ANOTHER late, late show from Coventry, and this time with a happy ending as they hauled themselves back from the brink to claim a hard-earned win in injury-time.
The deciding score came through a penalty try, converted by stand-in kicker Jack Green, but it was just reward for the domination of Cov’s forwards in the scrum with the only surprise being that referee Terry Hall hadn’t taken similar action much earlier in the game.
And the overall outcome was a fitting tribute to the never-say-die attitude of Cov’s patched up team that found the will to come back from 24-13 down with ten minutes of normal time left on the clock.
A classic it certainly wasn’t, and Cov may want to forget most of the first half which, apart from a superbly crafted Heath Stevens try, offered little for the home fans to cheer.
An already changed back division had to cope with the loss of its most experienced member – and kicker for the day - in the opening moments, Ben Russell too groggy to continue after catching a knee to the head.
But Green, who started the previous game at centre before moving to full-back, showed his value with a solid performance and the eight points he contributed from the boot, along with a conversion by Michael Gillick, proved invaluable.
Tynedale, themselves so stretched that they travelled two short of a full squad with no backs replacements, enjoyed the majority of the early possession and went ahead after 12 minutes, Chris Harris cutting through to the posts after an ill-judged pass by Will Hafu was intercepted in midfield and Will Massey converting.
Cov got it right to draw level after 21 minutes, moving the ball quickly from a line-out on the far side of the pitch for Stevens to come through the middle at pace and step inside the last defender to cross between the posts, Gillick converting.
The Tynedale scrum was now in all sorts of bother, but the visitors somehow survived unpunished as they conceded a succession of penalties close to their line, and when lock Graeme Dunn was sin-binned – the first of five yellow cards in the game – Gillick mishit a penalty chance with the numbers then evened up on the stroke of half-time when Ethan Waller was carded.
Massey and Green exchanged penalties after the break before both sides again went a man down with a flare-up leading to yellows for Adam Parkins and Tynedale’s other lock, Richard Miller. Tynedale seemed to have done enough when Cov went to sleep and shipped two tries in the space of three minutes to Hamish Smales and Harry Peck, Massey converting both.
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment.
We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals.
We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards.
If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing
abuse@sportnetwork.net
Digg
Delicious
Facebook
Reddit
Stumbleupon
