RUGBY UNION: COVENTRY Rugby boss Rowland Winter praised his side’s performance against Plymouth Albion.
Coventry ran out 29-14 winners against their Devon rivals, a victory which further boosted the club’s ultimate aim of earning promotion back into the Championship.
After grinding out wins against Caldy and Old Elthamians, Winter admitted his side returned to normal after some ‘rusty’ performances in the weeks building up to Saturday’s crunch fixture.
But he still feels Coventry still has more to offer.
He said: “I’m very pleased – the boys put in a big shift but didn’t ever get going properly.
“We didn’t get into our full stride, so to still beat Plymouth with a bonus point is very satisfying.
“Beforehand I would have taken a bonus point win and Plymouth gong away with nothing – it’s really important in terms of where we are in the league table.
“In our last two games we’d been a bit rusty.
“But today – up until 60, 70 minutes – pretty much on every visit to their 22 we came up with a try or a penalty, and that shows our efficiency is increasing.
“We were better in terms of our execution, and in the last 20 minutes I think we could have put another couple of tries on the board and might have been a little more clear if a few more calls had gone our way.”
As Christmas approaches, Winter has a host of players returning from injuries to look forward to – something that will further boost his in form squad.
He said: “We’ve had some injuries which have tested our strength and resilience, and the boys have done really well.
“But Plymouth were missing two or three men as well and when you’re 12 games into a season you’re going to be short of players in certain positions.
“We’re looking forward to welcoming back some players and to getting stronger each week as we go up to Christmas.”