Exeter got themselves back to winning ways in the Premiership with a comfortable victory against Wasps.

Five tries eventually pulled them clear of a dogged display by the visitors in the first half.

Prop Alec Moon crashed over early, but it was not until England hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie's score after the break that they began to dominate Wasps.

A penalty try, a dazzling finish from Tom O'Flaherty and then Alec Hepburn's late try made the margin more emphatic.

Chiefs move up to second, above Bristol, the side who dramatically beat them last time out in the Premiership at Sandy Park. But the Bears could leapfrog them again when they face London Irish at home on Sunday.

Wasps had just a solitary Jacob Umaga penalty to show for their efforts. And Dai Young's side now find themselves in the bottom three with just one win from five games.

But it could have been a different story in the first half, had both Matteo Minozzi and Nizaam Carr not been denied by some brilliant last-ditch defending by O'Flaherty sprinting back to his own line.

Michael Le Bourgeois also failed to find the killer pass from his break to the posts that would have levelled the scores at 10-10 when his ball inside was intercepted by Don Armand.

After the break, Exeter's confidence and aggression eventually broke down Wasps when Cowan-Dickie was underneath a rolling maul for the second try for the club, on his first Exeter start since 4 May.

Prop Kieran Brookes was sin-binned on the hour after persistent infringements at the scrum, which opened the door for Exeter to score their last three tries in the closing quarter.

Exeter director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon:

"We just aligned our energy fantastically well today. I've said many times, when the 15 lads all understand what ties them together on the field, we look really good.

"The only area I would criticise in the first half, is that we didn't put quite enough energy into our defence. We tried to contain them and that allowed them to threaten us.

"We were quite lucky not to concede a couple of tries in the first half.

"But second half, we put more energy into that defence and that saw us step forward and ultimately dictate how the game went."

Wasps director of rugby Dai Young told BBC Coventry & Warwickshire:

"It's disappointing. Every one knows how good Exeter are down here.

"We had a couple of opportunities in that first half and if we come away with a try there, we could've hopefully taken it right to the wire.

"In the last 15 minutes, we're running out of players with injuries and what have you.

"The telling factor was when they got an opportunity they took it and when we had one, we couldn't quite nail it.

"We were still in the game for an hour, but on reflection, they were always going to hurt us after not taking those chances in the first half."

Exeter: Dollman; Nowell, Whitten, Hill, O'Flaherty; Steenson, White; Moon, Cowan-Dickie, Williams, Dennis (capt), Kirsten, Ewers, Armand, Kvesic.

Replacements: Taione, Hepburn, Street, Lonsdale, S Simmonds, Maunder, J Simmonds, Hendrickson.

Wasps: Minozzi; Kibirige, Le Bourgeois, Gopperth, Watson; Umaga, Robson (capt); Zhvania, Cruse, Brookes, Matthews, Rowlands, J Willis, Carr, T Willis.

Replacements: Taylor, Harris, Owlett, Cardall, Johnson, Porter, Sopoaga, Spink.

Sin-bin: Brookes (59).

Referee: Ian Tempest (RFU).