COVENTRY Rugby pushed Ealing Trailfinders all the way in a narrow 36-34 defeat against the unbeaten league leaders.
Tries from Dan Green, David Opoku-Fordjour and Senitiki Nayalo saw the visitors take a 14-point lead with 25 minutes played at Trailfinders Sports Club.
However, Ealing staged a comeback with four unanswered tries as Api Bavadra’s late score saw Coventry come away from the contest with two bonus points.
And the result means Alex Rae’s side sit fifth in the Champ Rugby table as Coventry slipped to a third successive defeat.
The visitors made the worst possible start as Connor Oliver dotted down the game’s first try inside 60 seconds after the hosts created an overlap down the left wing.
However, Coventry responded on 12 minutes when Green pounced on a handling error to touch down and Josh Thomas kicked the extras.
And the visitors crossed again four minutes later as Ealing failed to deal with Thomas’s chip kick and Morgan Adderly-Jones offloaded to Opoku-Fordjour who dotted down.
Coventry stunned the leaders with a third try on 24 minutes as Nayalo placed the ball over the line from close range after Thomas broke the line and Opoku-Fordjour produced a strong carry.
However, Ealing hit back four minutes later when Michael Dykes scored in the corner only for Thomas to kick a penalty on the stroke of half time and extend Coventry’s lead to 12 points at the break.
The home side reduced the deficit four minutes after the break as Mike Willemse scored Ealing’s third try from a lineout maul.
And Ealing crossed for a bonus point try on 65 minutes when former Coventry player Tobi Wilson finished in the corner as the home side edged into a two-point lead.
The league leaders dotted down again on 71 minutes as Scott Buckley profited from another powerful driving maul following a lineout.
Replacement Tommy Mathews kicked a penalty to reduce the gap to six points late on only for Dan Jones to kick a penalty of his own for Ealing on 79 minutes to extend the home side’s winning run to 16 matches.
However, there was still time for Bavadra to cross for Coventry’s bonus point try with the final play of the game.
Coventry are next in action against Richmond on Friday, February 13 with kick-off at 8pm at Butts Park Arena.
