Sport Stokes: Cov know Exiles won’t be a walk in the Park
JAMES Stokes stressed Coventry Rugby is under ‘no illusions’ as to the challenge that London Irish possess ahead of Saturday’s Butts Park Arena Championship clash.
Relegated from the Premiership for a second time in three seasons last time out, the Exiles have won all three of their games since their return to English rugby’s second tier.
“We are under no illusion the kind of challenge London Irish are going to hold,” said Stokes.
“We’ve just got to look at ourselves, look at our individual processes and do what we can in the week and work on whatever Walshy and Deacs give us and go from there.”
Winger Stokes’ words came after Coventry Rugby’s second defeat of the season, going down 23-17 at Hartpury College.
Director of rugby Rowland Winter’s side have yet to replicate their form at the Butts Park Arena, where they have defeated Jersey Reds and Bedford Blues, while on the road.
A 35-10 loss at Cornish Pirates was followed up by the reverse in Gloucestershire despite tries from Stokes and a first-half effort from scrum-half Pete White.
“We’re massively disappointed,” said Stokes.
“It’s a game that’s got away from us.
“We’ve got too many of our processes wrong and we’ve given away too many penalties, yet again.
“It’s a game we should be winning on the road.
“Back to the drawing board, looking towards next week now.”
Hartpury converted a 14-7 halftime lead into a second win of the season with Luke Cozens kicking 13 points.
“Credit to Hartpury they managed to keep hold of the ball well and managed to go through the phases, we just coughed the ball up as soon as we got hold of it and you cannot do that at this level, you have to take your chances, keep hold of the ball and we didn’t do that,” said Stokes.
“Pete’s try was a bit of a gift. We probably didn’t deserve that, we probably deserved to go in having not scored a try. In the second half we were much better, but again, too many penalties and coughed the ball up when we did have the ball.”
While Coventry suffered a second defeat of the season, London Irish won for a third consecutive match with a 29-20 home success against Bedford Blues with former Northampton Saints and England fly-half Stephen Myler, scoring one of the hosts tries at the Madejski Stadium.
The Exiles lost former Sale and Highlanders flanker, and 15-times capped Samoa international TJ Ioane to a second-half red card for a high tackle.