Cov sportingly allowed an immediate replacement Mose player to come on so we played the game out with 15 men.
Plus points - pack competed very well, fitness of the team looks good.
Cov just played at a tempo we couldn't match, faster in all aspects of the game, basically what you might expect of a full time pro-outfit. Mistakes tended to be costly in terms of dropped balls and turnovers.
Attendance? In light of a few postponements of events at Billesley in recent weeks/months more than likely the paying public in the ground may be just as important for the Club at this early stage regardless of what know about the full time brigade from The Butts and a result.
Not our strongest side we lost our winger just before kick off so had a scrum half on the wing. No Ben Morris, Will Safe, Morgan Dawes,Sam McNulty,Isaac MC Nulty,Elliot Creed etc. Against a full time professional outfit I thought we did ok in the circumstances. Plenty of positives. Come on Mose !!
Plus points - as Cov dropped the pace a bit after the red card, we started to play better. Mose were not prepared for the collisions; in the first half, we lost a lot of ball in contact and, credit to Cov, they were pretty much a brick wall. Scrum generally held its own all night. Above all, the team kept going ('resilient' as one Cov supporter put it in the second half.
Negatives - after building against Luctonians and then a good all round performance against DMP, this was a rude awakening and may damage confidence if we're not careful. I don't know if the red card will carry a suspension - it probably ought to.
The ref was a big, strapping lad. Can we sign him?
I don't know what happened at the bar at half time but the queue hardly seemed to move.
Cov played Leicester Lions last week and apparently got a bit of a fright before running out winners. Apparently, LL box-kicked a lot and were liable to take a step back at the scrum in order to win penalties. We have been warned!
Plus points - as Cov dropped the pace a bit after the red card, we started to play better. Mose were not prepared for the collisions; in the first half, we lost a lot of ball in contact and, credit to Cov, they were pretty much a brick wall. Scrum generally held its own all night. Above all, the team kept going ('resilient' as one Cov supporter put it in the second half.
Negatives - after building against Luctonians and then a good all round performance against DMP, this was a rude awakening and may damage confidence if we're not careful. I don't know if the red card will carry a suspension - it probably ought to.
The ref was a big, strapping lad. Can we sign him?
I don't know what happened at the bar at half time but the queue hardly seemed to move.
Cov played Leicester Lions last week and apparently got a bit of a fright before running out winners. Apparently, LL box-kicked a lot and were liable to take a step back at the scrum in order to win penalties. We have been warned!
Come on Mose!
In the first half it was the Lions winning the collisions especially ball on the floor and good line outs. Cov stepped up in the seond half and their quality did shine through. The Lions competed well in the scrum, but some of the pace of Cov in the backs and good lines run opened us up for a couple of scores.
Last Edit: Aug 27, 2023 17:46:05 GMT by tigerburnie
Don’t want to comment too much, but decent effort but the class of players clearly showed the divisional divide
wasn't there, didn't see it, non putting the boot in comment over on the Cov board has us just about hanging in the league this year, same as last year.
In the absence of much comment from people on here that were actually there, I thought I'd look at people on there that were!
comment over on the Cov board has us just about hanging in the league this year, same as last year
A mis-quote from one person, from an opponent's forum, who are in a league above and therefore probably didn't see many of our games last season...
I prefer paraphrase rather than misquote but your mileage may vary... The actual quote, which is obviously massively different, was:
'Moseley just about held their own last season, I see them being in the category again, but no higher.'
You honestly can't win with rugby can you? When someone criticises the opposition it's 'this isn't football, we're all friends enjoying the game', and when someone from the opposition gives their views it's 'what would they know, they're the "opponents"?'
As I said, given how little feedback there has been from our side, it seems a bit silly not to weave in the feedback from other sources. It's not like I didn't caveat it with the source....
My take on Friday night is,the pack were a good match for Cov in the set piece but with only two second rows in the squad any injuries there would leave us in trouble. As for the backs the new no10 looks good kicked well out of hand I assume we had a number of centres nursing injuries and had to start the game with a scrum half on the wing, some even said we had a scrum half on both wings The new lad at full back will be ok he looked very good in the other two preseason games. To be honest I wasn’t sure who was on the pitch in the last 20 mins
Moseley were swamped and out-flanked by a fitter, faster, Coventry on Friday night. I agree the Moseley pack held their own in the tight and the line out performed well all through the game but other than those occasions Coventry were more focused in the loose using good support to create opportunities. Coventry, as did Moseley to a lesser degree, made a number of clean breaks but the telling factor most times was that Coventry had support, not just the odd player support but a numerical advantage support which gave options. Moseley by contrast had the odd player support - such as Ollie Steadman in the frist half. Ollie made a clean break but the only support he had was Sam Pointon. And to made things even more difficult Coventry, through their excellent cover defence had three or more defending players close to hand - one prticular player covering Sam pointon.
In the loose Moseley were defeinitely second best not because they didn't make any effort, that they did, without question but whereas Coventry had close support options throughout the game, particularly on any of their numerous half-breaks, where they kept the ball alive. Moseley, by contrast tended to go to ground to try and grind the last inch of every possession. And Coventry? They stayed upright, off-loaded in the tackle time after time which drew in the Moseley defence until a glaring overlap developed and then, in the well practiced fashion, off they went unhindered to the try line. It worked every time and Moseley had no answer.
Moseley need not be ashamed. They put up a good show and never gave up once. And Painter, normally a scrum half but out on the wing certainly stretched the Coventry backs. Well done lad.
Pam and I will be on the coach to the Rams game on Saturday where I feel Moseley will put in more than a half decent effort. In fact I would go so far as to fancy Moseley to come away with some points, not sure how many, but points for certain - and hopefully more than Rams.
Come on Moooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooose
I really have to question the benefits of playing Cov. Years ago we used to have some great close games but they have moved on. No idea about their sources of funding but clearly they have sufficient income to put together a largely pro squad. Couldn’t make the game but from the comments above it sounds like there was a radical difference in coaching. Are we going to add further signings before the start of the season particularly in the second row where we look vulnerable if we get any injuries?
