Tries flow at The Bay but Green and Whites beaten by high-flyers
TRIES were the order of the day on a sunny afternoon at The Bay as Nottingham lost 52-26 against Coventry in the Championship.
The visitors, who are second in the table, scored eight tries, while the Green and Whites touched down four times.
Coventry controlled the first half, getting the first points of the game eight minutes in. They had been knocking on the door for a while, at first trying to use their forwards to pound it over the line but they then changed tact by firing it out wide to James Martin, who was able to finish in the left corner.
The visitors had a couple more chances to add to their lead in the opening 20 minutes but weren’t able to do so until Pat Pellegrini darted through a gap in the try line defence and dived for the line.
Nottingham got one back though through Morgan Bunting, who was making his first appearance since returning from injury.
He started the move with a delicate grubber kick to Harry Graham on the left wing to put him through and finished it by taking the offload to beat the last man and putting it down under the posts.
However, that wasn’t enough to shake Coventry and they finished the half with two impressive tries made by their forwards, the first scored by Jordan Poole, who pushed his way over the line from a driving maul.
And the second was a penalty try which gave them the bonus point right on the brink of half-time.
The second half started with a bang as the two teams combined for five tries inside 15 minutes from the restart.
Ellis Mee kicked off the flurry of tries for the Archers, beating a couple of men on the right sde to finish in the corner.
However, Chester Owen put his name on the scoresheet twice in quick succession, first breaking through the Nottingham defence 30 metres out and getting past Harry Graham.
He then finished in the corner just a couple of minutes later after his side took advantage of a poor clearing kick.
The try-happy start to the second half was continued when Nottingham’s David Williams intercepted a wayward pass and took it the entire length of the pitch to score for the 12th time this season.
Minutes later, Daffyd Rhys Tiuetti showcased some nice feet to get through the Coventry defensive line and offloaded to Mee to finish.
That closed the gap to 12 points entering the closing stages of the game.
However, any hopes of a late comeback were squashed when Coventry scored two quick tries with 10 minutes remaining.
Toby Venner finished off a wellworked attack and then Pellegrini intercepted a pass in the middle of the pitch and took it all the way for the score.
On Saturday, Nottingham travel to face London Scottish.