By Paul Smith 
Coventry Rugby head coach Alex Rae says his team are primed for a big performance when they appear under Friday night lights for the first time this season tomorrow.
Cov seek to extend their fine run of recent form to five consecutive wins when they face a Cambridge side who pushed them very hard before the blue-and-whites eventually emerged with a 19-33 success shortly before Christmas.
“We’re in a good spot at the moment, the boys are training really well and that’s transferring on to the field,” Rae said.
“Cambridge will be challenging as they’re finding their feet in the Championship, bring a big set-piece and an exciting brand of attacking rugby so it should be a great night.
“Friday night is a bit different for the players as they have a long day sitting around waiting for kick off. Hopefully we pick up a few football fans who are planning to watch the Sky Blues on Saturday and the crowd is good.
“The conditions were tough when we played Cambridge at their place in December. We had a really good first half playing with a strong wind but then they made us work hard for the win by coming hard back at us after the break.
“We’re not under-estimating them at all based on their league position. They will come to the Butts and try to impose their game on us but hopefully we put everything we’ve been working on this week into practice.”
With five rounds of action remaining second-placed Cov trail Ealing by ten points. However, the West Londoners lost their game in hand when suffering defeat at Ampthill on Easter Saturday and also failed to pick up any bonus points.
Cornish Pirates and Bedford are the other clubs in the title mix and with Ealing due to make the trip to Penzance this weekend a maximum-point return against Cambridge could see Cov close to within one win of the leaders.
However, the sound of chickens being counted is definitely not emerging from the Butts Park Arena where Rae is looking no further than seeing off the evocatively-named ‘Blood-and-Sand’ on Friday.
“Our focus is to keep working hard and improving and when that happens usually performance goes hand-in-hand,” he said.
“If we keep doing that, have the belief and keep pushing ourselves then there’s no reason why we can’t win all our remaining games but – and I know it’s a bit of a cliché – we just have to go one week at a time and not get too far ahead of ourselves.
“We’ve got five games left and we’d obviously love to win them all but with the league being as tight as it is this year you really can’t make any confident predictions from one week to the next.
“In sport it’s not over until it’s over and the thing for us is we can only focus on what’s within our control. We can’t do anything about what happens between Cornish Pirates and Ealing on Friday.
“It’s going to be a great game down there and I’m sure Pirates are really excited and primed to perform after seeing Ealing’s result against Ampthill last week. But we have to just be sure to take care of our business and not worry about what goes on elsewhere.”
Tickets for Coventry’s Championship clash with Cambridge on Friday evening are available from: https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/tickets/matchday-tickets/
