Coventry Bears

Carvell Coventry Bears V Gloucestershire Warriors

Despite once again being depleted by injuries the Carvell Coventry Bears got their season back on track with a hard fought win against Gloucestershire Warriors.
Coach Ty Watson was forced to raid his Academy team to compensate for 9 missing first team regulars.
The Bears improved on their performance from last week with a completion rate of 70%, but at times poor defence especially on one to one tackles gave the visitors plenty of scope to score.
Coventry Stand off Graham Healey opened the scoring with a mazy run through the Warriors defence. Healey also converted. Warning bells were soon ringing however when the lively Gloucestershire attack opened the Bears defence on the left only for the final pass to go astray. The visitors pulled a try back and there was only a missed conversion between the two sides.
On 37minutes Bears full back Mark Hyslop making his season debut after injury eased the home side further ahead.
Two minutes later a speculative punt down field was misjudged by the Warriors defender and Stuart Arnett-Clark pounced to score his first try for the first team.
Just before half time another poor defensive display saw the Warriors pull back another try.
Half time
Carvell Coventry Bears 14 Gloucestershire Warriors 10.

During the interval Coach Ty Watson could be heard giving his side the “rounds of the kitchen” over their poor performance in the first stanza.
The pep talk appeared not to have worked as Gloucestershire again ripped through an out of sorts Coventry defence.
Another try by the Warriors gave them 22 points to 14 lead and it looked as though the Bears were heading for their second defeat in consecutive games.
“J&S Landscapes Man of the Match” John Nicholls leading by example, steadied the ship going in to restore hope for the Bears.
15 minutes into the half centre Dean Thompson also making his seasonal debut forced his way over to restore the Bears lead. Winger Matt Fielder eased the home side further ahead and the crowd sensed a victory that had at one time looked unlikely.
Gloucestershire again threatened to make a comeback with their 5th try of the afternoon but the Bears had finally got into gear and for the first time in the game were starting to play with the attacking flair the spectators have come to expect.
Winger Stuart Arnett Clark went in for his second and in the final few minutes Coventry’s top try scorer Ben Powis grabbed a brace of tries to give a very flattering scoreline that the gallant visitors barely deserved.
Final score
Carvell Coventry Bears 48 Gloucestershire Warriors 28
Speaking after the game coach Watson commented that overall he was pleased with his sides performance
“I know that at times we were poor in defence, but allowing for the fact that we are struggling to get a settled side I have to be pleased with a win. We asked our youngsters to step up to the plate today and they have not let us down. We can work on the defence in training and we will improve. We were missing some of our more vocal players today at times that showed.
Take nothing away from Gloucestershire, they are a talented side with some very skilful players.
We have fantastic strength in depth in our squad, this is highlighted by the fact that we pillaged our Academy team to prop up the first team and they have still travelled to Wolverhampton and won against the Wizards first team scoring 48 points and not conceding any”

TEAMS
Carvell Coventry Bears
Mark Hyslop, Matt Fielder, Dean Thompson, Tony Wildsmith, Stuart Arnett- Clark, Graham Healey, Scott Clendenning-Fenton, Rhidian Booth, Matt Allsopp, Tim Farndon, Tim Stevens, John Nicholls, Aaron Jarvis, Dave Hartley, Ben Powis, Craig Lee, Joe Smith.
Carvell Coventry Bears Tries
Stuart Arnett- Clark (2), Ben Powis (2), Mark Hyslop, Matt Fielder, Dean Thompson, Graham Healey, John Nicholls
Conversions Graham Healey (6)

Gloucestershire Warriors
Justin Andrews, Josh Pettifer, Ronnie Haynes, Stephen Fourie, Dave Perry –Gardner, Ben Hough, Andy Claydon, Dennis Kenna, Tom Bozzard, Simon Taylor, Steve Parker, Al Bryan, Ben Constantine, Ed Stanard, Dan Price, John Archer, Bryce White, Tom James.
Gloucestershire Warriors Tries
Jake Perry-Gardner (2) Tom Bozzard, Al Bryan, Ben Constantine,
Conversions
Tom Bozzard (3), Andy Claydon

J & S Landscapes Man of the Match
John Nicholls