By Brian Dick, Coventry Telegraph.
March 5 2013

AFTER being part of a Coventry side that has lost at the death for a second consecutive week, Cliffie Hodgson identified his team’s start to games as more of a problem than the way in which they end them.

In the last ten days Cov have lost by a point to both Richmond and Fylde and on Saturday it was an injury-time drop goal from Chris Johnson that saw the visitors nick at 24-23 victory.

The previous weekend they had conceded a penalty try to lose 34-33 at the Athletic Ground, results that have seen the Blue and Whites season stall and while there is little prospect of them being sucked into a National One relegation battle, they are losing the chase for the top six.

But Hodgson believes Cov only have themselves to blame for being in positions where the scores are so close near the end – and that is down to what they aren’t doing in the first half.

“We came off a slow start again,” the South African admitted.

“They scored two soft tries early on and we were playing catch up from there.

“I thought we did that quite well considering we were down to 14 men, credit to the boys who got stuck in and I thought at times the game was there for the taking.

“It was the same at Richmond, we had a terrible first half and had to play catch up rugby which we did again.”

Hodgson admits another issue that cost Coventry dear was his four misses with the boot in what was an uncharacteristic off day for the full back.

“I probably had my worst game for Coventry,” he conceded. “I missed four kicks and it was one of those days where the harder I tried the worse things got.

Click here for more on this article.

Hodgson accepts blame for Coventry loss to Fylde.

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 05/03/2013 19:15

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
05/03/2013 19:15

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tom snr
06/03/2013 10:32

it must have been a bad day on saturday for the leading goalkickers in the league as leader Tom Wheatcroft of Ealing had to give way to Ben Ward as he missed so many.

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Bono546
06/03/2013 16:44

The Ealing guy had many to miss by all counts, Cliffie had a lot less chances and so was far more pressurised to kick. He has set his standard to the point we the supporters now expect and no longer just admire the kicks from all areas of the field. He is still one of the best and I am extremely pleased I will be seeing him again next year.
We all have off days and on Saturday Cliffie and Scott both failed to perform to their own high standards. The team however performed with valour and there were many distinguished performances. Next week I hope all the 15 will perform and if they do some one will be getting a lesson in Rugby.

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