ROWLAND Winter admits he feels ‘gutted’ for his Coventry side after they let slip an eight point lead with just two minutes of normal time remaining to lose 27-23 at home to Hartpury College in the National League One.
After behind from the second minute and 12-9 down at the break, Coventry fought back in the second half and came from behind to lead 23-15 thanks to converted tries by Rob Knox and Tom Jubb, while Will Maisey slotted home three well struck penalties.
But disaster struck for Coventry as they conceded two late tries and fell to their third defeat of the season.
“After last Saturday’s performance at Blackheath the boys have worked incredibly hard in the week to try to right a few wrongs, and they’ve done themselves proud in terms of their effort and attitude,” said Winter.
“We’ve clawed our way back from a sloppy start to put ourselves in the match at half-time and then pushed Hartpury all the way.
“The boys have worked their socks off to put things right, last week we weren’t happy with our attitude and didn’t show how much it meant to us, and one thing we can take from Saturday is the attitude and work rate we put in.”
“I’m gutted for the boys because we’ve given ourselves so many good opportunities and we haven’t taken all of the chances we created, but on this performance we’ve now got a good base line to take forward to next week.”
Up next for Coventry is a trip to Esher where Rowland’s side will be hoping to return to winning ways.
He added: “We move on to next week now, we’ve got a lot of returning players to come into the reckoning so we’ve got a big squad to pick from to go away to Esher where, hopefully, we can pick up our first away win.
“We’ll put in the work again this week, we’ll go to Esher buoyant, and now it’s about moving forward.”
