COVENTRY Rugby head coach Alex Rae praised the impact of his bench after Coventry Rugby came from behind to claim a first-ever win at Chinnor.
Cov recovered from a 14-point deficit to win 45-37 at Kingsey Road as the introduction of seven replacements early in the second half turned the game in the away side’s favour.
And Rae heaped praise on on-loan Exeter scrum-half Sam Maunder who dictated the tempo of the match following his introduction from the bench.
Rae said: “In a weird way it worked out well for us to be playing into the wind when Sam came on.
“The tempo he created meant the game changed and our attack clicked. Also his kicking towards the end was right on the money. That’s why he’s a Premiership scrum-half – he looked a cut above.
“Mackenzie Graham has real speed for a back-row forward. It was a fantastic finish for his try and fully deserved as he’s been great all week in training since arriving from Bath.
“Our bench was superb – the energy they bought as a group, which we’d asked for at half time, made a big difference for us. It wasn’t a 15-man effort, it was a proper 23-man group effort and that’s exactly what you need when you’re in a battle like that.”
Tries from Jordon Poole, Daf Tiueti, Toby Trinder, Dan Green and Mackenzie Graham, along with a penalty try, earned Coventry a bonus point win in Oxfordshire.
Despite the win, Rae felt his side made too many mistakes in the opening half-hour which allowed Chinnor to take control of the game.
Rae added: “Chinnor didn’t have to work too hard for some of the tries that we conceded.
“That was an element in our game at the start of the season when our defence was struggling so it’s something we have to work on.
“But one of the things that really pleased me was although the game was topsy turvy at times we didn’t let it affect us mentally and were really strong and came back every time.
“Credit to Chinnor, it was a real ding-dong and as we expected it was one of our toughest games this season.”
And Rae believes his side will struggle to score a better try than their bonus point score against Chinnor as Poole finished off a length-of-the-field team effort.
Rae said: “I don’t think you’ll see a better try all season.
“It was a brilliant team move. I look at the team sometimes and wonder how we can produce brilliant things like that and then at other times make it look hard work, but what a brilliant try it was.
“We play Caldy next week then Ampthill the week after with both games being at the Butts Park.
“It’s nice to have back-to-back home games, so I think we’ve got a real chance now to rebuild that momentum we had at the start of the season.
“This performance and result will give us so much confidence as a group and there’s a real belief about us now.”
Coventry are next in action against Caldy on Saturday, April 5 with kick-off at 3pm at Butts Park Arena.
