COVENTRY Rugby tasted defeat for the first time this season after losing 19-10 against Premiership champions Northampton Saints in front of a record crowd at Butts Park Arena.
Alex Rae’s side produced a valiant performance as Matt Kvesic and Ryan Hutler crossed for tries either side of half time.
However, a pair of quickfire tries around the hour mark helped Saints to victory in the Premiership Rugby Cup encounter to bring an end to Cov’s seven-game winning run in all competitions.
A record 5,202 spectators braved the pouring rain to watch the highly-anticipated clash between the two previously-unbeaten teams.
Coventry dominated territory in the opening 20 minutes only to overthrow at a lineout when well-placed in the Saints 22 as the visitors held firm.
However, Northampton broke the deadlock against the run of play when George Hendy collected Tommy Mathews’ grubber kick inside his own 22 and broke two tackles to run 80-metres to the line as George Makepeace-Cubitt kicked the conversion.
Cov responded after another spell of pressure on the Saints line as Kvesic forced his way over following a strong carry from David Opoku.
And the home side took the lead early in the second half when Hutler twice beat Saints defenders to well-placed kicks from Josh Barton and raced over to score.
Saints introduced a number of experienced forwards and shunted captain Chunya Munga over the line from an attacking lineout with Makepeace-Cubitt adding the extras.
The visitors struck again five minutes later as Saints drove Curtis Langdon over the line from another well-organised powerful lineout maul after Tom James produced a stunning 50:22 kick.
Saints searched for a bonus point try only for Opoku to deny the visitors with an adept piece of defending.
Coventry resume their league campaign against Ampthill on Saturday, November 30 with kick-off at 2pm at Dillingham Park.
