By John Wilkinson, Coventry Telegraph
October 19 2009

RUGBY director Phil Maynard admitted his frustration after watching Coventry slip to another home defeat against Nottingham on Friday night. The visitors edged through 18-13 to go back to the top of the Championship table overnight, but Cov were again left to reflect on a game in which they had enough territory and possession to win without making it count.

“We are being beaten by ‘old school’ rugby and I’m getting sick of people saying we played all the good rugby and still lost,” said Maynard. “The chance was there for us to beat a top side and we didn’t take it.

“We didn’t have the best of preparations with a stomach bug going through the squad and one or two players felt a bit queasy during the game but sometimes sport is all about seizing the opportunity.

“We had every base covered that we wanted to cover and the team bought into the game plan, but at the end of the day we failed to execute it.

“Our front five had a good game, but we could have applied more pressure in the second half with the wind and we paid for some poor options. We should have kicked our points when we had the chance and overall I thought our kicking game was very poor.

“When they kicked they put us under pressure, and when we kicked we put ourselves under pressure.

“We kicked and chipped ourselves into the wrong positions when if we had just taken the game by the scruff of the neck, we would have won.

“Frustrating is too small a word to describe it.”

Flanker Ben Pons is doubtful for Friday’s home game against Plymouth Albion after coming off early in the second half with a shoulder injury and going to hospital for X-rays.

Maynard rues missed opportunity

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 19/10/2009 21:57

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
19/10/2009 21:57

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