Exeter Chiefs Edge Newcastle Red Bulls 34-28 at Sandy Park

Exeter Chiefs defeated Newcastle Red Bulls 34-28 at Sandy Park as Christian Wade scored a hat-trick to become the second player to reach 100 Premiership Rugby tries. The high-scoring match saw Exeter claim their first win of the season while Newcastle earned two losing bonus points.

According to BBC Sport, Wade scored twice in the first half and completed his milestone early in the second period after capitalizing on a Henry Slade error. Max Hicks added Newcastle's other try, with Zack Henry converting all four attempts.

Exeter's Ross Vintcent scored two tries, while Slade, Sam Harris and Bachuki Tchumbadze also crossed for the hosts. Slade added three conversions and a penalty as Exeter secured the victory late through Tchumbadze's try from a close-range line-out maul.

The match featured eight tries, with Exeter recovering after trailing 21-19 at halftime. BBC Sport reported that the attendance was 7,071 at the 15,600-capacity Sandy Park, where the North Terrace was closed for the first time for a Premiership match.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter said, "At half-time, my biggest frustration was with our defensive energy."

Baxter said Exeter's attack created opportunities but the team needed more intensity without the ball after Newcastle repeatedly found space. He added that the visitors took advantage of those defensive issues.

"I thought we were attacking pretty well. I thought we looked a lot more enthusiastic in attack. I think we knew how to create opportunities to score, which was obviously speed of ball in the middle of the pitch and then getting the balls to wider channels where we could kind of create mismatches and pick off two-on-ones.

That part of it I was quite pleased with but when we had the ball the other way around, for some reason we were just lacking in energy, drive and speed off the floor, speed to go forward and quality of tackles. Fair play to Newcastle, I thought they exploited that quite well because they kept the ball up and alive. They got the ball into space and scored some good tries - that flip-flopping of the score almost wouldn't let us settle," said Rob Baxter, Exeter director of rugby.

Newcastle head coach Dan McFarland said the narrow defeat showed progress from a reshaped squad after significant changes during the offseason.

"Every time you lose, you're disappointed," said Dan McFarland, Newcastle head coach.

McFarland said Newcastle had shown commitment and played in the style they want to develop despite remaining without a win. The defeat came against last season's finalists, according to his assessment.

"Both weeks I've been proud of a lot of what we've done, very proud of the effort that we put in there, very proud that we went out and played the brand of rugby that we want to play going forward," said Dan McFarland, Newcastle head coach.

"The fact that we've come to last season's finalists and lost narrowly at this stage is at the same time disappointing and positive in knowing that what we're trying to do we're, putting in place," said Dan McFarland, Newcastle head coach.

Exeter moved into eighth place in the Premiership standings with the bonus-point win, closing the gap to leaders Gloucester to four points, while Newcastle remained at the bottom of the table.