Coventry 24 Old Albanian 10 by John Wilkinson.

After events the week before, and going back to last season’s games against Albanian, this was a banana skin for Coventry made all the trickier by the rain which grew more persistent as the afternoon progressed.

But, happy to report, Cov came through the test with some reputations restored to retain third place in the National League One table and keep the pressure on the teams around them.

After the trials and tribulations of Blaydon, Cov’s was the dominant scrum this week – forcing seven of the ten penalties conceded by Albanian in that area – and although they were never in complete control as the visitors stayed within touching distance for the first hour, there was a lot more structure to their game.

The work rate of Liam Munro, Chris Locke and Tom Poole was outstanding in the pack, where Scott Morgan’s presence was clearly influential, while outside, Matt Jones had a good full debut at fly-half, in particular in the final quarter when he pinned back and asked questions of the opposition as they were chasing the game, and wingers Will Hurrell and Mark Kohler continue to shine as a dangerous strike force.

The one frustration was that enough chances were created to put the four-try bonus point within touching distance, but some of the misses were down to the wet and with Cov’s defence tightened up, it rarely looked like proving costly.

And if Cov know that they are still some way off where they can be, they have a pretty solid platform approaching a run when they will play all the teams around them in an important six-week block.

Cov took the lead after five minutes, Jacques Le Roux bursting into the Albanian 22 off the back of a scrum and Hurrell finishing off the move in the left corner.

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