The cold weather was no match for the Coventry supporters at Butts Park Arena as Richmond came to town, a week to prior to Santa.
It didn’t take long for the home crowd to crank up the volume, as a premature try celebration was brought to a halt by the referee’s whistle. Will Chudley was adjudged to have knocked the ball on over the line after a lovely break in midfield from Adam Peters.
The BPA faithful didn’t have to wait long until a legitimate try was awarded. In the 4th minute of play Patrick Pellegrini threw a lovely floating ball over the rushing Richmond defence to find Louis Brown, who timed his ball to James Martin with perfection. The winger strolled into the corner before fly half, Pellegrini, converted. (7-0)
Richmond are never an easy customer, and were in no mood to let the opening passages go all Cov’s way. After a penalty was awarded to the away side, Richmond kicked themselves deep inside Cov territory. Richmond looked organised and patient at the resulting driving maul which ended over the try line, with hooker, Joe Vajner emerging with the ball. (7-7)
The game didn’t look like slowing down as Cov responded and responded immediately. After securing the loose ball in midfield, it was released to James Martin who only had eyes for the try line. Martin barrelled his opposite number out of the way to cross the whitewash before Pellegrini’s conversion went in off the post. (14-7).
A Pellegrini penalty extended Cov’s early lead in the 17th minute. The Australian fly half then added to his point tally for the day as well as his own try scoring stats for the season. A smart Will Chudley dart around the breakdown opened the gap for the Aussie number 10 to glide through and score. (22-7)
Cov managed to acquire the bonus point before the half hour mark. A lovely, delayed pass from Pellegrini allowed Will Talbot-Davies to go through the gap and show off his pace in racing to the corner. The conversion drifted wide, but Cov were really starting to purr with ball in hand. (27-7)
Louis Brown demonstrated a bit of envy with the fact that his name was not yet on the score sheet. Faced with a full defensive line, the fullback shrugged off four defenders before making his way to the try line. Pellegrini converted to make the score 34-7 after 31 minutes.
The game certainly wasn’t all Coventry, as Richmond showed plenty of attacking threat to score through their veteran captain, Mark Bright. The away side got through several phases in the Cov 22 before the experienced number 8 got his side over the line. (34-12)
The crowd were afforded a chance to catch their breath after the try-fest that was the opening forty minutes, as the teams headed into the sheds.
Half Time: 34-12
Cov made a similar start to the second period to that of the first, dominating both possession and territory before Adam Peters cut a nice line to crash his way over the try line and on to the score sheet. Pellegrini converted the relatively simple spot kick to make it 41-12 after 42 minutes played.
Coventry were in no mood to take the metaphorical foot off the gas. Playing with a penalty advantage, some clever build-up play led to a Louis Brown break before the fullback fed the captain, Jordon Poole, who made his way under the uprights. (48-12).
There was then a rare period of play that didn’t involve a try being scored, which at least allowed the admin to catch up on the live tweets. Both sides did their utmost to put an end to this new-found deadlock, but to no avail as the game ended with the final score: 48-12.
Thank you to every single supporter that braved the cold to come out and support the team today. Have a very Merry Christmas!
