The perils of going too early. We should know by now that no game in this competition is ever dead until it is dead, so common is the comeback these days. But when Bath, league leaders, had the bonus point here by the half-hour mark – and a 26-10 lead to go with it – we did assume they were home and hosed. All the more so, given Exeter’s low levels of confidence, not to mention their low position in the table, with only Newcastle below them. But the Chiefs would not let matters lie. Inspired by Paul Brown-Bampoe on the wing, they denied their high-flying visitors any points at all in the second half. Brown-Bampoe’s double in the third quarter pulled them back to within two points by the hour mark. Bath managed to hold out in a nervy final quarter. “It’s never done till it’s done,” said Johann van Graan, Bath’s head of rugby. “Loads to work on for us, but I’ll take a five-point win away from home.” Whether the go-too-early formula will apply to their quest for a first Premiership title of the professional era remains to be seen. This win moves them 15 points clear at the top. They are not quite guaranteed a playoff spot, but with Newcastle visiting the Rec next week, that surely is only a matter of time. Of more immediate concern is an injury to Max Ojomoh, whose departure in the second half meant Louis Schreuder, a Springbok scrum-half, played on the wing. But Bath are bursting with options, showing them off here by fielding a completely different pack from that which did for Gloucester last weekend in the Challenge Cup. Maybe that annoyed Exeter, but it may also have irritated some of those in attendance. Andy Farrell was watching, perhaps less as Lions coach, more on a little jaunt up the A38 from the family holiday home in South Devon. All the same, he will have been most interested, of course, in the performance of Finn Russell. At times, Bath’s fly-half played as imperiously as ever, his sleight of hand releasing runners right left and centre into the tenderest parts of Exeter’s defence. At others, he was loose and struggled as much as any in Bath ranks to regain control as the game threatened to slip away. After an opening quarter of only limited coherence, in which Exeter took the lead twice, either side of a penalty try for Bath, the visitors found their pitch in a devastating five-minute spell, in which they scored three tries to register the bonus point. Russell’s hands featured in the buildup to the first two of those, their second and third overall. Neil Annett finished a lineout and drive for the first, after Tom de Glanville went close. Three minutes later, from a scrum on halfway, Russell featured again, twice, in the sweeping move that ended with Josh Bayliss’s try. Two minutes later again, Bayliss was galloping off from Cameron Redpath’s inside ball, and Ben Spencer’s brilliant pass on the run released Will Muir to the line. Home and hosed? Not quite. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso may be one of a few of the Exeter injured, but Brown-Bampoe could yet interest Steve Borthwick as he casts around for candidates for England’s summer tour to Argentina. Exeter’s winger finished a deadly counterattack, featuring a Josh Hodge break, 10 minutes into the second half. And on the hour he finished after a break of his own, following up to accept Henry Slade’s offload out of a tackle. That set up those nervy final stages. Bath held out. Job done, they will say. But they know only too well that early leads count for little in this competition.