ALEX Rae felt his side earned ‘a little bit of luck’ after Coventry Rugby claimed a tense home win against Doncaster Knights.
Cov held off a late Doncaster fightback to triumph 24-23 at Butts Park Arena and end their three-game losing run.
And Rae admits the nature of the game provided plenty of learning for his young side.
Rae said: “When you work hard all week then put a big shift in a game, sometimes you get that little bit of luck.
“Momentum swung at the end but we should never have been in that position.
“In the first half we were good value for our lead but we left probably three or four more tries out there which meant we made hard work of it in the end.
“Our discipline let us down and gave Doncaster a way into the game. They’ve got some really dangerous players and if you don’t quite get your kicking game right they can hurt you.
“We would have liked to have been out of sight and not sat with our legs and fingers crossed but the lads battled to the end.
“There’s loads of learning for us, but when you work incredibly hard, you get a little bit of luck.”
The home side led by 12 points early in the second period after tries from Obinna Nkwocha, Ryan Hutler and David Opoku and nine points from the boot of Tommy Mathews.
However, the Knights staged a dramatic comeback courtesy of two penalties and a try after the hour mark only for Russell Bennett to miss a penalty attempt with the last kick of the game.
Cov had a chance to move three scores ahead in the second half after winning a kickable penalty around 40 metres from the Doncaster posts.
However, with Rae calling for his side to take the points, Cov opted to kick for touch in search of another try only to lose the ensuing lineout.
Rae added: “My opinion was to take the points there but the players felt at the time it was the right thing to go to the corner.
“If our group feel it’s the right thing to do then you have to back them.
“That’s one of those things when we sit down and look at it where hopefully you get a learning.
“We’ve just beaten a really good Doncaster team who’ve spent a lot of money and have proven players from the Premiership.
“We’re a young team with lots of injuries and we’re finding ways to win games against good opposition.
“Are we perfect? No, but on the back of three defeats on the bounce we needed to win and the lads have done that so I’ll applaud them then we’ll get our learnings when we look back at the performance.”
Coventry are next in action against Bedford Blues on Friday, January 24 with kick-off at 7.45pm at Goldington Road.
