Exeter rediscovered some of their old sparkle as they ran in five tries to beat Northampton 35-12 at Sandy Park.

The England hooker scored a second shortly after the restart before Fraser Dingwall crossed for Northampton.

But Henry Slade’s interception score ended the game as a contest before Matt Proctor pulled another try back.

The bonus-point victory – Exeter’s sixth in 12 league games – lifts them from eighth to fifth place in the table as Saints drop to sixth.

Exeter are a point off third-placed Harlequins and fourth-placed Gloucester, with Northampton one point further back as only 10 points separate bottom side Bristol from the top three.

A stuttering Exeter came into the game with something to prove after being humbled at Saracens last week – the six-time finalists having lost more games than they had won in the first half of the season.

But Simmonds’ early try was reward for the hosts’ endeavour – having been held up over the Saints line, the England number eight was on hand to go over in the corner a few phases later.

The Devon side’s pack had the better of the breakdown – Woodburn’s try after 15 minutes came after Harry Williams had stolen the ball at a ruck before Josh Hodge’s darting run down the left wing set up the field position for the wing to dive over.

Saints had hoped to build on their impressive win over Harlequins a week earlier but they struggled to win any ball in the first period – their only forays into the Exeter half ending in a forward pass and a penalty for holding on in the ruck.

Cowan-Dickie was forced over for the Chiefs’ third try after Solomone Kata had been tackled in the air and they kicked to the corner to set up another line-out drive.

It was more of the same after the break and four phases after a 44th-minute tap penalty, Cowan-Dickie was over for his second.

Saints gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Dingwall scored in the left corner four minutes later. Alex Mitchell’s long pass set the centre free after Northampton had drawn Exeter’s defence under the posts from their first period of pressure on the Chiefs line.

But the pendulum swung back the other way when Slade cruised over against the run of play before Josh Hodge sprinted back to stop Mitchell going over after a mistake by Jack Nowell.

Proctor broke through a soft tackle to score unopposed with 15 minutes left for a second Saints try, but a combination of poor decision-making and good Exeter defence limited Northampton’s chances as the clock wore down.

Victory gives Exeter a much-needed confidence boost as they prepare for their first-ever trip to South Africa in the Champions Cup to face the Bulls in Pretoria.

Exeter head coach Ali Hepher told BBC Sport:

“I thought tactically on the whole we were superb. We didn’t play with the ball, which was really the plan, because when we did around the halfway line you just run yourself into trouble with line speed defence in these conditions.

“There were elements of our game that we’d like to improve – probably the scrum was a key in for them – but our maul got us on the front foot in that first half and got us the win ultimately.

“We moved around the park well, much quicker. We learnt that from last week really – we hit that pretty hard this week – and that was the reaction we wanted.

“We’re a young improving side, there are a lot of youngsters out there today that got a lot of learnings out of today and last week as well.”

Northampton director of rugby Phil Dowson told BBC Sport:

“It is disappointing in lots of ways and all the players feel the same. We didn’t get it right today and we need to work out why.

“First half we had two line-outs in their 22 and we didn’t hit either of them. Second half I can’t think of many times they had lineouts, but they won penalties, scored off the first one which blows it out to 28-0, so the start of the second half was a lot like the first half.

“After that we showed some bits, but it was too little, too late.”

Exeter: Hodge; Nowell, Slade, Kata, Woodburn; J Simmonds, S Maunder; Sio; Cowan-Dickie (capt), Williams, Jenkins, Dunne, Ewers, Tshiunza, S Simmonds.

Replacements: Yeandle, Kenny, Iosefa-Scott, van Heerden, Fisilau, J Maunder, Skinner, O’Loughlin.

Northampton: Freeman; Ramm, Proctor, Dingwall, Skosan; Furbank, Mitchell; Waller, Haywood, Hill, Coles, Moon, Salakaia-Loto, Scott-Young, Ludlam (capt).

Replacements: Smith, Iyogun, Petch, Wilkins, Graham, Braley, Hutchinson, Collins.

Referee: Adam Leal