DIRECTOR of rugby David Humphreys admitted Gloucester’s ill-discipline was to blame for not giving a raucous Kingsholm crowd more to shout about against Exeter Chiefs on Friday night, writes Jack Skelton.

The Cherry & Whites were initially ruthless in attack, exploiting Ian Whitten's early yellow card with Jonny May collecting his own deft chip to touch down and Dan Murphy powering over from close range.

However, a lack of self-restraint allowed the Chiefs to go from 12-3 behind to 22-12 ahead thanks to Ben White's well-worked try and the kicking talents of Gareth Steenson and Henry Slade as Matt Kvesic was shown a yellow card.

The visitors then had to survive a second half onslaught at Kingsholm, prompted by Silone Kalafamoni's try and James Hook's boot.

But the Chiefs did hang on for 25-22 win, leaving Humphreys to lament a penalty count that undermined his side's ability to draw on their vocal home support.

"We talked before the game about needing an 80-minute performance to beat a team like Exeter," he said.

"I thought for large parts of the game we were very good, but in the first half our set pieces didn't function. The penalty count was six to one against and we couldn't create any pressure.

"With the ball we were quite good in stages we just gave them too much of a lead. To go from 12-3 to 12-22 at half-time we need to look and see what went on in that middle period.

"We talked before the game about Kingsholm and a magnificent atmosphere under the Friday night lights.

"The crowd got behind the team and we responded in the second half but we just gave ourselves too much to do."

The win put Exeter top of the table briefly before ending the weekend fourth.

For tickets to any Aviva Premiership Rugby match go to www.premiershiprugby.com/tickets/.