Slade holds nerve to kick Exeter into semi-finals
However, the tone of a see-saw match was set when Exeter hit straight back through veteran full-back Olly Woodburn, who took Slade's pass, to score three minutes later. Manny Feyi-Waboso has scored seven tries in his 13 England appearances When the home side pulled an advancing lineout drive down in the 16th minute, Exeter were awarded a penalty try and wing Onisi Ratave was sent to the sin-bin. But even though they were a man down, Benetton pulled the score level with the first of two tries from Jacob Umaga, after a thunderous run from Tommaso Menoncello.
Manny Feyi-Waboso showed his finishing prowess to restore the lead for the Chiefs, and Slade added a penalty to stretch the advantage. But Ratave used his power to cross for his 13th try in 13 Challenge Cup games, and Umaga landed a long-range penalty with the last kick of the half to tie the score up at 24-24. The blizzard of tries continued at the start of the second half, with Harvey Skinner and Andrea Zambonin crossing for the Chiefs and hooker Bautista Bernasconi going over in between for the Treviso side.
Umaga brought Benetton to within four points with his second penalty just after the hour mark. And when the Halifax-born stand-off struck again with 14 minutes left, the Chiefs trailed. But Rob Baxter's side pulled level again with a long-range penalty from Slade and, after calmly keeping control of the ball as the clock kicked down, they eked out a penalty for offside, which Slade stroked home with his trusty left boot from 25 metres out.
Exeter Chiefs director of rugby Rob Baxter told BBC Radio Devon: "It had everything didn't it? I think it was one of those games where you almost don't want to have a loser, because both teams contributed a massive amount to the game, but obviously I'm delighted. "I see a lot of positives in the way this group is going.
We stayed in it when it was tough. We came back from being behind. Sucker punches didn't hurt us.