By Paul Smith 
Coventry Rugby are now in sight of their first pre-season outing against Birmingham Moseley and for supporters, players and coaches the pulse is starting to quicken.
Although the serious stuff is still a month away – when a tricky-looking Friday night trip to the Richmond Athletic Ground to face London Scottish launches the 2024/25 Championship – next Saturday’s Butts Park Arena meeting of two of the sport’s oldest rivals is a mouth-watering prospect.
Cov returned to training after their summer break on July 1st and Alex Rae’s squad are therefore more than ready to swap training paddock for match day.
Their head coach is also looking forward to the Moseley game but for a different reason since it will give him a first opportunity to weigh up options for the forthcoming league campaign in a competitive environment.
“Human nature being as it is, when you see people in training it’s impossible not to start thinking about combinations that might work,” Rae says.
“But you also have to remember that not every player is a good trainer and we may not see the best of everyone until some games come around. I’m very open-minded and I’m very happy if someone grabs the bull by the horns, steps up in the friendlies and says: ‘I’m playing!’
“It is also difficult not to have one eye on the first league game with London Scottish, start mapping things out and thinking ‘if I picked the team now who would be in it?’
“Those chats are always interesting but it is important to stay open-minded. We bring players to the club because we saw something in them, but when you work with them every day you sometimes see other things and perhaps start to think about them slightly differently.”
Now in charge of his third pre-season, Cov’s boss and his coaching, conditioning, analysis and medical support teams have evolved their approach into one which they believe best suits their rugby identity.
Rae says: “A lot of clubs split their pre-season so there’s heavy duty fitness at the start then rugby gets introduced as the season gets closer.
“We don’t believe that’s the best way of doing things as to us it doesn’t make sense to play games with a ball but train without one.
“Our training is therefore based around rugby and the coaches plus Chris Hart (head of strength and conditioning) and myself plan the sessions to make sure we achieve what we want from them.”
Moseley’s 30-game National One campaign kicks off three weeks ahead of the Championship on September 7th and as a result Adam Balding’s team began their pre-season last Saturday with a thumping 76-nil win over level five Stourbridge. They will also have hosted Welsh Premiership outfit Pontypool prior to arriving at the BPA.
Pre-season friendlies at the Butts Park Arena:
August 24th (3pm kick off) Coventry Rugby v Birmingham Moseley
September 13th (7.30pm kick off) Coventry Rugby v Chinnor
These games are included in season membership packages. Others can purchase tickets via this link: https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/tickets/
Season memberships at Coventry Rugby are available via this link: https://www.coventryrugby.co.uk/membership/
