Exeter began their Anglo-Welsh Cup campaign in style with seven tries in a 43-28 win over Northampton at Sandy Park.
This is a tournament that Exeter have targeted in recent seasons, winning it in 2014 and being runners-up on the last two occasions, and they look set for another assault on the trophy.
Toby Salmon scored two tries for Chiefs, with James Short, Alec Hepburn, James Freeman, Tom O'Flaherty and Elvis Taione also on the scoresheet. Joe Simmonds added four conversions.
Saints, who could not recover from losing three players in the opening 15 minutes, responded with two tries from Juan Pablo Estelles and one each from George Furbank and Rory Hutchinson. Stephen Myler and James Grayson both added two conversions.
Northampton, who had lost their previous four games, started badly and incurred two early setbacks. First they lost lock James Craig to a head injury, before a clever cross-field kick from Simmonds saw Short collect easily and score to give Chiefs a 10th-minute lead.
Exeter's lead did not last for long as moments later Cobus Reinach split the home defence, with Ken Pisi and Myler lending support before Furbank went in under the posts.
Craig failed to return from his injury assessment and Northampton suffered two further blows in quick succession when both Christian Day and Furbank departed with injuries.
Exeter also had a casualty in lock Ollie Atkins, but his replacement, Salmon, was soon on the scoresheet when he forced his way over from close range to give his side a 12-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.
It soon got worse for beleaguered Northampton as a break from Tom Hendrickson set up the platform from which Hepburn powered over for his side's third. Atkins returned after his assessment in time to see the visitors reduce the deficit when Estelles rewarded some sustained pressure from Saints.
However five minutes before half-time, Exeter secured the bonus point when the powerful Freeman held off two tacklers to crash over before Taione made it a miserable half for Saints when he finished off a driving line-out to leave them trailing 31-14 at the break.
Nine minutes after the restart, Chiefs sealed victory when O'Flaherty was left with a simple run-in before an elusive run from Short set up a second try for Salmon.
Northampton were decimated in the scrums, conceding a host of penalties, to make it mostly one-way traffic in the second half so it came as a major surprise when the visitors scored quick-fire tries through Estelles and Hutchinson to secure a bonus point. ends