ALEX Rae heaped praise on new Coventry Rugby fly-half Liam Richman after the debutant impressed in his side’s opening night win against London Scottish.
Australian-born fly-half Richman kicked 15 points as Cov cruised to a 45-19 victory at the Richmond Athletic Ground on the opening weekend of the Championship season.
Signed as a replacement for Super Rugby bound Pat Pellegrini, Richman has big boots to fill and made the perfect start with seven successful kicks from as many attempts at the RAG.
Rae said: “You have to give Liam a lot of credit. He’s only had a week of full training and he came in at fly half, looked really calm, kicked us into the corners when we needed him to.
“I also thought Matt Kvesic was excellent and you could really see his experience showing through.
“Tiki Nayalo had a good game and Jimmy Martin played really well on the wing but overall it was hard to pick anyone out from a great team effort.”
Coventry boss Rae also felt his side’s dominance at the scrum and maul helped the visitors to victory at a ground they traditionally struggle at.
Rae added: “We knew London Scottish would be tough after watching their pre-season games when they had really good run-outs against Exeter and Harlequins.
“It’s always been a tough place for us to come and our record here prior to last year wasn’t very good.
“I was really pleased with how we wore them down by using big men to carry hard and with our scrum and maul. Although they got a couple of tries at the end, they looked tired as the game went on and when chances came we took them really well.”
Coventry are next in action against Bedford Blues on Saturday, September 28 with kick-off at 3pm at Butts Park Arena.
