Even a windy night in Bristol could not blow table-topping Exeter off course in their pursuit of the title. The gap between the Premiership leaders and the second-placed Bears is now 11 points and this was another demonstration of the Chiefs’ collective resilience, capped by a close-range try from their Cornish replacement prop Billy Keast with two minutes remaining. It had seemed as if Bristol, after a below-par first half, might have done enough to steal victory via a 70th-minute try from the 19-year-old replacement Ioan Lloyd. They underestimated the resolve of their depleted opponents, who made 14 starting changes from the lineup who beat Sale on Friday and still found a way to end the home side’s record seven-game winning run. Considering the blustery conditions it was a generally free-flowing contest with the ball-in-play time exceeding any Premiership game this year. Bristol will be disappointed with their first-half effort when tries from Phil Dollman and Sam Hidalgo-Clyne helped put Exeter 15-0 ahead and the 23-year-old Keast’s last-gasp score was no less than the visitors deserved on a character-building night. “When you change the team you’ve got to be proud when they front up and hang in there,” said Rob Baxter, the Exeter director of rugby. “It’s too early to feel comfortable, though – we’ve got to keep collecting points.” The gales were strong enough to make anyone think twice about crossing the Clifton suspension bridge but there was slightly more protection from Storm Francis inside the stadium. It permitted both sides to play their preferred passing games but every now and again a damp gust would come blasting down the field to remind everyone this was summer rugby with an unseasonal twist. Bristol had the majority of their biggest names on the field but it was a pair of Chiefs who made the greatest initial impression. The bearded South African flanker Jannes Kirsten set the defensive tone with a fine tackle on Charles Piutau that snuffed out a potentially promising turnover opportunity and the veteran Dollman then rolled back the years with a superb individual score in the 14th minute. The 35-year-old Welshman came bursting on to the ball in the Bristol 22, left a startled Semi Radradra for dead and then handed off the hulking Nathan Hughes en route to the kind of try any centre in the world would have been proud to score. Dollman is stepping aside at the end of the season to become the player-coach of Sidmouth and on this evidence the Devon club have recruited smartly. Worse was to follow for the home side when Exeter launched a slick blindside surge and Olly Woodburn found Hidalgo-Clyne on his inside. The scrum-half still had plenty to do but managed to twist over and ground the ball to the satisfaction of the referee, Wayne Barnes, back in the whistling business after a stint of post-Mallorcan holiday quarantine. Another compelling attack had Dollman almost score a long-range second and the pace and precision of Exeter’s phase play was causing Bristol regular inconvenience. A straightforward penalty from Gareth Steenson extended the visitors’ lead to 15-0 and left Pat Lam’s side with serious work to do, despite three relieving points from the tee for Callum Sheedy and a bullocking run from Hughes that saw Steenson brushed aside like a piece of balsa wood. Bristol emerged looking like a different team and were ahead 17-15 within 12 minutes of the restart. First Piers O’Conor picked up a deflected pass that Barnes ruled had not gone forward before further pressure created space out wide for Luke Morahan to add a second. Sheedy converted both and, suddenly, the game was back in the balance. A second Steenson penalty briefly regained the lead with 15 minutes left but Lloyd slipped past an injured Woodburn and Joe Snow wide on the right to wrest back the advantage. The Welsh youngster reckoned without Keast and Steenson, whose finely judged conversion also helped propel Exeter back down the M5 on a high. “We got back in the game but in the last 10 minutes we should have closed it out,” said Pat Lam, the Bristol director of rugby. “You can’t allow Exeter to play close to the line and they showed the quality side they are.”