ALEX Rae admitted Coventry Rugby’s display against Caldy was not ‘anywhere near good enough’ after his side slipped to a 26-22 defeat.
Cov suffered a first-ever defeat against Caldy as first-half tries from Obi Nkwocha, Jordon Poole and Rhys Anstey proved in vain at Paton Field.
And head coach Rae feels his team need to ‘wise up’ if they are to turn narrow defeats into wins.
Rae said: “I’m sounding like a broken record but, like Cornish Pirates last week, Caldy hung in there and took their chances and we didn’t take ours.
“It wasn’t anywhere near good enough from us and we need to wise up pretty quickly.
“We’re creating plenty of opportunities – we twice had two-on-one situations in the second half and didn’t score on either occasion.
“Either one of those would have put us 17 points ahead but instead we conceded penalties that took Caldy into our 22 from where they scored a try – it was all much too easy.
“We had the wind behind us in the second half and for a while when we were sticking to the script and everyone was doing their thing we looked a really good team.
“Then we missed the chance to score what could have been the try-of-the-season after some fantastic handling.
“That was the turning point in the game – instead of being three scores ahead we were suddenly having to scrap for our lives.”
Rae also felt his side lacked discipline at times which allowed Caldy back into the game as Cov suffered a second successive narrow defeat.
Rae added: “Our discipline wasn’t good enough. We conceded penalties one after the other and that allowed them to build momentum and work their way down the pitch through their lineout maul.
“In open play we looked well in control defensively and we refrenced at half-time that their way into the game would be through us not keeping our discipline and that’s exactly what happened.
“We have got some young players and the Championship is a tough environment to learn in but we have to wise up quickly and be better.
“We need to improve performance and start putting two good halves together.
“We’ve probably only put in one full 80-minute performance this season against Doncaster and if we manage to do that we know we’re a handful for anyone.”
Coventry are next in action at home to Ampthill on Saturday, February 24 with kick-off at 2.30pm at Butts Park Arena.
