Exeter boss Rob Baxter says he was impressed with how his side dealt with “pressure moments” in their Prem Rugby Cup win over Bristol.

The Chiefs, playing their first competitive game of the season, won 45-21 at Sandy Park on Saturday.

Olly Woodburn scored a hat-trick as Exeter led 17-0 in the first quarter before Bristol reduced the deficit to 10 points at the break.

Kane James and Ethan Roots added tried early in the second half before Bristol hit back with an Ollie Harris try.

Exeter had Sam Harris sin-binned with 20 minutes left but they did not concede as James claimed a second try late on to seal the win.

“I’m really pleased with our attitude and how we came through things because there was pressure moments in the game,” Baxter told BBC Radio Devon.

“Those moments almost brought the best out of us. When we could have had a look around and gone ‘this is getting a little bit tough now, what we’re going to do?’, we actually upped our attitude and upped our effort and improved, and I think that’s the most pleasing thing for me.

“There’s some stuff we can still improve – our lineout wobbled at times, a couple of breakdowns we got a little bit loose, a couple of soft penalties – but we have those every day.

“My overriding feeling is one of we were pretty good, we had good intent, we were physical and we scored a lot tries.

“At times we looked very clinical in the first half with some of our try scoring, at other times we had to work for them, but then you look at it the scrum went very well, maul went very well.

“We only conceded 21 points against a dangerous Bristol side, and when you actually start to break the game down on the whole it’s really pleasing.”