Exeter Chiefs drew first blood in the opening clash of their Amlin Challenge Cup double-header with Newport Gwent Dragons at Sandy Park as Ignacio Mieres slotted six penalties.

The Argentina international booted the hosts into a 12-0 lead at the break before the Dragons launched a second-half comeback with two Stefan Jones shots at goal.

But the Chiefs fly-half nullified the Welsh region’s efforts with two further penalties of his own to secure the victory and deny the Dragons a losing bonus-point.

The victory sees Rob Baxter’s men surge to the top of Pool Four ahead of next Sunday’s clash at Rodney Parade while the Dragons drop to third – but just a point in arrears.

With the Tomahawk chant resounding around Sandy Park, Mieres got the Chiefs on the scoreboard with a well-struck penalty on three minutes to take a 3-0 lead.

The Argentinean fly-half doubled the hosts’ lead on 10 minutes after the Chiefs back exerted their power at the set-piece. And he added a third penalty on 23 minutes to bring the scores to 9-0 as the Dragons were again penalised at scrum-time.

Mieres slotted his fourth penalty on 28 minutes after Bedford failed to deal with a high-ball. The Dragons were dealt a further blow on 34 minutes when the rookie scrum-half was shown yellow after referee Carlo Damasco lost patience at the breakdown.

But Mieres was uncharacteristically off-target and the Dragons weathered a late storm to go into the interval trailing 12-0.
The Welsh region returned for the second-half with far more commitment. Stefan Jones was off-target with a penalty attempt on 42 minutes but made amends less than 10 minutes later to bring the scores to 12-3.

And the Dragons comeback continued as Jones added a second penalty on 58 minutes. But Exeter quickly responded and twice went to the corner before Mieres settled for his fifth penalty to put the losing bonus-point out of range.

Mieres then slotted a sixth with the final kick of the game to put the result out of doubt