ALEX Rae believes only hard work will change his side’s fortunes after Coventry Rugby lost for the fourth game in a row against Doncaster Knights.
Rae’s men surrendered a 14-point half-time lead in a 38-24 defeat at Castle Park as Coventry dropped to sixth in the Championship table.
However, Rae remains confident the club can finish their season on a high and feels his team learnt a valuable lesson in defeat at Doncaster.
Rae said: “These are the same players who have won multiple games in this league. There were plenty of positives. If you work hard then your luck changes.
“I’m gutted for the lads. Again, there was not a lack of effort. We had put ourselves in a really good position to win the game at half-time but ultimately we have let them back in through indiscipline, there were far too many penalties.
“It was a tough, tight game and even at the end we had chances to go and score tries but we made bad decisions and probably cost ourselves two points which hurts a little bit.
“We got ourselves into a really good position but we’ve then gifted momentum to Doncaster and when you do that it’s difficult to wrestle it back.
“They have some really talented players. It was a really good lesson for us.
“In big games against good teams you have to be clinical and take your chances. We’ve made breaks and had opportunities to score.”
Tries from Senitiki Nayalo, Matt Kvesic and Jimmy Martin put Coventry in command at the interval only for Doncaster to score four unanswered tries in the second period.
And despite suffering a fourth straight defeat, Rae insists his players will not shirk away from their difficulties on the pitch in recent weeks.
Rae added: “We are not down in the dumps, we are not that sort. If we keep working hard and show effort and endeavour then it will come good.
“When you are on these runs it’s not easy but I’m not too concerned.
“Obviously you want to win games but it is what it is at the minute and we’ll rock up to training and work really hard. We’re not shirkers or moaners.”
Coventry are next in action against Nottingham on Saturday, May 17 with kick-off at 3pm at Butts Park Arena.
