By John Wilkinson ANY lingering doubts from Coventry’s defeat at Blackheath were firmly laid to rest with yesterday’s 36-10 win at Bishop’s Stortford, to the satisfaction of director of rugby Rowland Winter.
Cov wrapped up their four-try bonus point before the break in a clinical first half and, turning round to face the wind, kept the home side at arm’s length in a testing third quarter before pulling further away with two more tries.
“It’s a really good response,” said Winter. “We battled back hard last week at home and got the win, but this week was about coming away from home and putting a little bit of a demon to bed.
“It was our first away performance since Blackheath, and for 79 minutes of the game to keep them from scoring a try was brilliant.
“We won the collisions, we won the gain line – everything that the coaching team asked the players to do, they did, so it was exceptional.
“The wind made it a little tricky in the second half, those 15 to 20 minutes after the break were key and we dug deep, kicked on and got back control of the game with those two tries to put the result to bed.”
Added Winter: “It’s a tough place to come to. Bishop’s Stortford are a really difficult team to play against and to beat, and we’ve done it in good style.
“They will have watched that Blackheath game and tried to pick fault with what we were doing, but we shut them down and to keep them try-less for the majority of the game with the back line they’ve got and their style of rugby was an exceptional performance.
“Two good, hard-worked wins have given us a good platform now, a bounce to go into the Fylde game next week, and that’s the one we focus on now and look towards.
“It was disappointing to concede at the end, but it gives us something to work on for next week and we go on from there.”
