By John Wilkinson TIGHTER discipline was a key factor for director of rugby Rowland Winter in yesterday’s 36-27 win over Rosslyn Park which saw Coventry move into fifth place in National League One.
Cov came from behind at half-time to win the game, with the penalty count firmly against Rosslyn Park and giving Will Maisey the opportunities to seal victory by kicking three goals in the final quarter.
“It was a good all-round performance, particularly the second half when we really stood up,” said Winter.
“Our discipline was better, the penalty count showed a massive improvement, and to get four tries as well was the icing on the cake.
“The boys dug deep when we went behind to that double score Rosslyn Park had before half-time, we regrouped and came back strongly.
“To make sure they went away from here with no points was really important to us and the desire to maintain our strong home record was outstanding again.
“Rosslyn Park are a strong up front, they force penalties, bang it in the corner, and they’ve got a really strong maul.
“But we stopped that a couple of times today, we kept the penalty count down, and we kept hold of the ball better as well to starve them of possession.
“At half-time we felt that when we had the ball we were posing them more problems than they were setting us and we just had to stop their momentum, tackle a little bit lower to stop players like Ed Milne coming round the corner, and keep the ball better to put them under more pressure.”
The man-of-the-match award, chosen by match sponsors Brose, went to second row forward Tom Poole.
Said Winter: “We know he’s a hard worker, a good grafter, and he had an outstanding game. It’s not often I’ll single someone out for special praise, but I think Tom deserves that today. Quite often he does the unseen work, but today it was pretty obvious – he was a man mountain out there.
“We destroyed the Rosslyn Par scrum, that’s a massive statement, and we did it with young Jake Byrne coming on and playing a full part. I didn’t think we got the full reward for our scrum and the yellow card for them came far too late in the game.
“We’ll take the bonus point win, they go away with nothing, and that’s really important. We’re up to fifth, we’ve got our eyes on Moseley, and hopefully we can chase them down.
“Our attention now turns to next week and the game at Old Albanian – to get three away wins on the trot is a big target for us.”
