By John Wilkinson COVENTRY’S Development side made it a double for the day with a hard-fought 19-12 win away at Bishop’s Stortford Blues in their Zoo Sports Shield return.
The two sides had drawn 12-12 at Butts Park in October, and the return was an equally tight affair settled in Cov’s favour by a converted try five minutes from time.
It was a physical game for the full 80 minutes with Cov on top in the scrum where Andy Brown and Jimmy Litchfield showed their quality in a solid front five, man-of-the-match Kailus Hutchinson and Tom Price performing well in the second row.
Jimmy Neal (pictured) went over for a try in the corner on 28 minutes to give Cov the lead, Max Titchener narrowly missing the conversion.
Stortford hit straight back with a converted try after some simple but effective phases, but with five minutes of the first half to go Cov forced a series of scrum penalties which led to a pushover try touched down by Paddy Ryan and well converted by Titchener from out wide for a 12-7 half-time advantage.
A topsy-turvy second half followed with Cov struggling to find their shape despite retaining their scrum dominance.
Stortford drew level midway through the half with a pack try following a series of pick-and-goes, Cov guilty of going too high in their tackles, but after good carries from Sam McNulty and Kwaku Asiedu, Louis Roach stepped his way to the corner with Titchener landing another fine conversion.
Stortford finished strongly, but Cov held out through some solid defence and deserved their victory against game opposition.
