Coventry
Cinderford V Coventry Rugby match preview with team.
By Tom Little.
September 6 2012
This Saturday 8th September kick off 2.30pm sees Coventry Rugby visit the Forest of Dean to meet Cinderford RFC. Founded in 1886 Cinderford play at the Dockham Road Ground in the centre of the town.
Under experienced Rugby Director Andy Deacon, Head Coach David Pointon and forwards coach Lee Fortey they finished last season in 8th place, their best position in 4 seasons and look to consolidate further this season. Last season they had 14 wins and 16 losses finishing on 79 points, but their excellent home record was somewhat negated by their poor away form. This season they started off in fine form especially amongst the backs with a bonus point win away at Cambridge.
Coventry for their part have yet to score any points against them away, losing 26-0 the first season and 44-0 last season in an eminently forgettable game, although the home games have gone to the home side with Coventry winning 21-15 at the start of last season.
Despite Consultant Forwards Coach Phil Vickery moving on to a greater need at Worcester Warriors, Cinderford still provide formidable power up front with a powerful back row including Joe Garner from Stourbridge and Will Foden. It is amongst the backs they now provide the fire power with fast wingers Nev Codlin and Lloyd Stapleton already on the try sheet as well as Jack Adams from Moseley and full back Mike Wilcox coming in from Bristol last season.
Although the league’s leading point scorer last season No 10 Rory Teague has moved onto Blackheath, a suitable replacement Mark Davies has signed from Bristol and will partner promising scrum half Sam Arnett from Southend.
Cinderford have maintained their good working relationship with Premiership side Gloucester and have taken a number of dual players from Gloucester Rugby on board. It is hoped to get the Cinderford team on the website tomorrow night.
After Coventry’s poor display against title favourites Ealing Tfs last week the Coventry players have something to prove with them needing to gel together as a team and put up a much better performance in what is a difficult ground to get any sort of reward.
The Coventry side to face Cinderford has just been announced. It shows no fewer than 6 changes from the side that lost to Ealing together with 4 positional changes. There is also a welcome back to the club from Heath Stevens who goes into the centre renewing his partnership with Callum MacBurnie. In the front row Matt Price comes in from the replacements in a swop for Davy Mcgregor, whilst Danny Herriott makes his debut in place of the injured Bronson Ross.
There are 3 changes in the back row including positional as Jacques le Roux returns from injury allowing Brett Daynes to switch to No 7, with Matt Tibbatts as No 6.
Ben Toft switches to full back in place of Ben Russell, whilst Jeff Gregson and Greg Evans come in on the wings.
Coventry side:
15 Ben Toft
14 Jeff Gregson
13 Callum MacBurnie
12 Heath Stevens
11 Greg Evans
10 Cliffie Hodgson
9 Nathan Jones
1 Nico Steenkamp
2 Matt Price
3 Danny Herriott
4 Danny Wright
5 Scott Morgan (capt)
6 Matt Tibbatts
7 Brett Daynes
8 Jacques le Roux
Replacements: Rob Dugard fr, Davy Mcgregor fr, Tom Poole, Lewis Barker, Ben Russell.
Tom Little
Coventry Rugby press office
8th September 2012
Digg
Delicious
Facebook
Reddit
Stumbleupon
06/09/2012 07:15
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Where is Sam
Only my opinion but would like to see Lewis start and then bring on Nathan to steady the ship?
Quote:Unofficial Coventry Rugby
What do you think? You can have your say by posting below.
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
Quote:bigm
tonker is delusional having russell at 10..completely negates the new fly half already second week into the season.Its going to take 5/6 weeks before they realise what the best selections are given the personnel they have.
I agree with tonker. Russell is one of the few players in the team who appears to have time on the ball.
At fly half last season he was able to spot gaps and give those around him some space to run. He also knows how to deliver a pass for centres to run on to, something we've yet to see much of this year.
Just my humble opinion of course...
i am on the same fence as my brother on this one. Unfortuantely for a player of his experience IMO his desicion making tends to be poor,(as bad as my spelling)
and his penetration is lacking. His worst fault is running at the defence when its not appropiate, and then being tackled. This was shown last week he took the ball several times and then just ran at the defence and was tackled every time, that happened at least 4 times.
He did have a short spell at FH last season, and did play well, but also had some stinkers both at FH and FB, particularly i remember at Blackheath. The difference in ETF's fullback and BR last week was like chalk and cheese. However I think part of the problem is that he is built up to be a our most experienced player, so expectations are set high, yet in IMO his play making and creativity doesnt reflect his playing years.
Saying all that i give credit to him for being a reliable and trusted player, who has stuck with the club through some hard times. But i guess sometimes we want and expect something more than reliability.
It seems harsh that the 2 wingers have been dropped from last week as they hardly had the ball to do anything with. having said that Evans did play ok in the last quater of the game.
and there was us in the pre season saying we had too many centres!!
If they play like last week we will be in trouble. The number 10 had a shocker for us last week , i just hope he settles into the team soon.
I would have liked to see Ben start , Daynes and Ben and Price were the only steady, players who showed commitment on the pich last week. Its a shame to see him on the bench.
COME ON COV!!!!!!!!!!!!
More Coventry headlines
- Opportunities and Dreams
- The Morning After The Night Before
- The Playoff Stakes - 2026
- Matt Gallagher - An Appreciation
- John Wilkinson (4.5.1951 - 21.1.2026) - The Last Farewell
- “ Peace In Our Time?” No chance!
- Murder at The Rectory
- Paul’s Perilous Positional Predictions, 2025/2026
- The Champ 2025/2026 Preview and Predictions - Part 2