Dave Addleton praises forwards...

The forwards set up three tries in a devastating nine-minute spell before half-time at the Butts Park Arena, allowing Cov to withstand a second-half fightback by the visitors who began the day in second place in the table.

“In the last two weeks the forwards have upped their game another 50 per cent,” said the former Cov hooker. “The front five have laid down a platform and we have got a back row who do not stop working for the whole 80 minutes.

“The line-out was good today, we’ve worked hard on it and if you do that it will come together. We’ve also worked on our pick-and-go and clearing out the rucks quickly and although there are still a couple of things to look at, it was a massive performance against a strong side.

“There is a lot of self-belief in the lads – Alex Nash put in a great tackle on the line right at the end when we were under pressure and Luke Bales came on for the last few minutes and got an important turnover in our 22. You can do a lot of things with a group of players when they have that work ethic.“

Mark O’Connor scored a try from full-back on his full debut for Cov after coming into the side when Ben Russell was forced to withdraw during the warm-up with a foot injury.