COVENTRY RFC were beaten 40-14 away at Jersey Reds to suffer their first defeat of the new RFU Championship campaign.
The visitors trailed by 21 points at half time and, despite crossing for two tries in the second period, were unable to put Jersey under enough pressure as the home side ran out comfortable winners at Stade Santander International.
And the result means Coventry drop to ninth in the table with one win and one defeat from their opening two matches.
However, Coventry dominated the opening 10 minutes and did everything but score with Jersey’s TJ Harris sent to the sin bin after a series of infringements from the home side.
And the visitors thought they had made the most of their numerical advantage when Jimmy Martin scored in the corner only for the touch judge to flag for a foot in touch.
Coventry were made to pay for that missed opportunity when Tomi Lewis crossed in the corner as the ball passed through several hands with Russell Bennett adding the extras.
And despite Alex Rae’s young side responding well to the early setback, Jersey doubled their lead when Harris benefited from an unstoppable driving maul.
Jersey struck again before the half was out as Harris grabbed his second of the game when he burrowed over from a ruck with Bennett’s third successful conversion compounded by a yellow card for Toby Trinder on his 5oth Coventry appearance.
And Coventry dominated again at the start of the second period before missing with a penalty attempt as Jersey ran in their bonus point try through Jordan Holgate who scored under the posts.
The Reds scored their fifth try on the hour mark as Lewis collected a probing kick and dotted down to run in his second try of the game.
Coventry finally troubled the scoreboard when Jordon Poole touched down following a strong driving maul with replacement Evan Mitchell converting.
And the visitors scored again soon after when full-back Louis Brown raced through a tired defence to dot down with Mitchell adding the extras.
However, any hopes of a comeback were dashed when Eoghan Clarke touched down his first try of the new campaign, having been the joint-top try scorer in the Championship last season.
Coventry are next in action at home to Ampthill on Saturday, September 24 with kick-off at 3pm at Butts Park Arena.
