By Paul Smith 
Coventry’s hopes of completing a seasonal double over Bedford and leap-frogging them in the battle for second place in the Championship table have been boosted by the return to fitness of prop Billy Nairau.
The Fijian tight-head, who has missed six games since damaging knee ligaments in the opening stages of Cov’s cup defeat against Northampton, is available for selection for the round 12 clash which takes place under the Goldington Road floodlights on Friday evening.
After ending their recent losing run with a 24-23 success against Doncaster on Saturday, Cov face an eight-week break from league action while the Premiership Rugby Cup takes centre stage following their trip to Bedford. According to head coach Alex Rae wrapping up this part of their league campaign on a positive note is therefore extremely important.
“Bedford is my old club where I played lots of games and there’s lots of other connections between the clubs,” he said. “We’re both fighting for second place at the moment and trying to catch Ealing so it will be a big challenge for both teams.
“We haven’t had great performances in the last couple of away games against Cornish Pirates and Nottingham so going to Bedford and putting in a good display is something we really need to do.
“Having lost those games at the end of last year we did show a few signs of being anxious in the second half against Doncaster. Now we’ve got a win and broken that little run hopefully we can go to Bedford and play with some freedom.
“I was really pleased with some of what we did in the first half when we managed to take a lot of what we do in training into the game – our challenge now is to put that sort of display together for 80 minutes.”
Coventry scored seven tries and 45 points in claiming an emphatic Butts Park Arena round two win over the Blues but Mike Rayer’s team have since put together an eye-catching first half of the season.
Friday’s hosts are traditionally a side that seeks to entertain and Rae has therefore warned his players that maintaining concentration for 80 minutes is essential.
“Bedford like to play open, free-flowing rugby and they’ve scored some good tries recently,” he said. “Defensively we’ll need to be right on it, like we were for a lot of the game against Doncaster, who tried to get passes away but were forced to resort to some pretty hopeful chips ahead.
“In recent years we’ve contained Bedford well, but they’re the kind of team who will run from anywhere so you can’t switch off against them. We’ll also be looking for our set-piece to get on top which is a big challenge for our lads as Bedford have been going pretty well this season. “
Match tickets for Cov’s next home game against Nottingham in the Premiership Rugby Cup on Saturday February 1st can be purchased at https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/tickets/matchday-tickets/
