NOTTINGHAM Rugby will travel to Bristol on Saturday looking to regain second place in the Championship.

They were soundly beaten 42-11 by the unbeaten Championship leaders, Exeter Chiefs, at Welford Road.

Director of rugby Glenn Delaney said: "It wasn't our greatest game, but there will now be an added edge when we play Bristol."

"We've struggled with our squad this week and hopefully the next seven days will bring better news."

The game against the Chiefs, which featured first and second in the league, was never really a contest after the Green and Whites gifted their guests a 10-0 lead after just four minutes.

"You can't give a team like Exeter a start like that," said Delaney. "We were on the back foot after that and it was always going to be difficult to recover."

Decimated by injuries and the recall of their dual registered players by Leicester Tigers and Leeds Carnegie, Delaney's make-shift team played with determination and passion.

But it just wasn't enough against a side who came into the game on the back of nine straight wins and sky-high in confidence.

Through no fault of their own, Nottingham looked like a team which hadn't played together before and their inexperience showed in situations where the opposition ran the ball. They were sucked in and, all too often, Tim Streather and Jack Cobden found themselves defending two-on-one situations.

Missing 13 of their squad, Delaney spent most of last week on the phone looking for replacements and it is a credit to the work done on the training ground that they restricted the visitors to 42 points. The Chiefs' pack had the initiative for most of the game and they did push the home pack about a bit, especially when they were close to the Nottingham line.

Despite the big scoreline, Delaney took consolation from the performances of his players.

Man of the match, full-back Andrew Savage, really came of age and some of his tackling was right out of the top drawer. On at least two occasions, his tackles led to turn-over ball and he was then at the forefront of the attacks.

Charlie Hayter put in another good display at centre, one tackle in particular sending his opposite number back a good few yards.

Young Dave Marshall, who replaced Tim Taylor at fly half, showed if given the opportunity, he certainly has the potential.

"There were some very good individual performance out there," said Delaney. "Some of the guys stood up to be counted."

After a mistake in the first minute, the referee awarded the Chiefs a delayed penalty which the league's top scorer, Gareth Stevenson, dispatched between the posts.

Three minutes later, more Chiefs pressure forced another penalty but the referee allowed the advantage, and they ran the ball along the line. Winger Matthew Jess was the last man in the overlap and he strolled over for a try. Stevenson added the extras to give the Chiefs the perfect start.

In the sixth minute, Phil Eggleshaw won a good line-out for Nottingham, Tim Usasz tidied up and fed Tim Taylor, who kicked ahead.

The Chiefs won the race for the ball but were then penalised in front of their own posts, and Taylor reduced the deficit to 10-3.

However, that was to be as close as the Green and Whites would get to Exeter.

Stevenson added another penalty after eight minutes and a delayed penalty in the 19th minute set up a pushover try for Simon Alcott.

Just after the half hour mark, another delayed penalty allowed Stevenson to stretch the lead 21-3 before Taylor made it 21-6 with a penalty of his own after 37 minutes.

In the first minute of injury time of the first half, Haydn Thomas made the game safe for the Chiefs with another try, which Stevenson also converted.

The Chiefs piled on the pressure after the break, and there were two tries for James Scaysbrook (46 minutes) and Chris Budgen (51 minutes), both converted by Stevenson.

Nottingham came more into the game after this and were unlucky to get just one consolation try in the fifth minute of added time.

Nottingham: Savage, Cobden, Casson, Hayter, Streather, Taylor (Marshall), Usasz, Buxton (Cook), Rostron (Sammons), Du Plessis, Carter, Rouse (McDonald), Baird, Sherriff, Eggleshaw.