Coventry get set for a battle in the mud
COVENTRY head coach Alex Rae is gearing up for an old fashioned battle in the mud when they visit Nottingham today.
Nottingham’s Lady Bay was badly flooded during the course of this wettest of all winters and endured more prolonged spells of heavy rain during March and April.
“We’re expecting to find a really heavy pitch at Lady Bay,” said Rae. “It flooded really badly earlier in the winter and Nottingham have worked incredibly hard to sort things out and tidy up.
“Nottingham like to play a lot of open rugby and I imagine that won’t change despite the ground, but we’ve had so much rain I can’t imagine it will be anything other than very soft underfoot.
“We’ve got to go there and assert our game on them which is something we’ve done really well to teams in the last couple of months.
“We need to have a dominant set piece like we did in the mud at Doncaster. We’re very flexible in how we go about things – when it’s wet and muddy the biggest thing is to be very physical, kick well and ensure your lineout and scrum operate well.
“Although we’re one of the highest points scorers in the league I’m confident we can vary our approach as required, bring plenty of energy and adapt to the challenge in front of us.”
Rae’s team are unbeaten since their February setback at Caldy, a sequence which has seen them defeat Doncaster and Ealing during the five-match win streak.
Tobi Wilson comes onto the wing in place of Ryan Hutler and former Bath scrum-half Will Chudley returns to the starting XV. In the pack, Suva Ma’asi is back at hooker and Adam Nicol returns at tighthead.
Last time out, Nottingham came unstuck at home to Bedford Blues 34-24 after back-to-back victories at Cambridge and at home against London Scottish.
Head coach Craig Hammond has made mass alterations to his backline with flyer David Williams the sole survivor.
Kehinde Olowofela is replaced by Ellis Mee at full-back, Jack Stapley starts in place of Marcus Ramage at outside centre and Dafydd-Rhys Tiueti is picked ahead of Javiah Pohe at 12, while winger Harry Graham gets the nod ahead of Taiye Olowofela.
Will Yarnell and Morgan Bunting form a newlook half-back combination instead of the usual Joshua Goodwin and Michael Stronge.
Harry Clayton comes in at hooker alongside tighthead Jake Bridges, while Kayde Sylvester and Richard Clift are added to the back row.