By hn Wilkinson, Coventry Telegraph. September 26 2011
NOT quite the result Cov were looking for but in the end one they should be happy to accept after indiscipline and Blaydon’s well-drilled pack threatened to decide the outcome.
Forward replacements Matt Price and Sam Herrington, who were introduced seven minutes into the second half along with Adam Parkins, didn’t make quite the initial impact intended as they picked up yellow cards in the space of five minutes, threatening to derail Cov’s progress as they battled to overturn a 17-13 half-time deficit.
Blaydon had winger Ben Morris in the bin at the same time but the visitors immediately took full advantage of their extra power up front to drive over for No.8 Jason Smithson’s second try of the game.
But Cov have already shown their steel in tight situations this season, and when Scotland-based South African referee Johann Van Der Merwe showed another yellow to Blaydon centre Charlton Ingledon with two minutes of normal time to go, the home side raised the intensity and pounded away until Parkins crashed over by the posts with replacement kicker Mark O’Connor holding his nerve to land the equalising conversion.
It was another game which the Cov of last season would probably have lost and while they are still not performing at their best – particularly lacking the cutting edge in the backs which brought so many tries last season – solid all-round performances such as this keep the momentum going and confidence building.
A whirlwind start brought 20 points in the opening ten minutes and two tries for Blaydon as, playing with the breeze, they opened up a 14-6 lead.
Smithson charged down a Lewis Barker clearance kick to claim the first in between two Luke Myring penalties for the hosts, and lock Chris Wearmouth finished off a controlled line-out drive from Cov’s 22 to add a second, both scores converted by Andrew Baggett.
Three minutes later Myring found a gap in the Blaydon cover to cross by the left post, his conversion cutting the deficit to one point, as Cov kept the ball through a series of phases, but after a complete fluff from the halfway line by Baggett and a 30-metre kick from Myring which bounced away off the right post, Blaydon’s No.10 put over a 25th-minute penalty to give the visitors a four-point lead.
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.
We record all IP addresses on the Sportnetwork message boards which may be required by the authorities in case of defamatory or abusive comment.
We seek to monitor the Message Boards at regular intervals.
We do not associate Sportnetwork with any of the comments and do not take responsibility for any statements or opinions expressed on the Message Boards.
If you have any cause for concern over any material posted here please let us know as soon as possible by e-mailing
abuse@sportnetwork.net
