Photo by Nick Meredith

By John Butler, Coventry Telegraph.
November 10 2014

For the second match and week running, Coventry found themselves embroiled in injury-time drama before pulling off what ultimately was another excellent away win, their sixth overall in succession. As with a week earlier it was the boot of fly-half Matt Jones who landed the key points at the vital time.

Conditions for both sides on the impressive campus at Hartpury were, to put it mildly, difficult and pretty demanding. Although the heavy downpours had continued through the morning in Gloucestershire, these had moved away before kick-off.

However, it was only when the two sides took to the field did it become obvious as to how much surface water was hidden on a pitch with a good covering of grass.

Not surprisingly it was a while before any real pattern developed, but from a Coventry perspective the first half was disappointing.

Too often ball was moved wide allowing the eager College defence time to snuff out attacking options, with the consequence far too many mistakes crept in. Hartpury, without making any real inroads themselves seemed to handling the conditions better.

Then when finding themselves firstly 14-3 down at the break and then 21-3 early in the second half, it really was decision time for the Butts Park men.

With Cov switching to a tighter game plan, the whole pattern changed, visiting confidence grew with the Blue and Whites dominating the final quarter.

Ultimately it was a testament to the way and manner in which the squad pulled together, remaining unchanged for the whole match, that they were able to pull round what was a tricky situation.

Early on little separated the two sides who were finding the squelchy conditions difficult to handle – Cliffie Hodgson finally breaking the deadlock with a simple penalty on 18 minutes.

Cov continued overall to have marginally the better of it, but were finding it difficult, not only under foot, but also to break down a solid midfield defence.

Then on 27 minutes, a poorly directed kick in an attacking position was gathered by Hartpury, flanker Dancer making a lot of ground before winger Jaike Carter crossed wide out, fly-half Gareth Thompson converting with a superb kick.

Clearly taken aback by events, Cov continued to struggle and on either side of half-time were hit by two further tries.. Firstly on 35 minutes, effective handling and ball retention saw Hartpury set right-winger Alex O’Meara free on the overlap, Thompson once more adding the extras with a fine kick.

If 14–3 was not enough to worry about at half-time for the good sized visiting support, after 50 minutes Cov were hit again.

This time though it was again from deep, for with Coventry attacking deep in the home 22’, a pass went loose, leaving the speedy O’Meara to fly hack the ball virtually the length of the field for try number three, again converted by Thompson.

Click here for more on this article.

Hartpury College 21 Coventry RFC 23

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 10/11/2014 12:17

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
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