By John Wilkinson, Coventry Telegraph.
September 5 2011
TWO weeks into the National League One season and already there are points of real concern for Coventry who, after a promising start on a dismal afternoon in the Yorkshire Dales, were never at the races.
Cov were 10-0 up after 15 minutes but instead of kicking on, their effort tailed away and they were rarely seen again as an attacking force as Wharfedale took the game by the scruff of the neck.
There were mitigating circumstances – the loss of lock Benji Dechartres, with a nasty injury, after only four minutes took power away from an initially dominant scrum which was further weakened by a rib injury to Adam Parkins, and debut winger Jonty Hallett took a heavy bang to the head in the opening minutes which affected his game.
But the bottom line was that Wharfedale just seemed to want the game more than Cov.
Their ball retention was better, denying Cov possession at crucial periods, they were more physical at the breakdown and with the platform a solid line-out and growing ascendancy in the scrum, they also showed more enterprise outside the forwards.
Once Wharfedale had the momentum, Cov found it impossible to turn it round and although their defence was again much improved from last season, unlike the game against Cinderford a week earlier, they couldn’t resist for the whole 80 minutes and two tries in the closing stages killed off any hopes of a consolation losing bonus point.
Cov couldn’t have asked for a better start, shoving the Wharfedale pack off the ball at the opening scrum and keeping up the pressure until the hosts conceded a penalty which Luke Myring kicked from a step outside the 22.
Dechartres was injured in the lead up, catching a knee in the mouth, but after Luke Gray had missed a penalty at the other end, Cov struck again when Wharfedale failed to cope with a high kick into the 22 from Ben Russell and winger Andy Murray raced over midway out on the right with Myring converting.
Cov survived three minutes of solid pressure near their line, eventually forcing a turnover to clear, but Wharfedale got the break they needed when centre Joel Gill charged down an Elliott Read kick and collected a favourable bounce 30 metres out to sprint clear to the posts, Gray converting.
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