Dominant for so much of the first half, Cov’s scrum crumbled – twice being pushed off their own ball – and for the final half hour of normal time, and most of the extra 11 minutes referee Andrew Taylorson added on, they scarcely got a hand on the ball.

Rotherham turned a 26-15 deficit midway through the third quarter into a 32-26 lead.

Cov summoned up one final effort and with the clock showing 89 minutes, Lee Parry – one of few players to emerge with any credit – muscled his way over for a try to cut the gap to a single point, but Ronnie McLean’s conversion attempt went wide of the post and that was that.

There was collective disbelief in the home camp at the final whistle, not least among the fans who found it hard to reconcile the performance with the ones produced not so long ago against top sides Leeds and Doncaster. Coming after the previous week’s defeat at Newbury, the pressure is right back on for the next two games at Esher and Otley, two more sides currently in the bottom five.

Forwards coach Dave Addleton could only out it down to concentration.

“We thought the game was won, sat back on our lead and paid the price,” he said. “We’ve got to sit the players down and just ask the question why they are letting their concentration slip.

“The lesson to be learnt is that you have got to go flat out for 80 minutes and put sides away, because if you don’t, this is what can happen.

“It didn’t come down to that final kick, the game should have been put away at the start of the second half. We should have played territory, putting the ball behind Rotherham, making them play from deep positions and keeping them under pressure.

“You simply can’t afford to give sides any hope in this division.”

The opening stages were all Cov and the breakthrough finally came on 14 minutes from a five-metre scrum when Mike Walls - on his birthday – dummied to pass and went through the gap that conveniently opened up to touch down. McLean converted.

Four minutes later, veteran fly-half Tommy Hayes, who restored direction to Cov’s midfield for an hour until injured, showed his class when he ghosted through from 35 metres to claim his maiden try for Cov in the right corner.

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