As the two teams disappeared down the tunnel at half-time this was an early candidate for the most one-sided game of the season. The visitors had sent out 13 full internationals, including no fewer than five British & Irish Lions, but the scoreboard still read 36-3 to a rampant Exeter. Had it been a boxing match, the pink-shirted Blues would not have been allowed back out again. If anyone in the Welsh capital, not least in the Blues' coaching staff, lingers on the team's four second-half tries and improbable bonus point and concludes that things were not really that bad, he is deluding himself.
Their last two tries came when Exeter Chiefs were reduced to 13 men and the other two were the result of stray turnover balls squirting out of the side of rucks. All concerned would be better reflecting on the first-half carnage, in which the visitors missed more than 20 tackles, and doing urgent defensive work before the ominous visit of mighty Toulon this weekend.
It is certainly not a fixture to lift the pressure from the shoulders of the Blues' director of rugby, Phil Davies, whose team have already lost at home to the Italian minnows Zebre in the RaboDirect. Without the Scarlets' morale-boosting win at Harlequins this would have been a gloomy first weekend for the Welsh regions who, apparently, are demanding more money before agreeing to feature in the mooted Rugby Champions' Cup. On this evidence their market value is in little imminent danger of soaring. Already it is safe to say the Heineken Cup final in Cardiff next May will not be featuring the city's local side.
The abiding memory of this Sunday lunchtime scoring glut in Devon, however, was the assurance of Exeter's attacking play as they tucked away a four-try bonus point inside the first half-hour. Following on from last weekend's win at Kingsholm, they poured forward with gusto, hit the contact hard and barely let up, well led by Dean Mumm and expertly guided at fly-half by Gareth Steenson. Their five points and six tries represent the handiest of starts in Pool 2, particularly when the knockout qualification maths is done.
Even Toulon, having shredded Glasgow, will study the DVD of the opening 40 minutes and realise that the Chiefs, in this kind of mood, take some stopping. Before their first try in the ninth minute from the England international Tom Johnson the home fans were already purring at the interplay between backs and forwards, and the sight of Jason Shoemark driving his back-row colleague over the line summed up their tireless support work.
Three tries in five minutes just before the half-hour further rammed home the difference in attitude between the sides. The first was the product of a shambolic Blues lineout stolen by Damian Welch, with Mumm galloping out of a ruck to score untouched near the posts. The winger Matt Jess popped up at dummy half to dart through for another soft try before the lively, if erratic, Fetu'u Vainikolo cut back on the angle to secure the bonus point without a hand laid on him.
Any resemblance between this side and the team who struggled so badly at home to Leicester a fortnight ago was hard to spot and the momentum was maintained even after the outstanding Johnson suffered a bang to the head and had to go off six minutes before the interval. Dave Ewers, the No8 rising swiftly up the English pecking order, was involved in the build-up before the Australian flanker Ben White applied the finishing touch, booting the ball clean over the stand by way of celebration.
For high-profile Welsh internationals such as Sam Warburton, Leigh Halfpenny and Alex Cuthbert, the triumphant Lions tour of Australia must have felt a long time ago as they trotted off at the interval. The Chiefs had been required to make only 14 tackles in 40 minutes and Davies, Warburton and the captain, Matthew Rees, all had sharp words to say to the troops.
To some degree they had the desired effect once the Chiefs had added a sixth try to their tally, created by Steenson and scored by his fellow Ulsterman Ian Whitten, to stretch their advantage to 41-3. Having conceded two soft consolation tries to Lloyd Williams and Robin Copeland, however, the Chiefs generously opted to play for 10 minutes with 13 men after Whitten and Sireli Naqelevuki were sin-binned for a deliberate knockdown and a high tackle respectively. It allowed the persevering Cuthbert and Harry Robinson to drag the margin back to within two converted tries until Henry Slade's late penalty restored some order.
Somehow it was enough to encourage the beleaguered Davies to claim the final scoreline "was not misleading at all". He must have been suffering short-term memory loss, the most conspicuous Cardiff tackle having been the one which accidentally pole-axed the French referee, Jérôme Garcès. There was nothing else to laugh about from a Welsh point of view.
Exeter Chiefs Dollman; Jess, Whitten, Shoemark (Naqelevuki, 58), Vainikolo; Steenson (Slade, 56), Lewis (Thomas, 48); Sturgess, Whitehead (Yeandle 49), Tui (Rimmer, 52-73), Mumm (capt), Welch (Armand, 63), Johnson (Horstmann, 34), White, Ewers.
Tries Johnson, Jess, Mumm, Vainikolo, White, Whitten Cons Steenson 4 Pens Steenson, Slade.
Sin-bin Whitten 62, Naqelevuki 62.
Cardiff Blues Halfpenny; Cuthbert, Allen, Hewitt, Robinson (Smith, 77); Patchell (G Davies, 76), L Williams (L Jones, 76); G Jenkins (Hobbs, 74), Rees (capt; Breeze, 77), Filise (Andrews, 52), B Davies, Paulo (Reed, 52), Navidi, Warburton, Pretorius (Copeland, 52).
Tries L Williams, Copeland, Cuthbert, Robinson Cons Halfpenny 3 Pen Halfpenny.
Sin-bin Breeze 79.
Referee J Garcès (France) Attendance 8,751.
