By John Wilkinson Director of rugby, Rowland Winter’s reflections on yesterday’s last-gasp win over Plymouth Albion when Cov were almost edged out after leading 26-5 at half-time
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“Credit to Plymouth, they’re a good, strong side and the score at half-time was probably a little bit flattering to us in terms of where we’re at,” said Winter.
“We knew it was going to be a battle in the second half.
“We showed some great control at times to put us in some good places on the pitch, and then some sloppy play to allow them back into the game.
“But we stuck at it, and I think two or three weeks ago we probably would have lost that game.
“We had the character to come back in that last couple of minutes – to be under your posts with a minute or two on the clock, to go end-to-end and get down there to get in a position to take the three points shows that so hats off to James Stokes and Tom Howe for their work to get us there.
“I think we showed Plymouth a little too much respect in the first half, a couple of times we went for the posts when we could have banged the ball into the corner and put them on the ropes.
“We were a bit conservative, but eventually the gaps opened up and our offloading game came into play.
“It wasn’t planned to lose Tony Fenner after 25 minutes, but Rob Knox made an impact coming on, and Will Maisey took a knock on his foot quite early on so some of his kicking was a bit off, but we manned up a bit today as a whole squad to get us through.”
Added Winter: “We’re not far off that full 80-minute performance we are looking for.
“We’ve got to build on this – we’ve got a tough game next at Hull Ionians and we’ve not won away from home yet, so hopefully the character we’ve shown today and the work we put in this week can put us in a good position to go away and pick up a win.
“We can’t take our foot off the pedal, we’ve had back-to-back wins and we’re starting to get a bit of momentum but it’s key that we maintain that, work hard, and go away to Hull with a fresh attitude and not take anything for granted.”
