By Paul Smith 
Five-try Coventry eased to a bonus point win at Cambridge which leaves them at the top of the Championship with a perfect record after three rounds of action.
All of the visitors’ tries came from their backline with centre Oli Morris and full-back Charlie Morris both registering maiden scores for the club.
The hosts, who trailed 5-21 at the break, claimed three touchdowns of their own, but in a game dominated by a gusty wind which forced plenty of mistakes from both sides Alex Rae’s team always seemed the likeliest winners.
For a third consecutive week Coventry had the first score on the board in the opening minutes, this time through flying winger Ryan Hutler, whose third try of the season was created by a perfectly-weighted kick-pass from fly half Liam Richman.
Cov’s Aussie no.10 added the conversion but after dominating the early stages while playing with the wind the visitors were then hit by Arthur Lennon’s 70-metre opportunist hack-through try.
Richman charged the conversion attempt down to leave the visitors with a two-point advantage at the end of a first quarter which saw Cambridge grow in confidence and force a string of penalties.
When Cov won a free kick they opted to go quickly and a neat Robson offload allowed the in-form Jimmy Martin to chip ahead and beat former Cov back-rower Jack Bartlett in a foot-race to claim a score that Richman improved.
The visitors continued to dominate territory and possession but also to make mistakes while trying to play with tempo and some good Cambridge defence on the stroke of half-time meant Rae’s team held a nine-point interval advantage as they turned to face the elements.
Cov began the second half where they ended the first, deep inside the home 22. Having declined a simple three points their forwards pounded the home line only to again be repelled by some resolute defence.
Cambridge thought they had cleared the danger when Louis Grimoldby kicked long from his own line only for Robson to gather inside his own half and claim a brilliant individual try by out-pacing the arriving defence over fully 60 metres.
After Richman maintained his 100 per cent record from the kicking tee, Rae introduced four replacements and shortly before the end of the third quarter two of them combined to create and finish the visitors’ fourth try.
Freshly-arrived Josh Barton was the beneficiary of a Tom Ball break that powered through a number of home forwards before his well-timed pass left the scrum-half with the simplest of scores, again converted by Richman.
Soon after the hour mark, former Butts Park Arena favourite Ben Adams was next on the scoreboard when applying the finishing touch to Cambridge’s powerful forward drive to leave Grimoldby with an easy conversion.
Richman’s head-on penalty meant Cov took a 19-point lead into the closing stages and any lingering thoughts of a home comeback were totally ended when centre Morris claimed a score which was created by Cambridge old boy Martin.
Replacement Matty Jones had the last word for the hosts when he finished a move started by the impressive Lennon to claim a try which Grimoldby improved with a good kick.
Cambridge: Lennon; Skelcey, Hema, Betteridge (Hanks 48), Green; Grimoldby, Dawson (Jones 56); Elwood (Brownhill 64), Brownlie (Veness 48), Walker (Bridges 64); Sylvester, Bretag-Norris (Baxter 48); Rees, Cardew (Adams 52), Bartlett (Dawson 52)
Coventry: Robson; Martin, Morris, Hitchcock, Hutler (Okoku 62); Richman, Lane (Barton 45); Trinder (Warren 60), Poole (Ma’asi 53), Johnson (Nairau 52); Nkwocha, Tyas (Anstey 45); Kvesic, Hinkley (Owen 62), Okeke (Ball 45).
Referee: Alex Thomas
Half-Time: Cambridge 5-14 Coventry Rugby
Scorers:
Cambridge:
Tries: Lennon (12), Adams (62), Jones (77)
Conversions: Grimoldby (62) (77)
Coventry:
Tries: Hutler (1), Martin (23), Robson (44), Barton (55), Morris (73)
Conversions: Richman (1) (23) (44) (55)
Penalty: Richman (67)
