By John Wilkinson, Coventry Telegraph.
December 9 2013

So close and yet so far as Coventry came up agonisingly short in a game where there was never more than a cigarette paper between the two sides.

Cov will be smarting at the loss of their unbeaten home record, particularly playing in front of the biggest crowd of the season and in the presence of some of the greats of the past attending a former players’ lunch.

They will reflect on a few ‘if onlys’ – in particular Mark Kohler’s missed try opportunity with just over 20 minutes to go, followed 10 minutes later by Cliffie Hodgson’s touchline conversion attempt which was on target until the breeze took it past the right upright at the last second after the winger had made amends with a superbly-taken score by the right corner flag.

In a game of such fine margins, moments like these are decisive and Cov will look at this as a missed opportunity.

There were just too many unforced errors, however, across the 80 minutes for them to feel that they were totally unlucky – untimely knock-ons, lost line-outs and a high penalty count all contributing, as well as an organised Rosslyn Park side who applied pressure in the key areas.

Cov caused most problems when they played with pace and width, and perhaps they needed more of that.

But, as at Esher the previous week, they showed that they have earned their right to be in the top three in the division and can draw from that as they go to leaders Doncaster on Saturday.

Cov opened the scoring through a Hodgson penalty which was cancelled out six minutes later by Scott Sneddon, who then hit the upright with a second kick before Barry Davies and Will Hurrell linked to set up Cov’s first clear chance which went begging when a poor pass led to a knock-on.

Click here for more on this article.

Coventry 18 Rosslyn Park 19 by John Wilkinson.

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 09/12/2013 12:56

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
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