Pre season optimism following two excellent wins quickly disappeared at the Butts Park Arena on Saturday as Coventry were dealt a severe dose of reality.

There can be no denying, it was overall a very bitter pill for home followers to swallow as Doncaster, victors by 5 tries to 1,  with a clear game plan, but no more that efficient, eased ultimately to an easy win including a bonus point.

The home coaching team will clearly want a very close look at the match video to find out all that went wrong, but one point was patently obvious, you simply cannot win matches without good quality possession & Coventry enjoyed very little of that until late on when, by then, the cause was well & truly lost.

Very little indeed went right from the outset, early attempts even from very deep, to move the ball wide falling on solid Doncaster tackling & with no real tangible forward base to work from, it was perhaps surprising the Yorkshire side did not open up a much bigger lead earlier. Credit for that at least must go to some solid midfield home defence & covering.

Perhaps not surprisingly with so little to work with, it was inevitable mistakes would also creep in & as sure as anything they did, several realistic chances being lost later in the first half as handling errors ruined promising situations. A score at that point could have made a world of difference, not least to morale.

If the home crowd were expecting a significant second half improvement from the 0-11 deficit, they were soon to be disappointed. Doncaster it has to be said though were very lucky indeed to escape censure from the referee for their midfield offside infringements, when a yellow card could easily have been brandished, salt being rubbed into home wounds when in the last quarter replacement flanker Darren Clayton was yellow carded for his part in allegedly pulling down a rolling maul. Doncaster took full advantage to run in late tries, in every sense, it was not to be Coventry’s day.

All the early pressure came from Doncaster, Cov however covering & tackling well before visiting wing & backs coach Justin Bishop sped over wide out. It was to prove to be the only try of the half, Cerith Rees kicking two penalty goals, as the home side took some 23 minutes to reach the Knights ‘’22’’.

Coventry finally opened their account immediately after the break Ben Russell slotting an easy penalty cancelled out by a similar attempt from Doncaster replacement Mark Woodrow, on for the injured Rees. Russell eased over another for 6-14, but it was the closest Cov were going to get. Tries from Wes Davies & Paul Bailey, both converted by Woodrow effectively took the visitors out of sight. Ben Russell then scored & converted the only home try of the match following a close in scrum , before Glen Wilson & Woodrow, when Coventry were down to 14 men, sealed an emphatic win, Woodrow converting the second with the last kick of the game.

Back to the drawing board for Coventry, well probably yes. It is far too early in the season after just one league match to start pressing panic buttons, but it cannot be denied, there were a lot of worrying signs that need rectifying & quickly.

Coventry; Ben Toft, Kurt Johnson, Ben Russell (Capt), Donovan Sanders, Logon Kirisome, Myles Dorrian, Nathan Jones, Carl Rimmer, Chris Whitehead, Rudi Brits, Gregor Gillanders, Ollie Hodge, Danny Hodge, Jamie Miller, Laurie McGlone

Replacements; Stuart Friswell, Rob Dugard, Ian Nimmo, Darren Clayton, Tom Slater, George Dixon.

Not used; Ronnie Mc Lean.

Coventry; Try Russell. Conversion; Russell. Penalty goal; Russell

Doncaster; Tries Bishop, Davies, Bailey, Wilson, Woodrow.  Conversions; Woodrow 3,. Penalty goals; Rees 2, Woodrow.

John Butler

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