Coventry Telegraph

By John Wilkinson, Coventry Telegraph.
August 25 2015

Three tries by forwards in the space of 12 second-half minutes proved the difference as Coventry suffered the first setback of their pre-season programme.

All three scores came from driving line-outs, a hangover which remains from last season for Cov, but it was the only period of the game when the Exiles were able to assert any real authority over their National League One hosts in what was generally an evenly-fought encounter at the Butts Park Arena.

Cov, who led early in the second half, saw plenty of the ball and asked questions of their guests, who included 23 of last season’s Premiership squad, but they coughed up too much possession in wrong areas of the field which was compounded by a faltering line-out.

Those failings apart, head coach Scott Morgan found plenty of positives in his squad’s performance.

“You’re never happy at losing, and on our own patch, and there are a couple of things to sort out, but all in all it wasn’t bad and I’m very pleased,” he said.

“I thought we put ourselves in a position to do all right when we went in front just after half-time, but up against full-time players it’s the extra level of focus and concentration that’s needed, the ‘staying in the game’ factor.

“London Welsh were more organised but that’s what happens in a full-time environment, and physically I thought we matched them which was very pleasing. We showed good defence and there were some good stand-out performances.”

Morgan added: “I don’t think we looked after the ball well enough in our own half to enable us to put pressure on them, we gave them field position by our errors and they capitalised – they never had to play out or kick down the middle so we could come back at them.

“That was the biggest disappointment, we didn’t make them work to get out of their half, but we’ll work on it along with the line-out, whether it’s the calling or throwing-in, but generally there were a lot of positives.

“It’s about these boys feeling what it’s like in the league above. We need to be at that level and understanding what it’s going to take to be there.

“It was small margins today – they’ve scored three really soft tries and we’ve lost by 15 points. Stop two of the three and we are right in the game.”

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Coventry RFC 18 London Welsh 33

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 25/08/2015 12:16

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
25/08/2015 12:16

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Laugh Out Loud (Dave Roach)
25/08/2015 12:22

I love the Telegraph photo showing the two John's. JW with his SAS headgear and JB with his flat cap. If you look closely enough you can just see his whippet under his table... Ayup, lad!

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John Butler
26/08/2015 08:57

Dave.... not taken on Saturday..... that is our winter gear !!

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Laugh Out Loud (Dave Roach)
26/08/2015 12:21

With the weather as it is at the moment you may be dragging the gear out for this Saturday

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