Gloucester 17-38 Exeter: Henry Slade stars as the visitors keep their play-off hopes alive with an emphatic victory at Kingsholm

Celebrity chef Tom Kerridge was in the Kingsholm stands as Henry Slade and Exeter served up a feast of attacking rugby to keep their slim chances of a Premiership play-off place just about alive.

Rob Baxter’s Chiefs took maximum points from their Gloucester trip but they are still seventh and four points off the top four. They were far too good for a poor home side.

And in England centre Slade, they had a classy performer operating at a higher level than almost any other player on the field. Slade sliced through the Cherry and White defence like a hot knife through butter. He was a constant attacking threat in midfield and kicked superbly from the tee.

To finish in the top four Exeter will realistically have to take 10 points from their remaining league games with Harlequins and Leicester and hope for the teams above them to slip up.

Slade is now the season’s leading Premiership points scorer and is set to sign a new one-year Exeter deal with the option of a further year.

‘We said before the game we weren’t going to talk about the play-offs,’ said Exeter director of rugby Baxter. ‘We said we want to have three games left so we can hit pre-season running.’

This was no way for Gloucester to prepare for hosting Benetton in Saturday’s Challenge Cup semi-final. As good as some of Exeter’s attack was, George Skivington’s side conceded soft tries.

There were five Chiefs efforts in total as wing Immanuel Feyi-Waboso joined his international colleague Slade in impressing.

Powerhouse forward Jacques Vermeulen, who will soon qualify for England, ended with a brace of tries.

Dan John, Olly Woodburn and Feyi-Waboso completed the rout.

‘They are good players,’ Baxter said of Slade and Feyi-Waboso. ‘When we give them the platform they can show just how good they are.’

Baxter went on to describe England wing Feyi-Waboso as ‘lethal’ and confirmed there will be an ‘update shortly’ on Slade’s future.

Slade is set to commit his future to Exeter despite ongoing uncertainty over the plans for English rugby to bring in hybrid contracts for the country’s top stars such as Slade.

Gloucester’s Premiership season has been poor and Kingsholm was subdued for this one. The Shed directed their anger at the officials on occasion, but they should be more concerned with the paucity of their team’s league displays this campaign. Gloucester are capable of much better.

But strangely, after winning the Premiership Rugby Cup, they could yet end 2023/24 with two trophies with a Challenge Cup success a real possibility. They will have to improve on this performance to beat Benetton though. Gloucester remain above only winless Newcastle in the English league table.

Their tries here came from Jonny May, Jack Clement and Arthur Clarke but there was only ever going to be one winner and it wasn’t Gloucester. Skivington’s side have won just seven of their last 31 league games which simply isn’t good enough. ‘I’m not doing that again,’ said one disgruntled Gloucester fan as he left, summing up the Kingsholm mood.

Gloucester director of rugby Skivington said: ‘I’m very disappointed. I don’t think we were 100 per cent on it. We knew what was coming next week could creep into our mindset.

‘The mindset we were worried about in the week was evident in the first half. I don’t think we’ll struggle to be up for next week after that.’

Santiago Carreras won’t face Benetton after having his appendix removed and May is also leaving at the end of the season.

‘I definitely won’t be happy with the league whatever happens,’ Skivington said. ‘It’s been a season of highs and lows.’