Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter bemoaned a key refereeing decision which went against his side at Welford Road as Leicester Tigers rallied late to inflict the Devon side's ninth defeat of the Gallagher Premiership season.

After trailing 14-3 at the interval, the Chiefs dominated the first 25 minutes of the second half to lead 15-14 before a contentious sin-binning of Will Rigg turned the game. An illegal challenge on air-born England full-back Freddie Steward saw Exeter reduced to 14 men and Leicester capitalised by scoring two converted tries in Rigg’s absence to triumph 28-15.

Olly Cracknell, Cameron Henderson, Ollie Hassell-Collins and Ben Youngs scored Leicester’s tries, with Handre Pollard converting all four. For Exeter, pieces of magic from Henry Slade created their two tries for Tom Wyatt, with Josh Hodge converting one. Slade also added a penalty.

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“Obviously Will Rigg’s yellow card was one of key aspects of the game as we had just taken the lead for the first time,” Baxter said.

“The referee (Christophe Ridley) was right on the spot and his original assessment was just a knock-on, but then the TMO gets involved and the incident was upgraded to a yellow card.

“It was an in-between decision as clearly there was a competition of sorts to secure the ball and, if encouraging competition is what we want, then it’s a difficult decision to take.

“However, we still have to take responsibility for our actions as we dropped too many balls and were inaccurate.

“Overall, Leicester won the aerial battle, but we played a bigger part in the contest than we did when we came here last year.

“I still feel we are an improving side, so having taken the lead and then ending up with nothing is particularly hard to take.”

Leicester’s bonus-point win saw them move up to third in the Premiership table, which pleased director of rugby Michael Cheika.

“We’ve had a really tough up-and-down period, but this win keeps us firmly in the mix. We didn’t play great, but ended up with a bonus point.

“It wasn’t a free-flowing game, far from it, but it was a very physical one as Exeter have a big pack.

“We dominated three-quarters of the match, but we lost the third quarter as they were more physical and were making the hard yards during that period.

“However, we showed good mentality to fight back, but Exeter are a fine side and I’m not quite sure how they haven’t won more games.”

Leicester number eight Cracknell was the man of the match after scoring the first try in an all-action performance.

The back-rower is dual-qualified for both England and Wales, and Cheika has no doubt he would make a fist of international rugby should the call come.

“Olly is a diligent guy who is really physical and is becoming invaluable as he’s one of the best back-rowers in the game,” Cheika added.

“He may not be flash but is very consistent and if they gave him a go at international level, he would definitely perform.”

Leicester Tigers: 15. Freddie Steward, 14. Josh Bassett, 13. Dan Kelly, 12. Solomone Kata, 11. Ollie Hassell-Collins, 10. Handré Pollard, 9. Jack van Poortvliet; 1. Nicky Smith, 2. Julián Montoya (C), 3. Joe Heyes, 4. Cameron Henderson, 5. Harry Wells, 6. Hanro Liebenberg, 7. Tommy Reffell, 8. Olly Cracknell

Replacements : 16. Charlie Clare, 17. James Whitcombe, 18. Dan Cole, 19. Jed Holloway, 20. Matt Rogerson, 21. Ben Youngs, 22. Jamie Shillcock, 23. Joseph Woodward

Exeter Chiefs: 15. Josh Hodge, 14. Ben Hammersley, 13. Zack Wimbush, 12. Tamati Tua, 11. Tommy Wyatt, 10. Henry Slade, 9. Stu Townsend; 1. Scott Sio, 2. Dan Frost, 3. Marcus Street, 4. Dafydd Jenkins (c), 5. Franco Molina, 6. Ethan Roots, 7. Jacques Vermeulen, 8. Greg Fisilau

Replacements : 16. Jack Innard, 17. Will Goodrick-Clarke, 18. Josh Iosefa-Scott, 19. Rusi Tuima, 20. Richard Capstick, 21. Tom Cairns, 22. Will Haydon-Wood, 23. Will Rigg

Referee: Christophe Ridley (84th game)

Assistant Referees: Craig Maxwell-Keys & John Meredith

TMO: Andrew Jackson