Coventry had every reason to be well pleased on a number of counts following what was ultimately a very comprehensive victory over their West Midlands rivals.

After a difficult start to the season, victory number two was richly earned in every sense. Moseley for their part will almost certainly be rather alarmed at the extent of their defeat & the manner in which they were taken apart in the second half. Home followers though will look to a significant number of positives from which hopefully further good results will come.

The match it self was a personal triumph for the popular Kurt Johnson, for in touching down try number three just after half time, the Barbadian international became the 16th player in the club’s long history to reach 100 tries in all matches played for Cov. It was pleasing to see that at least three former players who had achieved the feat, Peter Rossborough, Peter Preece &  John Gardiner were at the match to witness the event.

Late in the build up to the match, Head Coach Murray Henderson had taken the bold step of including at centre threequarter 18 year old Jack Cobden, only signed earlier in the week on loan from Leicester Tigers Academy. The former England 18 Group international earned a lot of plaudits for an encouraging  performance, particularly bearing in mind the young player from Lichfield had only played some 20 minutes of Rugby previously this season.

Despite the emphatic final score line, Coventry however could not have made a worse start, finding themselves 10 points down in six minutes. After only two minutes with referee Newitt penalising them for handling in a ruck, the impressive Matt Jones landed Mosley’s first penalty, although worse was to follow three minutes later. After a Laurie McGlone try was ruled out because of blocking, Nathan Bressington on the Moseley right was able to run over after poor home defence had seen an attempted clearance from Johnson gone wrong & with at least one tackle being missed plus Jones’s conversion, it was an early backs to the wall.

It did not take long however for some home forward supremacy to begin to show through & after nine minutes, Coventry scored the first of their six tries. From a good position set up in the visiting half, young Cobden was able to make a telling surge to help erase some of the memory of his earlier missed tackle before another Leicester Academy loanee, lock Gregor Gillanders charged over for his maiden club try, Ben Russell failing with the easy conversion attempt.

Within seven further minutes however, the Blue & Whites went in front, a lead they were never to lose. Good pressure on the right enabled skipper Russell to skip over for a try which he converted from wide out for 12-10. After Jones missed a Moseley penalty after nineteen minutes, Ben Russell made it 15-10 after the visitors were penalised for holding on; Cov though might have added to their lead seven minutes earlier had  the final scoring pass to the impressive Gillanders not been adjudged forward. A Jones penalty just into injury time at the break then cut the margin, it was close at half time at 15-13.

Coventry then however effectively closed down the match within the next quarter. First Kurt Johnson amidst triumphant scenes tore in for his history making try & although Jones landed a 43 metre penalty for Moseley, an excellent 4th Cov try after 57 minutes not only sealed the bonus point but an emphatic lead. A turnover on the Moseley ‘’22’’ from the forwards saw Myles Dorrian expertly set Donovan Sanders through for his third of the season & with Ben Russell converting both second half efforts, the margin had become 29-16.

Two more tries were to follow sending home followers home very happy. Henno Venter crossed for try number five on 66 minutes & with all the replacements on, Gregor Gillanders capped a fine personal performance with his second two minutes into injury time after an excellent build up, Russell again adding the topping to both with conversions to take Cov past 40 points for the first time this season.

A victory which the entire squad can take a lot of heart from; hopefully from the encouragement & confidence it should have given, further good results can be achieved. Plymouth away this coming weekend will in itself be a good test.

Coventry; Ben Russell (Capt), Ben Toft, Jack Cobden, Donovan Sanders, Kurt Johnson, Myles Dorrian, Mike Walls, Carl Rimmer, Stuart Friswell, Rudi Brits, Gregor Gillanders, Ian Nimmo, Henno Venter, Darren Clayton, Laurie McGlone.

Replacements; Chris Whitehead, Ricky Whitehall, Danny Hodge, Jamie Miller, Tom Slater, Lee Parry, Hendry Rheeders

Coventry. Tries; Gregor Gillanders 2, Ben Russell, Kurt Johnson, Donovan Sanders, Henno Venter

         Conversions; Russell 5, Penalty Goal; Russell

Moseley. Try; Nathan Bressington.

        Conversion; Matt Jones. Penalty Goals; Jones 3