Foulkes sees Coventry cast off their millstone
MOMENTINTIME
COVENTRY 1982-83 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH MERIT TABLE WINNERS NEIL FISSLER TALKS TO DAVID FOULKS AND PETER ROSSBOROUGH
THE Seventies was a golden era for Coventry, but at the same time, it has been a millstone around the neck of the club. During that time, Coventry were sweeping all before them, winning the RFU Knockout Cup twice in 1973 and 1974 in the first three seasons they entered.
They were semi-finalists in 1972 and were denied a place in the final thanks to an odd rule which saw Gloucester progress after a 6-6 draw as the away team.
Coventry, who finished top of the Sunday Telegraph Merit Table in 1970 and 1973, had 14 internationals in their side at one time.
Former captain David Foulks said: “I can probably say that it has always been a millstone around the club’s neck. It’s how people always look when you mention Coventry.
“People will harp on about it being the most internationals, but you are going back 40 or 50 years. Yes, we’d like to be back to those sort of times, but you need millions of pounds.”
Foukes points out that part of the decline was down to the club not embracing the commercial side of the game and allowing themselves to be overtaken by rivals.
“Coventry fell off the radar because commercialisation started to come into the game. I remember after we played in the John Player Cup Final, we were contacted by Adidas.
“They wanted to supply our kit, and our committee turned it down. They didn’t want three stripes down our sleeves because we were hoops, so they went to Leicester.
“And that is when Coventry got overtaken and lost out because other teams embraced commercialisation far better than our committee.”
Coventry enjoyed a brief revival when Foulks took over as captain, and put together a club record 17game unbeaten run in 1982-83, which saw them finish top of the merit table.
Helped by youngsters like Huw Davies and Marcus Rose, who would go on to play for England, they reached a John Player Cup semi-final only to be beaten 23-3 by Bristol and the boot of Stuart Barnes.
Former player and chairman Peter Rossborough says: “David was one of those captains that players would work hard for. He wasn’t the greatest talker or motivator, but when he played, he was an incredibly hard player.
“We based our whole style of play on his ability to run back in at an angle, and in that one season he was tremendous.
“We had a bit of a slump in the last third of the 70s, and it wasn’t the greatest time, but things certainly picked up around that time, starting with him as captain.
“It was also around that time that Huw and Marcus joined the club, and players of that class added a lot to the side. I was kicked off to the wing so Marcus could be accommodated at full-back!”
BACK ROW (LEFT TO RIGHT) George Cole
Scrum-half scored over 2,800 points for Coventry and played for Warwickshire. He worked on the production line at Dunlop in Coventry.
Jim Broderick
A prop twice toured with England, but a back injury stopped him from winning a cap. An engineer for Dunlop in Coventry, he died in April 2009 after a battle with cancer.
Chris Ison
A winger worked as a training manager for the Post Office and as an IT trainer in the NHS.
John Eaton
Centre/winger became a policeman in the Coventry area for 26 years and a civil servant in Tamworth.
Bernie Clarke
Flanker. Cambridge University and a teacher at Solihull School, became a solicitor and legal advisor to boxer Lennox Lewis. Died in February 2019
Thumper Dingley
Prop, who was later the club captain at Nuneaton, ran a landscape gardening business and worked as a fencer.
Tony Gulliver
Second row who made 381 appearances worked as a van driver, HGV driver, transport manager. Is Coventry’s first team manager.
Rob Fardoe
Flanker, who qualified as a solicitor, is head of commercial property and senior partner at Coventry based law firm Seymours.
Graham Robbins
England No.8 played 271 games, scoring 118 tries, was a fireman at Birmingham Airport and served as Coventry forwards coach.
Jim Robinson
The coach who spent over 30 years working at Severn Trent Water later became chief executive of the English Women’s Golf Association.
FRONT ROW Steve Wilkes
Warwickshire prop also played for Bath when he was a PE teacher at Park School and taught English at King Henry VIII in Coventry.
Huw Davies
England fly-half later played for Wasps. Became a chartered surveyor working in real estate and now works on a European real estate investment team at Harbert Management.
Steve Brain
England hooker won 13 international caps, played for Rugby Lions and Moseley and is a bricklayer by trade.
Mal Malik
Flanker, the vice-captain, served Rugby Lions in numerous capacities and has had various business interests. David Foulks
England U19 centre who joined Coventry as a teenager, worked in machine tools industry and was sales director of Rugby-based Trumpf.
Peter Rossborough
England full-back twice won the John Player Cup, a languages teacher, was later headmaster at Ashlawn School, and Coventry chairman.
Steve Thomas
Scrum-half, a carpenter by trade and worked in the Coventry based family building firm with his father.
Simon Maisey
Winger, the tenth highest points scorer in Coventry history, is a property developer and is a director of Coventry Golf Club.
NOT PICTURED Marcus Rose
England full-back who also played for Leicester Tigers and Cambridge University. A surveyor who went into property investment and is now a council member of Duchy of Lancaster.