ALEX Rae plans to give all of his players some gametime as Coventry Rugby prepare to take on old rivals Birmingham Moseley in pre-season this weekend.
Coventry are seven weeks into their pre-season schedule and discovered their Premiership Rugby Cup opponents earlier this week.
Cov beat National One side Moseley 68-24 ahead of the 2023/24 campaign and head coach Rae intends to give valuable minutes to all of his players.
Rae said: “Training has gone very well over the last few weeks and we’re progressing steadily towards Saturday’s game.
“Moseley are a lot closer to starting their league season than us and this will be their third match whereas it is our first, so they may be a bit further along with preparations.
“We intend to put out two separate teams – one in each half – and the plan is for everyone that is fit to have some game time.”
And Rae is looking forward to seeing all of his new signings in action for the first time this weekend.
Rae added: “We’re looking to see progress in all the areas we’ve worked on.
“We’ve done a lot on scrum and maul with Steve Boden and we’re also really excited about seeing our new players perform together for the first time.
“It will also be great to have the fans back at the Butts for the first time in a while getting the chance to meet the new squad and start to build a relationship with them.
“Since I’ve been here we’ve been pretty average in our first pre-season game. I remember we lost to Merthyr in my first year after some quite experienced names had moved on and none of the fans had got to know the likes of Pat Pellegrini, Will Wand and Will Rigg and there was some real concern around the ground on the day.
“Pre-season is very different and it’s important to remember that. I watch a lot of football and there was loads of excitement about Coventry and people saying ‘we’re going to be in the Premiership’ then they lost the first league game last weekend.
“You have teams who go unbeaten in pre-season then don’t win a league game and the opposite can happen too as everyone approaches it differently.”
Coventry take on Moseley on Saturday, August 24 with kick-off at 3pm at Butts Park Arena.
