ALEX Rae praised his side’s ‘gritty performance’ after Coventry Rugby maintained their perfect start to the season with a bonus point win at Ampthill.
Tries from Suva Ma’asi, Will Lane, Ryan Hutler and Tom Hitchock earned Cov a sixth successive league victory to remain top of the Championship table.
And head coach Rae praise his side’s ability to find a way to win as Cov avenged last season’s defeat at Dillingham Park.
Rae said: “It was a massive five points for us – it’s never easy here at Ampthill and just getting the win would have been enough for me from what I’d describe as a gritty performance.
“We huffed and puffed a bit and at times made things hard for ourselves by twice dropping the ball when we got over their line and taking a few wrong options.
“We had a massive emotional high winning at Welford Road against Leicester then putting in a good performance against Saints in front of a record crowd.
“It would then have been easy to come here and fall into the quicksand, but the lads found a way.
“It wasn’t perfect, pretty Coventry but we found a way to win and that’s the main thing.”
Coventry scored two of their tries from driving mauls and Rae was quick to praise his pack’s set-piece efforts.
Rae added: “Our lineout was really good and our driving play both when we threw in and when we were defending was excellent.
“Whenever Ampthill had the opportunity to kick a penalty to touch they struggled to have any good lineout ball to play off and in the final count that was important.
“I also thought when Josh Barton came on in the second half at scrum-half he showed his maturity and managed the game really well for us.
“We were playing into a strong wind and he read the game situation really well.
“We didn’t chase our kicks as well as I wanted us to in the first half but I thought Ryan Hutler and Jimmy Martin led the way in the second half when we showed lots of energy and managed to recover quite a few balls in the air.”
Coventry are next in action against Hartpury University on Saturday, December 7 with kick-off at 3pm at Butts Park Arena.
