ALEX Rae hopes his Coventry Rugby can take ‘confidence and belief’ from their dominant Premiership Rugby Cup win against Nottingham.
Coventry stormed to an 11-try 76-21 victory at Butts Park Arena to keep their quarter-final hopes alive.
And Rae hopes the victory will reignite Coventry’s season following a run of four defeats in their last five league outings.
Rae said: “We probably haven’t been our free-flowing best over the last few weeks.
“I really believe [this game] is a massive point in the season. If we’d just slogged our way through, doubts would be there but the confidence and belief we’re going to get will be really important for us.
“We set the lads a little target in terms of our attack and they executed really well. I thought the way we went about our business was really good.
“Some of the handling was excellent and the tries we scored were superb – I really enjoyed watching and I think the lads really enjoyed playing.
“Hopefully, we’re going to get closer to having a full squad soon. We haven’t had that all season and are yet to pick our strongest team on paper.
“Traditionally, we finish seasons pretty strongly so hopefully with those bodies coming back and the confidence we gained, we’ll be a real handful for opponents over the rest of the season.”
A 19-minute hat-trick from Jimmy Martin along with two tries apiece for Tom Hitchcock, Will Biggs and Josh Barton helped Cov to a resounding victory.
And Tommy Mathews added 21 points from the kicking tee while Sam Maunder and Daf Tiueti also dotted down for the home side.
Cov currently sit top of the Pool 2 standings. The Butts Park Arena club are ahead of Premiership champions Northampton Saints on points difference.
Rae’s men will need to beat either Saints or Leicester Tigers at home to have a chance of reaching the quarter-finals of the competition.
And Rae is determined to reach the last eight ahead of two difficult fixtures against Premiership opposition.
Rae added: “We’ve loved the competition. We’re in a really strong position in the group now and going to Franklin Gardens is a great opportunity for the lads.
“Then we have Leicester at home and as we saw they picked a really strong team with several internationals in there.
“You just don’t know how these big Premiership teams will look at certain fixtures and select their teams but we want a quarter-final as we’re all in this for those big days.
“It would be fantastic if we could somehow top the group and get a home quarter-final, but if it’s an away game, it will be just as good for the lads to go to a Premiership club.
“The bottom line is we really want to qualify. The cup has come at the right time for us to get some momentum as well, as we’re in a position in the league where we need to win games.”
Coventry travel to Northampton on Saturday, February 8 with kick-off at 2.45pm at Franklin’s Gardens.
