The Wolves scrum-half dummied his way over the line from close range and a penalty right on the hooter made it 12-12.
Leicester, however, scored a well-taken try when Dan Hemingway won a line-out and Ben Youngs, the 19-year-old scrum-half, dummied to send the defence one way for Youngs to cruise through.
The try at least was a thing of considerable beauty, Ford finishing a move started by Horacio Agulla with a counter from a high kick, continued by a surge from Francois Louw and ending with the outside-half dummying and accelerating past the forwards left marking him.
The number eight sent Hook and Lee Byrne the wrong way with a half-dummy to wing Brew, then found Smith in support inside and the centre went over and Tovey converted.
The scrum-half dummied through the Clermont backline and drew the last defender before sending Salvi striding over for the try.
England had not looked like scoring until centre Atkins accelerated away from dummy half from well inside his own half in the 20th minute to sprint clear to the other end.
In between Higgins' two tries, Leicester's 19-year-old scrum-half, Ben Youngs, dummied from a lineout to race through and score Leicester's only try.
The Blues moved it quickly from one side to the other and the scrum-half, Jason Spice, dummied over from close range to give his side an 8-0 intervaleadad.
De Waal and Thomas exchanged penalties before replacement scrum-half Liam Davies dummied his way through to earn the hosts' bonus-point try four minues from the end.
Exeter deserved credit for spurning the posts twice and were rewarded when replacement fly-half Mieres dummied his way over and converted to make it a five-point game with 12 minutes on the clock.
2.37pm GMT 2 min Little step from Smith at dummy half and it's spun left.
