By John Wilkinson, Coventry Telegraph.
February 2 2015

A chance gone begging for Coventry, who would have moved to the top of the National League one table had they won, but in the end they were grateful just to leave the Athletic Ground with their long unbeaten run intact.

It took a try in the seventh minute of added time to deny Cov a 17 straight win, but – in keeping with recent games here between the two – the drama continued to the last kick with Rob Kirby, the division’s second highest scorer behind Cliffie Hodgson, somehow squirting his conversion wide from in front of the posts.

In a game of fine margins, Cov were again grateful for the boot of Hodgson, whose 13 points took him to 200 for the season, as they were outscored 4-3 on tries, and if one or two cracks had been appearing in their all-round performance over the previous few weeks, they grew a bit wider here.

Playing into a strong, cold wind Cov had plenty of first-half territory and even though they found it difficult to make any progress against a well-organised home defence and turned round 11-10 down, the game was theirs to win.

But Cov were never at the top of their game and, not for the first time this season, they didn’t make best use of the elements after the break, and the game remained an evenly-fought affair with both sides guilty of handling errors on a difficult surface after a morning of rain.

Cov dominated the opening exchanges and should perhaps have gone in front earlier than the 11-minute when, after Richmond had been penalised for the fifth time, the forwards drove over from a line-out for Matt Price to claim the try which Hodgson converted well into the wind.

Three minutes later, however, Cov were caught out in midfield and space opened up for Rory Damant to break clear and send in Jack Rossiter for a try - Kirby hitting the right post with his conversion but then kicking a penalty on 20 minutes to put the home side in front.

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Richmond 28 Coventry RFC 28

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 02/02/2015 18:21

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
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