RUGBY UNION: ROLAND Winter was full of praise for his Coventry side after edging to two victories in just hours at the Butts Park Arena on Saturday.
Coventry’s first team faced Sale before a group of development squad players faced Broadstreet in the second fixture of the afternoon.
After losing out to Jersey last weekend, Winter was pleased to see his side return to form.
“It was a pleasing day in every respect and showed the strength in depth that we have,” said Winter.
“Our performance against Sale was a good step forward after Jersey the previous week.
“Our discipline was much improved. We made a poor start, but after being penalised three times in the first few minutes we didn’t give away another penalty in the first half and kept the final total to single figures which is our aim.
“More importantly, I thought we were more accurate than last week. We were more clinical and took our opportunities when they came.
“Our set piece was superb and gave us a great platform to play off, and our attack showed that it’s starting to gel.
“The different combinations we checked out seemed seamless and things went pretty well.”
Winter also underlined the important work of his defence unit after they denied Sale any opportunity to score.
He said: “I was probably most pleased with our defence – to nil a team that was borderline coming up into this division and not give them too many opportunities in our 22 at all and deal with that comfortably is very good.”
The summer has seen Winter recuit an entirely new ‘development squad’ which the coach believes is capable of competing at National Two level.
He said: “We’ve pulled together a second team which is the club’s pathway for future years.
“I’m really pleased that a lot of them have put their hand up, not just for selection for the development side but really to be knocking on the door for the first team.
“I also thought the senior players involved in that side really stood up and showed their experience.”
