it right."

Smith said he was pleased with the way his team had solved some issues which arose from the heavy 68-12 defeat at Northampton Saints.

He said: "Unlike the game at Saints, I didn't feel we were overrun until towards the very end maybe and that to me is a positive because we are learning to at least compete with strong forward lines.

"In the last two weeks we have played two teams who are promotion favourites, both full time professional outfits with a large staff and players on the bench of immense talent.

"With all due respect to some of the other part-time teams in the league, we should be looking to take points off them, such as Launceston next week and I feel we are more than capable of doing that."

Moseley's best chance in the game came when left wing Charlie Sharples and inside centre Jack Adams both lost their grasp on the ball in one move before they could land it over the line for a try.

Home supporters would have felt if those points could have gone on the board, they would have been able to compete in the second half, with the visitors going in only 10-3 up at the break, only Ali James putting them on the board with a penalty.

But the second half saw Exeter again enjoy the lion's share of the possession, and, kicking with the wind, their forwards proved too much in the end for the Moseley defence.

Smith said: "They had strength in depth on the bench which they used to their advantage and we had a few players out, like Richard Stott at lock who we took out as a precaution after he was injured last week.

"That's not an excuse, but they could bring on top quality players in the last 20 or 30 minutes and pick up the tempo which they did - that's when they really started to make an impact on us."

Smith was disappointed with Moseley's indiscipline, which saw three players yellow-carded as at one point in the second half they were down to 13 men.

But he said generally he was pleased with the defensive improvement and they would need to go up a gear at Launceston next week where they would be looking for a good result.

Canadian Oliver Atkinson made a tidy debut at lock, being eventually replaced late on by Ritchie Bignall.

MOSELEY: Binns; Bressington, A James, Adams, Sharples; M James, Ireland (Hunter, 60); Williams (Buxton, 72), McMillan (Caves, 67), Forster; Arnold, Atkinson (Bignall, 72); Mason, Evans, Lightowler. Replacements : Uzoigwe, MacDonald.

EXETER CHIEFS: Breeze (Kelly, 55); Luff, M Fatialofa, A Fatialofa, Drauniniu; Yapp, Stuart-Smith (Barrett, 77); Parkes, Nelson (Blythe, 67), Andrews (Dunlea, 55); Stevenson, Hanks; Slade (Wills, 63), Miller (Johnson, 40), Baxter. Replacement: Kingsland.

Referee: Richard Draper.