Team 
| Coventry 8 Newport Gwent Dragons 29 |
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| Written by John Butler | |
| Tuesday, 25 August 2009 | |
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Surely everyone knew in advance this final run out before the really serious business begins would be tough, it was intended to be and so it proved. Coventry to their great credit did themselves a lot of good against tough, no nonsense Divisional opponents who had already beaten, amongst others, Premiership Worcester. In several areas Cov took on successfully their Welsh visitors and considering it was the new squad’s first real outing in a true match situation, there were encouraging signs. Up front the pack took on and more than held their own in several key areas notably scrums and line outs, whilst in defence many plus marks were gained. The Dragons however, were predictably difficult to break down even when Coventry had good possession in the first half. Cov actually lead 3-0 early on when after Mike Walls had been denied from a close in penalty, the Dragons were again penalised for Tommy Hayes to slot the 3 points. The only try came right at the death when Louis McGowan crashed over, deserved reward for some persistent last pressure. Adam Jones, Harries, Brew, Hall and Fussell scored tries for Newport Gwent Dragons, Connor and Arlidge each landing one conversion. Coventry squad; Ben Russell, Will Hurrell, Phil Mackenzie, Chris Lewis, Romain Plantey, Tommy Hayes, Mike Walls, Dai Maddocks, Jo Merrigan, Scott Roberts, Arthur Brenton (Capt), Ben Dechartres, Henno Venter, Richie Bignell, Jamie Miller. Replacements; Ross Mc Millan, Kevin Davis, Jamie Hall, Louis McGowan, Greg Goodfellow, James Lewis, Drew Locke, Sam Herrington, Ollie Winter.
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 September 2009 ) |
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