HEAD coach Nick Walshe lamented Coventry Rugby’s lack of hunger in the 45-35 victory over Nottingham in the Championship Cup.
Led by a Max Trimble hat-trick, which takes his seasonal try-count to nine, Coventry claimed a thrilling victory at the Butts Park Arena on Saturday afternoon.
However, after building a 21-point advantage in the opening 16 minutes, the hosts made hard work of finishing off spirited opponents, who twice took the lead during a topsy-turvy second half.
Despite its nail-biting nature, the bonus-point win, allied with Yorkshire Carnegie’s defeat of Doncaster, sees Coventry move to the top of the pool one table after three rounds of action.
However, Walshe was far from happy with the result.
“We cruised to 19-0 up, then the boys took their foot off the gas,” he said.
“Because you’re finding it quite easy to score, there’s then not the hunger and the intensity in the defence and, fair play to Nottingham, they came back.
“Our penalty count in the first half was something like eight to one against, and at the time we were nearly 20 points up, so it was just that hunger in defence that let us down.”
