Ealing 31 Coventry Rugby 13 - thoughts on the day and a first glimpse of Cov's latest signing?

Money don't get everything it's true

What it don't get I can't use

I want money

(Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh)

That's what I want

(Ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh)

Money - The Flying Lizards

Two losses in the last two away game, but the difference between them couldn't be more marked.

Whilst there was a fair degree of frustration following the defeat at Ampthill and a feeling that Cov could, and probably should, have done better, against Ealing there was a general consensus that with far more depth to its squad, and with Coventry's front row decimated once again, Ealing was the better side on the day and fully deserved its win.

Coventry played well, very well in that first half, but in the end Ealing's total dominance in the scrum allowed the Championship leaders to pull away despite some resolute defence for much of the game.

On that performance, it's hard to see any Championship side securing the win down there this season.

Had we had a full complement of props, then I think we would have fared a good deal better - the loss of Trinder and Nicol can't be understated. That said, Ealing have so much strength in all positions across the park that even with them we would have struggled.

Whenever we play Ealing, somewhere someone feels it's necessary to mention Mike Gooley and how he has bankrolled the club for so long and that the club is doing no more than buying its way to the Premiership.

I'm not sure why some folk choose to argue this as it's a classic case of 'the pot calling the kettle black' given Jon Sharp himself confirmed as recently as last Friday on local radio that he has done something similar for Cov for the past 10 years.

Without his support, Coventry Rugby might well be currently languishing in Regional 2 West alongside the likes of Wolverhampton and Stratford, struggling to work its way back up the English rugby union pyramid after being forced into administration, the result of the financial naivety (?!) that we'd seen several times in the years leading up to to JS' appointment as Coventry Rugby Chairman.

Having a pop at Ealing when Cov has benefitted so greatly from the generosity of its own chairman makes no sense to me. Just because they get more money from their benefactor than we get from ours is no reason to bemoan our good fortune. It just smacks a little bit of envy to be honest.

There will be clubs in the Championship and National One who could only dream of the kind of support we've enjoyed from JS, but as he rightly says it's not a sustainable business model and is the reason why he and the Cov board are doing their utmost to look at ways of providing long term alternative funding through a further development of the ground.

In comparison to Ealing's, pound for pound Coventry's squad offers by far the better return on the respective chairmen's investments.

If the coaches keep producing that additional value-added factor, enabling the players to perform above and beyond whatever the initial start of season expectations might be (as was definitely the case last season), then that's all Cov supporters can ever ask of them.

Anyway, that's got that out of my system...

Ealing is certainly doing its best to ensure that its ground meets the 'minimum standards criteria' for promotion into the Premiership, as set out by the Professional Game Board. It's improved the ground no end since I first watched Cov there and it's now one of the better grounds we go to - a good clubhouse, plenty of seating, although minimal opportunities to sit side on, and food and drink areas to match most clubs in our league.

When it's cold the ground is a bit exposed and there aren't too many areas to seek shelter, but otherwise it fine, and with the potential to add on more seating/standing areas either side, then it can't be far off the requirement that:

'a club must have a capacity of at least 5,000 plus planning permission to develop the ground up to a capacity of 10,001, with funding in place to achieve this. It would have to demonstrate an agreement with a contractor to carry out the work in due course'.

Planning permission, I guess, could be the sticking point there.

With two further artificial pitches and additional space as well, it has so much going for it as a sports' ground for playing elite rugby. Personally, I wish them well and would far rather see them prosper than have to watch Wasps, London Irish and Worcester worm their way back into the fold again through the back door.

In 12 years time or so, when those clubs have worked their way back up through the pyramid and earned their right to once again play in the professional game, well that's an entirely different matter.

Until then, it's Ealing, or Doncaster or Cov, or whoever, that deserves the opportunity.

There was plenty of Cov support on Saturday amongst what I believe is a record crowd for Ealing Trailfinders in a league game -1237. Not their largest ever though, back in 2019 in the Championship Cup Final against London Irish, 3627 attended the Vallis Way ground. With facilities somewhat spartan then, it must have made for an interesting spectacle!

As at Coventry, a bag check was required to enter the ground but, unlike at the BPA, we were allowed to take in our bottle of water and fizzy drink, so a big tick in the customer relations box there for Ealing!

Good to see common sense prevail.

Is this our first sighting of the new prop that was first mentioned to be coming a few weeks back now?

The current crop of injuries to Cov's front rowers has hit the team hard as we know and the call up of another two loanees from Premiership clubs for the game on Saturday highlighted just how desperate the situation is.

Of the four props and two hookers in the match day squad yesterday, I think four are on loan with only Eliot Salt and Jordan Poole being Cov full-timers.

So the presence on Saturday of what looked like a new Cov prop gives us some hope that the situation is beginning to improve. Hopefully, he'll be in the match day squad before too long, presuming that the appropriate visas and paperwork are all in order, of course.

I think it's fair to say he looks a big unit! His arrival was rumoured a good few weeks ago now and back then I was told he was 19 or 20 year old, a Fijian and a strong scrummager (capable of playing on both sides of the scrum).

