Rugby round-up: Bath score too many for Chiefs

In the Aviva Premiership yesterday, Bath stayed in the hunt for a Heineken Cup place by beating Exeter 26-18 at the Rec. Matt Banahan, Matt Carraro and Michael Claassens scored the home side's tries and Butch James kicked 11 points. Luke Arscott and Matt Jess scored tries for Exeter, Gareth Steenson kicked two penalties and Ignacio Mieres kicked a conversion.

In the Heineken Cup, in Spain, Perpignan and Toulon drew a record quarter-final crowd of 55,000 to the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona. Perpignan won 29-25. The Wallaby flanker George Smith, the Springbok back-rower Joe van Niekerk and the scrum-half Fabien Cibray scored tries for Toulon and Adrien Plante and Perry Freshwater scored for Perpignan. Jonny Wilkinson kicked 10 points for Toulon and Jérôme Porical kicked 19 for Perpignan.

In France, Munster beat Brive 42-37 in an Amlin Challenge Cup quarter-final, the Irish province scoring five tries (two each for Doug Howlett and Keith Earls and one for Peter Stringer) and the French club four (from Retief Uys, Fabrice Estebanez, Alexis Palisson and Shaun Perry). In the semi-finals, Munster will play Harlequins at Thomond Park in Limerick on Saturday 30 April and Stade Français will play Clermont Auvergne in Paris the night before.

Sale have banned the England wing Mark Cueto for six weeks, after he was cited for making contact with the eye or eye area of Northampton's Christian Day. Cueto, who will appear before a Rugby Football Union panel on Monday, will not play again this season.