A HIGH scoring 56-40 victory over Newport provided Coventry with a much-needed confidence boost ahead of the new National League One season, but the club’s director of rugby Rowland Winter is not getting too carried away by the result.
An impressive first half saw Coventry score five tries as they led 35-19 at half-time and after the break the home side scored three more to win the try bonanza 8-6 in their favour.
There was slight cause for concern however having led 56-19 heading into the fourth quarter of the match as they allowed their Welsh opponents to score 21 points in the final 20 minutes.
“We didn’t play for 80 minutes at all,” said Winter. “We had large facets of the game that were good and parts of our game that worked well, but that wasn’t an 80-minute performance.
“In terms of our attack, we got our system right and once we got the right people in the right spots we tore them apart, almost scoring at will.
“I’m over the moon with that. But in defence we slipped off, at times we were a bit slack in the first half, and then after coming out for the second half and getting our systems right, individually we made some errors.
“Our scrum has been consistently good, our line-out showed a massive turn around compared to last week, and we had an attacking platform off that.
“With the wind, it put their skills under pressure, but like the backs, the forwards have got a lot of work to do. They have got to be a lot sharper for the way we want to play.
“It wasn’t a complete performance by any stretch of the imagination, we scored a lot of points, but we also conceded a lot which is something we’ve got to have a look at.
“It’s what pre-season is about, it’s finding out about players, seeing the good and bad parts of their performance.
“We’re nowhere near ready, we’ve got a lot of work to do and we’ve only got 14 days to put it right.”
