EXETER — New Gloucester captain Dewi Lake marked his first Premiership appearance with two tries and man-of-the-match honours as the Cherry and Whites stunned 2025-26 Prem finalists Exeter Chiefs 45-24 at Sandy Park. The bonus-point victory delivered Gloucester's first win at the venue in 12 years and did so in record fashion on the scoreboard.
Lake, who arrived this summer from Ospreys, said the result was a deliberate statement of intent. "We spoke about laying a marker down, we spoke about mindset a lot of the week, we spoke about what we wanted to do and i think we delivered that," Lake told BBC Radio Gloucestershire. "The boys haven't done it in 12 years winning here, in record fashion with the scoreboard as well, but the important thing is it's not one and done for us. That's the standard for us every week, that's the marker we want to leave on the league."
The win offered immediate contrast to last season, when Gloucester lost eight of their opening nine Prem fixtures, finished eighth with just five wins and never scored over 40 points in a single league game. Wales captain Lake and fellow Wales skipper Jac Morgan were headline summer arrivals and both went straight into the starting XV at Sandy Park alongside new signings lock Jean Kleyn and wing Phil Cokanasiga. "I feel like I've been accepted and gelled into this group extremely quickly - credit to the boys and staff for that, but this group has gelled, has really clicked very quickly," Lake added. "Trust is earned and we started to earn that trust with each other today, we've built on it in the last couple of weeks we've been together but that's just a step for us in the right direction."
Gloucester's dominance was built on defence and physicality, making 241 tackles to Exeter's 135 and winning eight turnovers to the Chiefs' four. Lake said collision dominance was the week's focus and it paid off. "That was a big focus for us through the week, we knew physicality, collision dominance winning that first collision was going to be massive in this game," he said. "We spoke a lot about trust about discipline, about trusting the guy next to you to do his job you just focus on yours and defensively you could see that. Nobody was chasing lost causes, everyone was just trusting the system and winning collisions and we could get back on top."