Saturday 18th April 2009

Coventrians 2nds 14 - 16 Bedworth 3rds (Warks 3)

If someone can tell me on the guestbook who scored I'll put it on but this still looks a great result against Beduth 3rds. Well done to the lads.

Keresley 20 - 0 Coventrians (Mids 5 West South)

Covents went down 0 – 20 at Keresley today in a classic game of two halves. In pleasant spring sunshine in front of a large home crowd (K’s VP’s day) we kicked off with Danny, Keiran, Joe, Carl and Kev all missing but still a strong-ish looking side. After a fairly even first 15 minutes with both teams feeling each other out (is this legal?) and Wayne Brandfour (2nd row) and Cozzy on the flank distinguishing themselves it was Keresley though who made the breakthrough in the 16th minute after a poor kick allowed them to run in and score an unconverted try for 0 – 5.

In the 23rd minute an outbreak of tennis broke out as both sides kicked to each other and the crowd exercised their necks but Keresley got fed up and receiving a kick that missed touch decided to run it in, again unconverted for 0-10. In the 30th minute, Ks were pressuring again but strong Covents’ defence kept them out. In the 36th minute however, a good tackle from Rohan wasn’t enough and the K-men scored again to make the half-time score 0 – 15.

In the 44th minute, Keresley found themselves with an overlap and their prop went over in the corner for 0 – 20. So with Covents looking a bit lack-lustre and dispirited some of us feared the worst but it signalled the best period of the match for the blue & whites as they rolled their sleeves up and took the game to the home side.

In the 50th minute Phil Jones (on for Dougie) almost scored in the corner when he only just failed to gather his own clever little chip. From a scrum, Covents made progress into K’s half through scrum-half Nick Coates and a ‘weighty’ drive by Steve Vallis. K’s were feeling the pressure now as a break from their base was halted by a trademark Wayne ‘hit.’ Attacking again from an accurate lineout throw to Dave Bailey from stand-in hooker D J, Covents looked dangerous with two waves of attacking play from Nick Coates as he beat three defenders before being stopped.

This led to a Covent’s penalty on K’s line but the opposition turned over and cleared to touch. From the lineout a K’s forward was penalized for being so far offside he was working undercover. This was now ‘camping’ territory as Covent’s set up home in Keresley’s 22, coming again and again through Nick & Dazzler and at one point putting Chris Simons in who beating 2 men was again stopped by solid K’s defence.

The game’s pattern was set now; Covents attacking, Keresley defending and suddenly with a ball from Cozzy, D J was sniffing the line, surged forward, but was held by 2 or 3 defending forwards stopping him inches short. This resulted in a lengthy injury delay and when play restarted Covent’s had a small village built on Keresley’s line and attacked from it with Wayne B this time in to score before knocking on at the vital moment.

Forget lack-lustre and dispirited, the blue & white boys were now full of attacking determination and a score was sure to come. The 58th minute saw us turn ball over and winger John Field, all 11 stone of him picked up and driving bravely into Keresley’s pack shouted “On me!” Unfortunately for John, he was slightly too quick and the ‘boys’ slightly too deaf as they decided to stand back and admire his courage. This led to another lengthy break as John limped from the field aching from every bone and the silver fox, Deano took the field like a gladiator to the fray with Wayne moving to the left wing. The next five minutes saw much of the same with Covents still camped in K’s 22 attacking and them defending. Another long injury break saw our full-back receiving treatment for a knock on the head. The physio shouted, ‘he doesn’t know who he is’ to which we shouted back, ‘tell him he’s Serge Blanco!’

In the 65th minute both Rohan and Phil Jones, (catching a poor touch kick) went close but were stopped short. A minute later, Cozzy, Deano, Dave Bailey and D J all had a go at driving forward against Keresley’s brick wall. In the 69th minute, Keresley actually made it into Covent’s half for the first time in about 20 minutes and two minutes later with Chris Simons intercepting he put Cozzy in and with the field suddenly opening up Cozzy tucked the ball under his arm and ran as fast as his little legs would carry him finally passing to Rohan who moving for the corner beat three or four defenders but was once again stopped short by desperate defence.

As this move broke down, the referee curiously blew his whistle for full time with what I made 8 or 9 minutes left to play – not that anyone complained. Strange that, we kicked off at 3pm and the game ended at 4:21. That’s 81 minutes with several long injuries and half-time in between. Answers on a postcard please.

So there we were, well beaten but able to hold our heads up high with a second-half performance full of guts and spirit. On another day we might have dotted down twice and then who knows? Fair play to Keresley, they scored the points and then soaked up all our pressure as we huffed, puffed and hurled several kitchen sinks at them. Well done to the boys and special mention to Cozzy who stood in as skipper today and put in a great performance.