By Paul Smith 
The sparkling, match-winning contribution made by Coventry’s replacements’ bench at Chinnor last Saturday has earned five players opportunities in the starting line-up that hosts Caldy tomorrow (Butts Park Arena, 3pm kick off).
Most eye-catching is loose-head prop Jevaughn Warren’s elevation to the run-on team for only the second time since he arrived at Cov from Saracens over the summer.
The 22-year-old caused Chinnor huge problems with ball in hand after replacing Toby Trinder in the 54th minute in addition to being part of his team’s solid scrummaging display.
On-loan Exeter scrum-half Sam Maunder was another who earned plaudits in the second half at Kingsey Way and seven days on he will captain Coventry when eleventh-placed Caldy visit the BPA.
This opportunity arises because Will Biggs starts at hooker for the first time this season with club captain Jordon Poole, who has missed only one game so far this term, rotated to the replacements.
Senitiki Nayalo returns from British Army duty to partner Dan Green in the second row while Aaron Hinkley, who stepped on to Cov’s bench at the eleventh-hour at Chinnor following a warm-up injury, starts on the openside flank.
Cov head coach Alex Rae retains the same midfield trio that featured in Oxfordshire which means Tommy Mathews, who last weekend passed Liam Richman as Cov’s leading points scorer for the 2024/25 campaign, again wears the no.10 shirt.
Jimmy Martin returns from paternity leave on the left wing while the pacy Charlie Robson is a fifth player to make the step from bench to starting line-up at full back.
With injury still impacting selection in a number of areas the Blue-and-Whites name a bench containing four backs and four forwards.
In the pack, Poole and Trinder are joined by tight-head prop Eliot Salt while the versatile Suva Ma’asi offers his coaches plenty of options.
Scrum-half Josh Barton who is now the only player to feature in all 20 Cov match-day squads this term, is joined among the backs replacements by fly-half Theo Mannion, leading try-scorer Ryan Hutler and on-loan Glasgow back Logan Trotter.
Cov scrapped their way to a tight 15-17 win when the clubs met at Paton Field in the Autumn and their head coach is expecting another testing encounter with the Wirral-based visitors tomorrow.
“Coming straight after a real battle last Saturday Caldy will be another tough challenge,” he said. “They’re another team like Chinnor who don’t ever seem to go away. We will have to do everything right because if we rest on our laurels we will quickly find ourselves in trouble.”
Coventry: Charlie Robson; Jake Henry, Daf-Rhys Tiueti, Tom Hitchcock, Jimmy Martin; Tommy Mathews, Sam Maunder ©; Jevaughn Warren, Will Biggs, Vilikesa Nairau; Dan Green, Senitiki Nayalo; Tom Ball, Aaron Hinkley, Chester Owen.
Replacements: Suva Ma’asi, Toby Trinder, Eliot Salt, Jordon Poole, Josh Barton, Theo Mannion, Logan Trotter, Ryan Hutler
Tickets for Cov’s home game against Caldy on Saturday are available via this link: https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/tickets/
