ALEX Rae feels his players deserve credit after coming from behind at half time to secure a bonus point 34-6 victory against Ampthill.
Coventry avenged their November defeat against the same opponents thanks to two tries from Jimmy Martin and further scores from Tobi Wilson, Jordon Poole and Will Wand at Butts Park Arena.
And after running in four second-half tries, Cov head coach Rae praised his side’s reaction following a below-par display in the opening 40 minutes.
Rae said: “The first half was more of the same from our two most recent games with us not taking our chances and giving away too many penalties.
“This gave Ampthill an avenue into the game, but after that we were clinical, our power was impressive and our bench made a huge impact.
“We also managed to get on the right side of the referee after addressing things at half-time.
“The players deserve credit because after losing our last two games then going in a point behind at the break the pressure was building.
“It would have been easy for them to get nervous and for that to spread to the crowd but instead we came out on the front foot and built into the second half really well which was exactly what we needed.”
Rae also heaped praise on defence coach James Scaysbrook after Coventry restricted Ampthill to a couple of penalty kicks.
Rae added: “James Scaysbrook deserves huge credit for the work he does with our defence. We were absolutely superb – to only concede six points to two penalty kicks in the current era is very unusual.
“Towards the end on the sideline we were desperate to keep a clean sheet but also didn’t want to say anything to the lads in case we put the commentator’s curse on them.
“To a man the way the boys wanted to defend and the pride they showed in keeping our line intact was brilliant.”
Coventry are next in action away at Doncaster Knights on Saturday, March 2 with kick-off at 2.30pm at Castle Park.
