Coventry Bears continued their good run with a win at table topping Derby City on Saturday.
The Bears needed to win to keep their play off places alive and this win together with Leicester’s loss to Birmingham paves the way for an unlikely Minor Premiership provided they can see off both of those local rivals in their next two home games.
Derby opened the scoring but Coventry player coach Alan Robinson powered over under the posts from an awarded penalty to set up an easy conversion for Nathan Tilsley. Derby benefited from some poor tackling under the posts to restore their advantage.
From then on the Bears started to take control, mid way through the first half some tactical changes off the bench including the power and impact of Ben Powis turned the tide, firstly second row Karl Wesley eased the Bears back into the lead and with six minutes to go to half time the Bears scored three tries in quick sucession due to dominating the play the ball area from winger Tanaka Chamunokara, standoff Sam Montague and full back Rich Whitehouse.
Half time
Derby City 10 Coventry Bears 30.
Again Derby opened the scoring but two tries from Coventry’s Australian second row Brad Massey and a second from Chamunokara gave the Bears clear sight of victory.
For the last 20 minutes Derby threw everything at the Coventry defence with some strong running from their forwards, at one point the Bears withstood 4 complete sets on their own line, but after some continued mistakes on the 5th set Derby pased the ball wide beating the scrambling defence on the wing.
Coach Alan Robinson praised his team after the game
“Our defence was excellent today, we need to work on our discipline at the ruck but overall it was a good display and we carried out what was asked of the squad. Matt Cooper and Ben Powis stood out with massive defensive performances but Dean Thompson playing at hooker was my Man of the Match, he was involved with everything going forward and slotted in very well in the centre of the field, I am confident and fortunate we have alot of strength in our squad at this time of the season”
Final Score
Derby City 20 Coventry Bears 38
Squad
Whitehouse, Chamonokara, McGrory, Tilsley, Thompson,
S. Montague, S. Lee, Jenkins, A. Jarvis, Robinson, Wesley, Massey, Cooper, Powis, Horrucks, Todd. Challis,Hird.
Coventry Scorers
Tries
Chamunokara (2), Robinson, Wesley, Montague, Whitehouse, Massey
Conversions Tilsley (5)
Man of the Match Dean Thompson