He was out and about for the warm up, chatting to Suva Ma'asi for the most part but also taking a keen interest in what was going on, even throwing a few balls around. It will be interesting to see if he's here as a player for the future with limited first team opportunities initially or whether he's here as a 'bona fide' first teamer to be part of the match day squad from the onset.

I'm sure we'll hear more from the club in due course.

When the game did start, it was obvious from the first scrum that Ealing had the advantage. Virtually every scrum from then on saw Cov shunted backwards and from that sort of platform, well it's very difficult to get any sort of momentum going. Even when Ealing swapped their entire front row between the 55-65 minute marks, their superiority remained and it became increasingly difficult for Cov to win clean ball even on their own put in.

Despite being so outplayed in the scrum, the forwards put in a really good shift and for me, Tiki Nayalo did a superb job at 8, picking up the ball when being driven backwards and then running it straight back at the opposition - he certainly took a bit of the pressure of Chudley in those situations.

For the first 19 minutes we barely saw any ball, with Ealing camped on or near our line. Cov's defence was immense in that opening period, time and time again stifling Ealing's attacks and winning a number of key lineouts on Ealing's throw close to our line. We usually sit well up the main stand at the BPA but for Saturday's game we were standing pitch side and it was interesting to hear a) just how much talking is done on the pitch and b) the influence James Tyas has at the lineout in particular. As pack leader he was constantly inquiring of his oppo (by first name) how many they wanted in the line on their throw and then organising our line accordingly. In that first half we disrupted their ball so much so that we were able to clear our lines 4 or 5 times in situations where the money was on them to score.

(As an aside and whilst mentioning James Tyas' influence on the pitch - about 30 minutes or so after the game, we were outside watching the women warm up for their Premiership encounter with Sarries when out popped JT. He spent a good few minutes chatting to us about the game and it was clear that he'd already looked at video footage of several key moments and, along with the other analysts, had started to highlight where the problems were and so on. I know that's his thing, but having played the full 80 minutes and whilst most of the other players were just winding down, to be so switched on after such a physical encounter was impressive. He also talked about his previous 'spell' with Cov under Phil Maynard which made for some very interesting, but hardly surprising, listening!

And, to cap it all, he comes across as such a genuinely nice bloke, too).

Anyway, eventually after 19 minutes the pressure told and they scored, at which point I did wonder if that would open the floodgates given Ealing's early dominance; but that was far from the case.

Instead, it seemed to galvanise Coventry into action and within a minute Cov had scored after Pellegrini made the most of an advantage to cross kick and Martin sneaked in behind the defender to dot the ball down when it looked for all the world as if the Cov 10 had slightly overcooked it.

For the next 15 minutes or so, Cov played at a tempo that probably only Ealing in this league could live with, stretching the home defence a number to head into half time with a one point lead. It was deserved, too, given the pressure they'd soaked up in that opening quarter. Nkwocha had another impressive half both in attack and defence. Indeed, all the back row were prominent, working hard at the breakdown and winning Cov possession at crucial moments.

The break came just at the wrong time for a resurgent Cov side, allowing Ealing to regroup and adjust their lineout to ensure that they no longer lost the ball on their own throw. The second half was, in fairness, one way traffic. Ealing's handling was out of the top drawer and when tiredness set in and gaps began to appear, the home side had the pace out wide to exploit them. Even so, the game was still close enough for Craig Willis to opt for the three points as late as the 65th minute, a sure sign that they felt Cov were still in with a shout at that point.

31-13 was probably a fair reflection of Ealing's second half superiority, but Cov did enough over the course of the 80 minutes to show that the Ampthill result was very much a blip. Saturday's performance was a big improvement, a more intelligent and resilient one. We won't face stronger opposition this season and with, hopefully, the likes of Trinder and Nicol not too far off a return, together with the addition of the new prop, the scrum should be a whole lot stronger by Christmas.

Whilst Hartpury is never the easiest of opposition, at home and in front of what might well be another crowd in excess of 3000, it's hard to look beyond a Cov win, especially as Hartpury have struggled a little so far this season. Hopefully, with three wins in December the table should start to even itself out after the staggered start resulting from Jersey's sad demise. Doncaster's second place behind Ealing is the surprise so far for me, especially given what we did to them a couple of weeks back.

With a quarter of the games already completed for most teams, a second place finish has to be our target as of now, surely? Some tough games to come but all the sides above us at the moment are eminently beatable away from home and fortress Cov makes the BPA a very tough place for any opposition to visit.

Now we've got the Ealing trip out of the way Cov know that whilst there's obviously a gap between the two sides at the moment, they aren't too far behind the current leaders. It's time to get back to winning ways once more and that starts with Hartpury on Saturday. If Cov put in a full 80 minutes performance, it could be a very attractive game to watch.

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Hope Cov shows a little more energy on Saturday than Deborah Evans-Stickland does on this TofP appearance back in 1979!