Skip to main content

HEAD coach Nick Walshe is warning against any complacency after Saturday’s convincing win over previously unbeaten Blackheath.

Cov made it four wins from four and scored five tries in a 37-10 victory, but Walshe says a step up in performance will be needed this coming weekend to get the right result at Esher.

“It was a good performance, but I think there is still a lot we can work on,” he said. “At times we were a little bit inaccurate and we probably could have had a couple more scores, so we need to keep working on that accuracy and really being able to kill teams off.

“Generally I was pretty pleased, it was a big, physical game which I don’t think we were ever in danger of losing, but obviously as a coach I’m always striving for the boys to get better and better, and not rest on their laurels.”

“Blackheath traditionally start well, we knew that was going to be the case and we expect all teams to do that against us, and I thought when we scored in the first few minutes it would settle us down.

“But they got that rather lucky try – we didn’t deal with the kick particularly well, but it could have gone anywhere – and it got them straight back into it and got their tails up. They then got a penalty and it was frustrating because I did feel we were a little bit second best just with the intensity over the first 20 minutes.

“But after we weathered that bit of a storm we really pushed on and showed what we’re all about.

“We had a defensive plan which I think we executed very well, and we negated a lot of their threat.

“We work hard on our analysis and making sure we are prepared for games, and as much as we could we executed what we had talked about in the week, so that was pleasing.

“I just think it’s a measure of where we’ve got to that even though we’ve beaten Blackheath 37-10, I think we could and probably should have had more. That’s what we’re striving for, to be as good as we can be each week.”

Added Walshe: “We still need to improve to go down to Esher and win. It hasn’t been a good ground for us over the last few years, so we will have to be on our game to make sure we get the result we want.

“Esher didn’t have a particularly good result at the weekend, but they beat Rosslyn Park very convincingly at home two weeks ago and their home form is strong.

“It is going to be a massive game for us and we’ve got to be thinking ahead now and making sure we step up, because we could easily get it wrong and we can’t afford to because I don’t see Plymouth slipping up too much, Darlington are going well and there are other strong teams in the mix.

“I don’t think you can afford to slip up too often this season, so we have to be massively focused for the weekend and go over where we need to get better.

“With the ball in hand we’re great, when we don’t have the ball we’re great defensively. Our set piece is going well, our scrum grew into the game at the weekend and our line-out was good, we mauled well again – we’ve got a lot of components in our game which are good.

“But as a coach I’m never going to be happy because I want us to keep improving every week and not think that we are top dogs because we’ve had a good result against Blackheath.”