By Paul Smith 
Coventry Rugby head coach Alex Rae says his club used the five-week mid-season break which is about to complete to ensure they hit the ground running when struggling Cambridge visit the Butts Park Arena on Saturday (3pm kick off).
Cov battled their way through a spate of injuries to key players and some tough fixtures in December and January and despite suffering four league defeats are still very handily positioned in third place in the table with ten matches remaining.
“We had a bit of time away to rest and relax,” he said, “before starting training again a couple of weeks ago.
“The lads have been brilliant, all credit to them as a group, as they’ve really tried to get something out of the sessions.
“We’ve looked in detail at where we are, our defence, our attack, and we’ve set ourselves some little targets around how we want to attack and defend and where we can improve.”
After previously issuing a positive update on the fitness of backs Oli Morris and Jake Henry, Rae went on to advise that hooker Suva Ma’asi is back in full training for the first time since suffering a knee injury at Ampthill in late November.
“Suva is fully fit which is great news as the way he tackles and carries brings a real enthusiasm and positive energy to everyone around him.
“We’ve also had time for a few of the other boys to get clear of knocks they suffered during the last block of games. Dan Green is back with us full time now and with (Exeter loan scrum-half) Sam Maunder still available we’ve had good numbers training over the last fortnight.
“Hopefully we can now get on a good run because we’ve just gone through the toughest spell in my time coaching here. When you’ve got a smaller squad it can be difficult with injuries and unfortunately we’ve been on the wrong side of that recently.
“We know when we perform well the results take care of themselves. We just need to find a bit of form now, we’ve got people fit and if they stay fit we can build up a bit of momentum.”
One game into the second half of the season only six points span Bedford in second place, Cov, Nottingham and fifth-placed Hartpury.
Over the next month Cov host Cambridge, Caldy and Ampthill and make the trip to Chinnor – the clubs currently occupying the bottom four positions in the table.
Tickets for Cov’s home game against Cambridge on Saturday can be purchased at https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/tickets/matchday-tickets/
