Boulton: We need to show positive reaction
PHIL Boulton says Coventry Rugby are “looking for a reaction” when they face London Scottish in the IPA Greene King Championship at Butts Park Arena today.
The Blue and Whites kicked off the calendar year in disappointing fashion falling to a 19-17 defeat to newlypromoted Ampthill in the round eight fixture.
But club captain Boulton, who signed a new deal at the club last week, believed it wasn’t all doom and gloom following the reverse at Dillingham Park.
“Taking the result away from it, there were some real positives in the game for us going forward,” said the 33-year-old. “There were some great defensive sets in there so we can take those positives.
“But ultimately we weren’t accurate enough when we needed to be. That’s been laying heavily with the players this week, and we’re looking for a reaction.”
Today’s opponents, London Scottish, have had mixed results recently including a win away against Jersey but a defeat at home to Bedford last time out. Boulton is expecting Scottish to travel north motivated by their own desire to bounce back to winning ways. “They [London Scottish] are going to be coming here all guns blazing and looking for that reaction,” he added.
“We’ve done a review on them, and they’ve got some pretty handy players there.
We’re expecting a backlash from them.”
The prop forward’s new deal will see him stay at the club until at least the end of the 2021/22 season.
Boulton, who is the only squad member to play a part in all 13 matches for Coventry this season, will increase his workload by coaching the Under-18 team. He went on to explain how he’s managing the player/ coach balancing act.
“The work I’m doing with the Under 18’s is going well,” said Boulton. “All the training is done in the day, and then the coaching takes over in the evening. Luckily we’ve gone full-time here, and that has allowed me to do both.
“Developing as much local talent as possible has always been the main goal of ours.
We’ve had a number of lads from last year step up into the first team, and some are impressing well at their loan clubs and hopefully, we’ll get more next year.”
Meanwhile, scrum-half Pete White will extend his stay at Butts Park Arena with a new two-year contract.
The 28-year-old is in his fourth season at Butts Park Arena, scoring 17 tries in his 81 appearances played to date.
““I feel really at home at Butts Park so it was easy for me to sign again to stay here,” he said.
“Coventry’s a great club with great supporters, and we’ve been going in the right direction throughout my time here, getting promoted from National League One and then working our way up the Championship table.”
There were some great defensive sets in there so we can take those positives into Saturday’s game. Phil Boulton