Coventry 30 Rosslyn Park 32 - Cov left to rue brawl

Seven minutes of first-half mayhem sentenced Coventry to an opening- day National League One defeat which was both disappointing and frustrating in the extreme. The game was in the balance at 17-17 when a mass brawl led to a red card for Park centre Dante Mama and a yellow for Cov flanker Sam Pailor, and the temporary loss of a forward proved by far the more significant of the two punishments.

Cov’s already creaking scrum came under more pressure at the next set- piece, Park using the platform to break from their own half and rip through some flimsy tackling for JJ Kilmartin to score wide out.

Three minutes later Cov were again exposed as the visitors broke from another scrum for Max Northcote-Green – who spent time at Cov last season as a loan player from Bath Academy – to go over by the posts, Scott Sneddon converting.

Pailor returned just before the half-time whistle, but the damage had been done and, in truth, it was easy to forget that Park were a man light as they continued to look the better side throughout the second period.

A Will Hurrell try as the game moved into injury-time and Cliffie Hodgson’s drop-kick conversion brought Cov back within bonus-point range, and they might just have snatched it at the death when Matt Jones was a couple of metres wide with a drop-goal attempt, but it would have been more than they deserved and an injustice to the visitors who, last season’s runners-up, showed all their title credentials.

So exact in their approach against Nottingham a week earlier, Cov lacked the same composure this time, with seemingly aimless kicking from hand and too many handling errors, which just gave the ball back to the opposition and so wasted the advantage of the extra man, coupled with too many missed first-up tackles.

Park took the lead inside three minutes, No.8 Mike MacFarlane breaking tackles to set up an Adam Field try which Scott Sneddon converted, but Cov were quickly back on terms when they moved the ball wide at pace from the first scrum and Dom Lespierre raced over for a debut try which Hodgson converted from wide out on the right.

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