ALEX Rae praised his side for ‘sticking to their processes’ in Coventry Rugby’s 45-5 victory against Caldy following a difficult first half.
Rae’s men made a winning start to the campaign in a seven-try success as Ryan Hutler and George Smith both scored twice with Matt Kvesic, Louis James and Tom Ball also dotting down.
However, a frustrating first half saw referee Harry Walbaum award 18 penalties with 15 lineouts and five scrums much to Coventry’s frustration.
Rae said: “I’ve never seen a slower half of rugby in my life.
“It’s not what people want to watch as it’s supposed to be an entertainment product but we have to accept that teams will come to the Butts and try to do that to us.
“It made it into a bit of a wearing down process for us and we hadn’t played for a while due to the cancelled Jersey game so we probably lost a bit of rhythm, but the dam was always going to burst at some point.
“We didn’t change the gameplan as we were pretty confident about what would happen in the second half if we kept calm, stuck to our processes and waited.”
And Rae heaped praise on a number of players following the win with former England flanker Kvesic and towering lock Smith playing key roles in Coventry’s success.
Rae added: “Evan Mitchell kicked really well and neither he nor Lucas Titherington did anything wrong in the first half, and I also thought Eliot Salt did very well.
“We thought half-time was a good point to bring Pat on and hopefully put some energy into the game.
“I thought Matt [Kvesic] had his best game in a Coventry shirt so far, he had lots of good carries, there was some nice footwork on display and he was really influential overall.
“George [Smith] has come to Coventry from a lower level of rugby and when someone is in that situation it won’t just happen overnight.
“He has developed bit by bit and today I thought he was excellent – really physical and strong in the carry.”
Coventry are next in action away at Ampthill on Saturday, November 4 with kick-off at 2pm at Dillingham Park.
