As the Coventry team coach weaved its way up the M6, through a myriad of crashes, it must have picked up its fair share of lucky heather, shamrocks, and "get out of jail free cards".

It was in the 6th minute of injury time, with Cov trailing 27-23, that a defensive kick was collected deep in the Cov 22, somehow kept alive by Tom Slater and Ben Russell, found its way to Laurie McGlone, who twisted and turned out of of tackles and suddenly found himself 30m from Sedgley Park's goalline. A quick inside pass found Tom Slater, for a dash to the line, which allowed Tom an impressive swallow dive over the line, which would have earned full points in the Olympic diving. The sheepish embarassed faces of the coaches said it all at the finish.

On a beautiful balmy day both teams wanted to play an expansive game, but it was the home team that looked more dangerous with strong running from Swatkins the winger and Tafa the centre. It took fully 10 minutes for Cov to even get their hands on the ball. The first quarter saw both sides squandering try scoring opportunities with poor finishing, wrong options and penalties given away. That period saw Cov leading 9-6 with 3 excellent Mclean penalties aagainst 2 Matt Riley ones.

Finally the try drought was ended, and fittingly it was Sedgley Park that scored it, following a surging break by the impressive No 8 Oliver Cook, whose pass allowed the No 9 Chris Leck to scored an unconverted try. The score was now Sedgley Park 11 Coventry 9. The home team continued to press and another Cov penalty given away in the 32nd minute allowed Sedgley Park to end the half 14-9 up.

Another poor start by Cov in the 2nd half led to another penalty for not releasing, converted by Riley, taking the score to Sedgley Park 17 Coventry 9 after 42 minutes. Almost mmediately Ollie Winter was replaced, with Sam Montague going onto the wing and McLean into centre. At last Cov stirred themselves, ball retention was much better, and although a penalty was missed by McLean the pressure was mounting on the home side.

The game then turned on 47 minutes with Oliver Cook being yellow carded for slowing the ball down, after previously being warned. 2 minutes later Cov took advantage following good work by Mclean, George Dixon powered his way over in the corner, which was well converted by Mclean, to make the score Sedgley Park 17 Coventry 16. Further Coventry pressure came to nothing despite good work by Dugard. The home side never gave up and Cov gave another penalty away for not releasing, with Riley kicking the 47m goal, making the score Sedgley Park 20 Coventry 16.

Yet Coventry refused to give up, they upped their game, and Clayton had an excellent break but no support. Coventry going for their first way win of the season were not to be denied, and once again good ball retention skills led to Rob Dugard rounding off an impressive game in the 67th minute, by scoring in the corner. McLean once again kicked the difficult conversion, making it Sedgley Park 20 Coventry 23.

Sedgley Park were still not giving up, and further breaks by the dangerous Swatkins and centre Tafa, led to a Swatkins try after 73 minutes, with another excellent conversion by Riley to make it Sedgley Park 27 Coventry 23.

The last 13 mins saw constant Cov pressure with the final coup de grace provided by Tom Slater.
An enjoyable if somewhat nerve racking game, with Sedgley Park having done their homework. In the end just about a deserved victory, if just for keeping going. Lineout went well, once again Slater being influential, coupled with goal kicking of Mclean and the bullocking runs of Dugard, the game provided more positives than negatives. It sets up Cov nicely for next weeks Friday night home game against Bedford.

Two new replacments on Cov's bench although not used Ben Pons a flanker and prop Laurence Sanderson. Tommy Hayes was injured in warm up so replaced by Howard Graham.

Teams

Coventry - Ben Russell, Ronnie McLean, George Dixon, Ollie Winter, Lee Parry, Dorrian Myles, Tom Slater, Ricky Whitehall, Chris Whitehead, Rob Dugard, Sam Herrington, Carl Burgess, Henno Venter, Darren Clayton, Laurie McGlone.

replacements used-Stewart Pearl for Chris Whitehead, Sam Montague for Ollie Winter, Gregory Thomas for Darren Clayton.

not used - Laurence Sanderson, Rob Walton, Ben Pons, Graham Howard.

Sedgely Park-Matt Riley, Peter Swatkins, Chris Hall, Lisiate Tafa, Paul Wilcock, Chris Wilkinson, Chris Leck, Phil Gazzola, Jon Roddam, Petrus Du Plessis, Tim Fourie, Glen Townson, James Jones, Adam Newton, Oliver Cook.

replacements-Gerault Evans, Gareth Roberts, Alistair livesey, Sam Woods, Juan Crous, Dominic Kohler, Phil largan.

Scores Coventry

tries. Dixon, Dugard, Slater

conv. Mclean(3)

pen goals. McLean (3)

Sedgley Park

tries. Leck, Swatkins

conv. Riley (1)

pen goals Riley (5)