Coventry 34 – Blaydon 15

Coventry’s 13 match winning run since losing at Blaydon in September was comfortably extended with a tremendous second half performance that gave the visitors little chance of ‘doing the double’.

A crowd of 1938, the best of the season at the Butts Park Arena, were stunned into silence however in the 1st minute when the Blaydon forwards with some excellent inter-passing stormed into the home 22 for Chris Wearmouth to touch down for a sensational try.

Coventry recovered well and soon hit back for wingers Will Hurrell and Dom Lespierre to combine in a smart move finished off by the latter and converted by fly-half Matt Jones.
Lespierre and Jones struck again on 26 minutes but by the interval Blaydon had regained the lead. A barnstorming run by Tom Bramwell saw the centre go clear but unluckily crash into an upright when touching down. Andrew Baggett landed the conversion and in the final minute of the half added a penalty to make it 14-15 to the visitors.

The Blaydon defence showed great resilience in the 2nd period but promotion seeking Coventry had much the better of the exchanges and with 2 more tries went on to clinch victory.

Hurrell, who was a constant threat, made the initial break for a fine effort by man of the match Sam Pailor, the flanker then adding a second with a powerful burst from 25 metres.

Jones converted both efforts and was also on target with a brace penalties to take his personal tally to 14 points.

John Brennan