Yet again the 26-year-old was in deadly form with his right boot as he slotted 17 points on his Aviva Premiership debut to sink the threat of Bryan Redpath's visitors at Sandy Park.

His outstanding display - in which he slotted five successful kicks from five - was in stark contrast to that of his opposite number Nicky Robinson, who failed to hit the target once in as many attempts.

Saturday's 17-point haul ensured Dungannon-born Steenson has now moved onto 549 points for the club and he is keen to add to that tally over the coming weeks and months.

Following the final whistle, however, Steenson heaped gratitude on the work of his fellow players, particularly the Exeter pack who laid a superb foundation for the Chiefs No.10 to work his magic.

"Personally I'm delighted to get a few points over the bar and I've got to work hard on that on a week-by-week basis," he said. "The pack were outstanding, they're the boys who win the penalties and it's my job to put the ball over the bar. Thankfully it happened on Saturday."
Steenson opened his account by converting Mark Foster's early try, before adding four penalties and a late drop-goal to sink the threat of the Cherry & Whites.

"I'm delighted, it's a perfect start to the season," he added. "We've worked hard in pre-season, we've learned from the couple of games we had and we've now shown we can perform at this level.

"I'm really pleased with how the boys, from one to 23, performed. We want to make this place as much of a fortress as we can, but it's got to happen every week.

"It's a lot more demanding than the Championship, the intensity is there but we've got the guys who can perform and hopefully people will now sit up and take notice of us. We're really proud of how we performed but we've got to do it all again against Leicester next week."

FOSTER'S JOY AS CHIEFS SILENCE THEIR DOUBTERS

Exeter Chiefs winger Mark Foster described Saturday's 22-10 victory over Gloucester in the Aviva Premiership as a "real squad performance" and has backed the club to continue to flourish in English rugby's top flight.

Ahead of kick-off at Sandy Park on Saturday there were plenty of pundits and bookmakers happy to go public in their thoughts that Exeter's stay in the Premiership will be short and sweet.

However, come five o'clock many of them were already sitting up and taking note as Rob Baxter's side claimed their first-ever Premiership victory at the first attempt.

Fly-half Gareth Steenson did much of the damage for the home side as he scored 17 points with his right boot, but it was former Gloucester player Foster who got the ball rolling for the Chiefs, claiming the club's maiden try after just five minutes of play.

For Foster and the Chiefs it was a dream start to the new season, but the 27-year-old knows there is still plenty of work to do with numerous challenges lying in wait, starting with Saturday's trip to defending Premiership champions Leicester Tigers.

He said: "It's a massive confidence thing. We had a quiet confidence that we could mix it with the big boys, hopefully on Saturday we showed a few people we can.

"There is so much room for improvement here. We coughed up a lot of ball, we were scrappy at points and we had defensive lapses. And on Monday we'll do what we always do, go back to the drawing board and do our analysis, find areas we have to improve.

"We've got a huge task now against a very highly-rated Leicester side away from home, it's a hard place to go and win, but hopefully if we bring the same sort of commitment and passion we showed on Saturday we can give ourselves a chance."

Certainly the Chiefs showed at the weekend they were more than happy to mix it with the very best in the English game and their display was duly noted by many of those observers who, earlier in the week, had been happy to question the club's credentials at the top level.

"I think there will still be people who have their reservations about us," he said. "On Saturday we had the element of surprise, we were an unknown quantity, but the physicality, passion and commitment the guys showed is something people will note.

"Emotion and heart go a long way in this league. Leicester have had it for the last 20 years, they've had world class sides with the foundations built on wanting to play for each other. What Rob (Baxter) and Ali (Hepher) are building is something that can rival that in terms of the emotion that goes into the fixture every weekend."

"I'm really happy for the boys and the management. It was a long pre-season, we worked really hard and we've tried to build on what we built last year," said Foster, who joined the Chiefs from Gloucester in May 2009. "With the crowd today and the element of unknown I think we caught them unawares.

"All credit to Gloucester, I thought they were fantastic and the game could have swung either way, but with the emotions of it being the first game the guys pulled through. We played some good rugby at times and there are loads of areas we can improve in, but if anyone had offered me before the game a win and no bonus point against us I would have taken it with both hands."

Foster also had praise for the 9,000+ crowd who packed into Sandy Park, he added: "The 16th man was the crowd. It was a phenomenal turn out, an awesome atmosphere and a real pleasure to play in. Hopefully we can have that week in, week out."