NEW Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Hunter acknowledged there is ‘plenty to work on’ as he assessed the future of the club following his first game in charge.

The long-serving coach was last week promoted into his new role, replacing Ali Hepher who will see out the remainder of the campaign as the club’s attacks/backs coach, before taking up a new transitional role within the academy from next term.

However, the task facing Hunter is not an easy one, as illustrated on Saturday as the Devonians slipped to a tenth Premiership defeat in 12 starts, this time at the hands of local rivals Bristol Bears.

In what was a high-scoring affair at Ashton Gate, the Bears secured a bonus point inside the opening 16 minutes – the second quickest in Premiership history – as they claimed tries through Jack Bates, James Williams (2) and Benhard Janse van Rensburg.

The Bears, though, were equally porous in the same period as the Chiefs themselves grabbed four tries of their own, Martin Moloney, Henry Slade, Dafydd Jenkins and Josh Hodge all finding their way over.

Bristol’s case was hampered with the sending off of former Chief, Santiago Grondona, but even down a man they continued to cause the greater threat, Bates completing his hat-trick to go alongside further scores from Harry Randall and Steven Luatua.

As the Bears began to tire late in the game, the Chiefs countered with further scores from Jack Yeandle and Will Rigg, but the significant damage had already been inflicted.

“There’s so many things we need to work on right now, it’s just prioritising which ones we can that will be urgent in the short term and which ones we can with deal with over a slightly longer period,” said Hunter.

“There’s not really any areas of the programme I’m not prepared to rip up in terms of getting better, be that how we attack, how we defend, our set-piece, our kick battle transition, what we do off the field - all of it.

“That said, we have got an incredibly committed group of lads, an incredibly committed group of staff who have come through probably the toughest period that the club has ever had in the last two or three years.”