ALEX Rae felt Coventry Rugby’s dominance at the scrum set the foundations for his side’s fine 27-12 victory at Doncaster Knights.
Cov’s tighthead prop Adam Nicol starred at Castle Park as the visitors scored three tries and Pat Pellegrini kicked 10 points to complete a league double over their opponents.
And Rae heaped praise on his front row who won a number of penalties at the scrum to keep Coventry in command throughout.
Rae said: “I’m really pleased that we came away from home to the team in second place and came away with the win.
“It’s never an easy place to come and to do the double over them is excellent. We made the game look really easy for 70 minutes then lost our cool a bit for ten minutes but overall we deserved our win.
“We dismantled their scrum throughout the game and that laid the foundation for our win.
“In these conditions territory is really important and the penalties we won at the scrum and us turning over a number of their lineouts meant they were never able to get into the game.
“We know when we have a fully-fit front row that we’re a handful for anyone in the scrum and Toby Trinder, Adam Nicol and Jordon Poole were outstanding.
“Toby did very well off a long injury lay-off and Adam and Pooley were both also brilliant – Jordon led the boys superbly in his 50th appearance.”
Despite Coventry’s impressive victory, Rae insists his side will need to find an extra gear ahead of hosting league leaders Ealing Trailfinders this weekend.
Rae added: “When we concentrate well and we’re on top of our game we’re a match for anyone.
“We need to try and capture that feeling of togetherness, being together and playing for 80 minutes as we’re a very good team when we manage to do that.
“I’m really excited now about the opportunity we have next week. We’re two from two in the block of games since the last break and we now have the team who are top of the table coming to town.
“We’ll need to go up another level next week against Ealing.
“They probably have the best scrum in the league at the moment as you saw when they dismantled Leicester Tigers in the cup last week, but hopefully Butts Park will be full and we’ll be full of confidence.”
Coventry’s clash with Ealing takes place on Saturday, March 9 with kick-off at 2.30pm at Butts Park Arena.
