ALEX Rae admits his Coventry Rugby side have ‘plenty to work on’ ahead of their clash with Cornish Pirates this weekend.
Coventry secured a late 40-38 win at London Scottish in their last outing as the home side failed to convert a last gasp penalty to steal the points.
And Cov head coach Rae insists his side’s game management must improve against the Pirates who have won their last three league matches.
Rae said: “Some of the tries we conceded were really sloppy.
“The two charge-downs and the cross-field kick were definitely avoidable from our perspective and if you take them out of the game we win comfortably.
“We also doubled and at times tripled up on penalties which allowed them to get to our corner and use their maul – again we put ourselves under pressure there.
“We made the game really hard for ourselves at times through our game management not being at its best – for instance trying to take a quick 22-metre drop out when there was no need – so there’s plenty to work on.
“When you have young players in key positions sometimes those things do happen and you have to learn from them, but it’s certainly better to have those lessons after a win than a loss.”
However, Rae heaped praise on Cov’s tight five who impressed at the set-piece and posed a number of problems against London last time out.
Rae added: “Adam Nicol is a tremendous operator and it was great to have him back from injury on our tight head.
“Billy (Nairau) being able to flip across to the other side of the scrum is a real skill and he did very well at loose head and Pooley (Jordon Poole) marshalled them very well from the middle.
“Eliot Salt and Elliot Chilvers who came on in the second half also did very well and put Scottish under a lot of pressure under their own posts in the closing stages when we needed a try.
“We put in a lot of work on the lineout in the week and to get a couple of maul tries was pleasing as it shows we have more than one dimension to our attack.
“Our aerial defence was also tremendous with James Tyas and Tom Ball doing really well on their throw.”
Exiles fly-half Conor Sleven saw a 43-metre penalty attempt miss the posts at the death with Rae sympathising with opponents London who have now lost four of their last five games by one score or less.
He said: “I watched their kickers practice before the game and knew Slevin was at the limit of his range and slightly into the wind.
“But you do have to feel for them a bit as that’s three times recently they have lost a game right at the death.
“It could have gone either way at the end and London Scottish deserve credit because at one point in the first half it looked like the game might get away from them but they hung in there and found a way to put us under pressure.”
Coventry’s clash with Pirates takes place on Saturday, January 27 with kick-off at 3pm at Butts Park Arena.
