ALEX Rae believes Coventry Rugby’s hard-fought win against newly-promoted Chinnor should act as a good ‘wake-up call’ for his side.
Cov secured a bonus point 28-14 victory at Butts Park Arena to maintain their early lead at the top of the Championship table.
However, despite the victory, Rae felt Chinnor were the better side and insists his side must produce better performances ahead of a tough run of fixtures.
Rae said: “I thought we played really badly. I thought Chinnor were the better team and I can’t believe they’ve left Coventry with nothing which is credit to them and a good wake-up call for us.
“They battled away and made it difficult but I thought we were a shadow of where we can be and that’s disappointing because we had a really good crowd again and didn’t turn up to the party.
“Rugby is a pretty basic game. You’ve got to prepare to work, you’ve got to win the collisions and have some enthusiasm and at times I thought we lacked that which was really, really disappointing.
“We had a brilliant training week and we just haven’t carried that over into the game. Chinnor probably came here and couldn’t believe how easy they found it.
“Obviously, it’s weird me being a bit downbeat after a five-point win, but we’re trying to push ourselves to bigger and better things.
“In the games we have coming up, we won’t get away with producing displays like this and giving opponents so many opportunities in our 22.”
A pair of tries from Charlie Robson and further scores from Tom Hitchcock and Jordon Poole ensured Cov secured a fourth straight bonus point victory.
And Rae praised the contribution of young scrum-half Fin Ogden, who impressed during the final 20 minutes from the bench, but admitted the overall performance will lead to more selection headaches when Cov travel to Caldy this weekend.
Rae added: “Fin got charged down twice, which he’ll be disappointed about as it put us under pressure, but it was a really good bit of vision to spot space then he executed his kick perfectly.
“We’re really keen to keep giving all the squad opportunity. After this game it’s likely there’s more headaches and less things set in stone but in a way that’s good as I’m expecting a bit of a reaction next week.
“I know what the group’s capable of and I want to entertain everyone who comes and watches every week but obviously sport doesn’t work like that and this performance has reminded us that we’ve got a long way to go.”
Coventry are next in action away at Caldy on Saturday, October 19 with kick-off at 3pm at Paton Field.
