By Whistle Watcher
September 10 2023

The day the Champions came to town – and what a show it was!   At least, the long awaited 2023/24 season starts, and boy oh boy, what a start it was too.

The Premiership Cup, a new wheeze by the RFU to bring more money into the Premiership club coffers, started with a number of reasonably high profile fixtures taking place between some Premiership sides and Championship sides; Pirates played Bath, Caldy played Leicester, Ealing Northampton etc, etc, but the one were all focussed on was Coventry against the English club champions, Saracens.    I was going to write “lowly” Coventry but, you know what, we’re anything but lowly.  Especially now.

There had been some speculation about the potential for upset, with Ealing and potentially Pirates being able to create an upset against Northampton and Bath respectively, but Coventry against the Saracens?  A slim chance, at best, you’d imagine.

And when I arrived at the ground, I found that the Premiership show had arrived already.  All Saracens kit was laid out, their radios (there were loads of them!) all neatly boxed and labelled (we just take one and see who gets the broken one, so if anyone wants to buy the club a new set of radios, talk to Alex!), the lobby filled with all manner of support staff kit from physios to psychologist couches.   OK, maybe not the couches, but you get the picture.

We even had an official timekeeper this week!

It was impressive, to be fair.

And it was hot.  Very hot.

The club had really pushed out all the boats and created a food village and outside bar facilities in preparation for the anticipated crowd which was given as 4,107 (or so).  Impressive, and probably a bigger number than most of the other games will bring. 

The marquee (corporate hostility) had been long since sold out, and I could hear the laughter as Billy Byrne entertained the diners.

The bars have been fitted with additional pumps, so the servers are not waiting for pumps to come available to be able to pour and I felt there was less queuing and quicker service then we’ve had previously, so credit where credit is due to the club, Jack and Selina (bar managers) there!

And so it came to game time.  And, as you might have expected, Saracens took a 0 – 7 lead quite early on. 

But not for long

It was only six minutes that it took Coventry to create a scoring opportunity for Suva Ma’asi, who took it, Pat Pellegrini adding the obligatory 2 points. 

7 all.

And the pressure on the Coventry goal line after that was almost relentless, with Saracens eventually scoring again through Harris, but only after a magnificent defensive effort by the home boys.

7 – 14

But not for long.

39 minutes into the first half, right at the end, in fact, Will Wand – the eventual man of the match – muscled his way over the line, PP converting, to give a half time score of 14 – 14, and the crowd loved it.

The second half, and the replacements started to come onto the field bringing fresh legs and new opportunity for Coventry, and they took that opportunity as well, showing every bit the strength in depth of the squad as they tackled as if for their lives, taking every opportunity to show that the Cov dog is alive and well in our current squad.

Jordan Poole, fresh off the bench made a breakaway and set up Will Chudley who looked like crossing the line himself but fed Ryan Hutler for his first Coventry try.

PP converted that one, unsurprisingly, and a few minutes later found himself through with only the line to beat when the ref called them back for two knock ons.  Hisfrustration was clear to see – as it was for the other 4107 of us – but with 10 minutes to play, Saracens still looked as though they could pull it back to a 21 all draw.

Not a chance.

For the first time I’ve seen, Coventry were galvanised into managing that game out, with pick and go the order of the day.  You could see the Saracens players were wilting, slow to their feet and their heads were down, literally, as they tackled again and again to try to keep the Coventry side out.  Yard by yard, carry by carry Cov made their way toward the line, sucking defenders in as they got slower and slower to get back to their feet from the previous phase.

And it was only right that Pat Pellegrini had the last word, taking the ball and zipping past a now knackered Saracens defensive line to score his first and Cov’s fourth try, converting it to end the game.

So the players.  Wow.  I didn’t envy whoever it as that had to decide the man of the match.  I’m not saying Will Wand didn’t deserve it, far from it, but you could have given that to pretty much any one of the Cov players and no-one could, or would, have argued.  They all played themselves to a standstill.

It was awesome to watch and, frankly to hear, as the crowd, a BPA record crowd by the way, got behind the team and roared them on from stage to stage. 

A massive effort all round, and everything pretty much appeared to work well.   Lineout, defence, attacks with scrum the only element we were penalised for (in the first half).  The second half was a different story for the scrum with Toby Trinder, Eliot Salt followed by Elliot Chilvers and Ollie Andrews, showed Saracens that they weren’t there to be pushed around.  Literally, and did a fair bit of pushing themselves, winning penalties at almost the same rate as we had awarded against us earlier.

As that final whistle went, the BPA erupted.  There were cheers, beers (and tears) were spilled.  Coventry won.

And Saracens?  They went home, but not ungraciously.  They spoke of being beaten by the better team.  They praised our team and our coaches, they thanked us for our hospitality and the warm welcome they’d received.

Gracious in defeat.  The definition of a quality club.   It was a shame they didn’t come into the clubhouse afterwards, although I did see some of their supporters taking one or a couple more after the game.

I saw all sorts of different club shirts at the ground, but it didn’t matter whose colours you wore.  They all agreed that it had been a tremendous game to watch, and it had.

One final word for the match officials – managed the game, made less mistakes than the players and were, largely, invisible (which is a good thing).  Joe James and his assistants let the game flow where possible, and kept good control of what could have flared up a few times.

So.  Sunday afternoon and I’m still re-living the game as will lots of us. 

Coventry 28, Saracens 14.

In the words of Max Boyce, I know, ‘cos I was there.

The Day the Champions Came to Town

Discussion started by Unofficial Coventry Rugby (IP Logged), 10/09/2023 12:55

Unofficial Coventry Rugby
10/09/2023 12:55

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2023:09:25:19:24:14 by Kimbo.

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Kimbo
10/09/2023 15:36

Thanks for the quick response matey.

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covkid1953
16/09/2023 13:44

Great post, brings it alive. I wasn't there because I'm on holiday. Gutted to miss this fun in the sun.

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