Cov fight back from nightmare start to gain win
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COVENTRY recovered from a nightmare start to pick up maximum points in the capital to end their opening run of games on a high.
And director of rugby Alex Rae praised his young guns for the character shown in clawing their way back from conceding three tries in just 11 minutes at the start of the game.
He said: “It was the worst start possible, falling 19 points behind that’s the second time this season we’ve done it and come from behind to win.
“It is something we will discuss but today we arrived late with the traffic around London and things like that. We started awfully but the group showed their character and tenaciousness and once we got into the game we never really looked like losing it.
“In this first block we have had bumps and bruises and lost some players but that has given a chance to some really young players to develop their game time and we have had another great story today with Ollie Stone making his debut having come through the academy. We want to keep blooding these youngsters and showing it is a pathway to becoming a professional rugby player.”
Scottish scrum-half Dan Nutton claimed two of his side’s early tries, the other coming from the pacy Cassius Cleaves, Harry Sheppard slotting over two of the conversions.
The fightback began on 15 minutes when winger Will Talbot Davies dotted down for Cov’s first points and apart from a Sheppard penalty, the remainder of the half was one-way traffic as the visitors nudged into an interval lead.
Hooker Suva Ma’asi bagged a brace from rolling mauls with Talbot-davies claiming the bonus point try on the stroke of half-time, Pat Pelligrini adding two of the kicks.
Cov continued to boss proceedings after the break with Will Rigg going over inside two minutes before Ma’asi completed his hattrick from another maul.
Scottish closed the margin to four points when centre Theo Manihera bagged a converted try but it was the visitors who rounded things off through the excellent Pelegrini who scored and converted the final try before adding a late penalty to take his personal tally to 16 points. COVENTRY: Brown, Talbot-davies, Rigg, Worboys (O Betteridge 53), Martin (Cornish 50), Pellegrini, Lane (Ogden 63); Trinder, Ma’asi (Stone 79), Seward (Bridges 53 (Andrews 66)), Smith (Ball 63), Tyas, F Betteridge, Bainbridge (Reid 71), Nayalo.