By John Wilkinson, Coventry Telegraph.
January 20 2014

Coventry's sixth defeat of the season was by far the most comprehensive, and they seem no nearer to finding a way to beat Blaydon after conceding a double for the second successive season.

In a nutshell, Cov were outfought and out-thought by their well-organised visitors, who dominated the rucks and mauls before capitalising on the mistakes their pressure produced in an impressively efficient all-round display.

Cov selected a side to counter Blaydon’s forward strength and mauling game in anticipated heavy conditions, but it backfired to a large extent on a pitch which, after the admirable efforts of head groundsman Eric Richardson, stood up remarkably well.

Cov had early successes in the line-out and, for the large part, their scrum – taking one against the head – was competitive, but around the field their efforts lacked balance and cohesion.

Players were isolated on too many occasions and, with Blaydon playing on the edge and given a certain leeway by referee Marcus Caton, it led to an unacceptably high turnover count which, with a number of unforced handling errors thrown in, was too much to overcome.

On the plus side, returning back-rowers Sam Pailor and Jacques Le Roux got 80 valuable minutes of game time under their belts, along with prop Andy Brown, but, as head coach Scott Morgan later conceded, the combinations in the starting XV weren’t quite right.

Cov made the brighter start, stealing Blaydon’s first two line-outs, and they opened the scoring through a Cliffie Hodgson penalty, but they paid a heavy price for errors over the rest of the first half.

Blaydon opened their account following a penalty award in the home 22, using their renowned line-out drive to put Jason Smithson over the line, and they added a second try three minutes later when they turned Cov over and kicked and chased from their own 22 for the pacey Zach Kibirige to touch down.

Cov hit back with a well-taken try, Barry Davies and Mark Kohler linking down the right flank for the former to score.

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Coventry 15 Blaydon 37 by John Wilkinson.

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 20/01/2014 17:19

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
20/01/2014 17:19

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