Sale Sharks beat Exeter to inflict a first loss of the season on the Chiefs.

Akker van der Merwe put Sale in front early in the second half only for Sam Maunder to level the scores soon after.

A second penalty for Rob du Preez and a debut try for Joe Carpenter secured the win as Henry Slade missed a late penalty to get a losing bonus point.

The win moves Sale up to second place in the early Premiership table as Exeter drop to third place - Saracens leapfrogging the Chiefs at the top after their win over Leicester.

Exeter dominated the early possession and territory and were rewarded when Cowan-Dickie came up from a 12th-minute rolling maul after a five metre line-out.

Du Preez and Slade swapped penalties before Curry's try five minutes from the break as Exeter saw starting locks Jack Dunne and Dafydd Jenkins come off injured, along with scrum-half Stu Townsend.

A pushover try from van der Merwe early in the second half was cancelled out as Maunder went in under the posts after Olly Woodburn worked an opening in the Sale defence.

Exeter should have gone ahead five minutes later but Stuart Hogg failed to gather Harvey Skinner's pass with the try-line gaping.

It was a miss they would rue as du Preez landed his second three-pointer after Sale had failed to score from close range after an hour before Carpenter went over.

The 21-year-old, starting his first Premiership match, got on the end of a long pass and went over in the left corner after Sale had sucked the Exeter defence in.

Du Preez kicked his third penalty with two minutes left to deny Exeter a bonus point as Slade's late effort from the tee missed the target.

Sale director of rugby Alex Sanderson:

"I have a growing sense of belief in these lads to get through games like these.

"I'm proud of the physicality and getting the monkey off the back after losing four [in a row] against them.

"We got into our kicking game and stuck to our guns with that. We started to play in the right areas which we didn't do for the first 30 minutes.

"You have got to play in the right areas against these boys because they will farm penalties around the halfway line and then they're into your 22 and they're pretty lethal.

"It was about winning the territory battle and we did that better in the second half."

Exeter head coach Ali Hepher:

"We were disappointed not to exert our game and Sale came with a great plan.

"They pressured the breakdown but we played into their hands a little bit and we were sloppy at times.

"We were frustrated we didn't grab the opportunities we created and there were a few individual errors.

"We got a couple of things wrong individually, whether it was an alertness to clear or our roles in what we were supposed to do in the carry.

"We put ourselves under pressure and that becomes frustrating, but equally there were times where we could have got our attack going and we kicked ball away and lost field position."

Sale: Carpenter; Roebuck, James, Tuilagi, O'Flaherty; R du Preez, Warr; McIntyre, van der Merwe, Oosthuizen, Wiese, J Hill, T Curry, B Curry (capt), D du Preez

Replacements: Ashman, Rodd, Harper, Ross, JL du Preez, Simpson, S Hill, Reed

Exeter: Hogg; O'Loughlin, Slade, Whitten, Woodburn; Skinner, Townsend; Hepburn, Cowan-Dickie (capt), Williams, Dunne, Jenkins, Kirsten, Vermeulen, S Simmonds

Replacements: Yeandle, Iosefa-Scott, Schickerling, Van Heerden, Capstick, S Maunder, J Simmonds, Kata

Referee: Wayne Barnes