Davy McGregor returns from Exile to aid Coventry cause.

JUST when he might have been contemplating a free weekend in preparation for a Premiership debut, Coventry hooker Davy McGregor must instead focus on Saturday’s slightly less illustrious trip to Macclesfield.

The Cov hooker’s return to Butts Park this week brings to an end an eight-week loan spell with Premiership outfit London Irish – a move that saw him plucked from the fringes of a mid-table National One outfit and thrust into a full-time environment where he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Shane Geraghty and Topsy Ojo.

A hooking crisis at the Madejski Stadium forced the Exiles to cast their net far and wide and having had contact with them in the summer, Ulsterman McGregor answered Irish’s call.

He played LV= Cup games against Worcester and Cardiff and was on the bench for the Premiership clash with Wasps. He is now back in Blue and White.

“It’s been a bit of a whirlwind,” the 23-year-old admitted. “I heard they might be interested on a Tuesday, it was confirmed on a Thursday and I was playing against Worcester on the Saturday.

“I was pretty shocked when I heard about it, I said to my agent ‘Surely there’s another hooker playing a higher standard of rugby somewhere in the country’. But I’ll take whatever breaks I can get.

“I really enjoyed being back in that full-time environment. It’d been a couple of years since I was last there, in the Ulster academy, so it was good to be exposed to it again.

“It was a massive step up in terms of intensity and it took some getting used to but it’s been good for me. I feel a different sort of energy.

“With the conditioning I have had over the last eight weeks I would like to think I can add something extra to Coventry.”

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