Singing in the rain - eventually

Haddock’s swimming costume, Otter’s pocket, other wet idioms are available and none of them quite do justice to the level of wet on Saturday.

Most of the Butts Park Arena is not under cover and on a scale of fun it was somewhere below zero as the players and spectators battled Storm Bert.

The elements dictated the game – causing both sides to fumble catches and slice kicks. Hats off to Coventry who went absolutely toe to toe with Saints, their display of gritty determination and defence explained why they are sitting top of the Championship and undefeated in the Prem Cup going into this game.

Saints defence stood strong as Coventry mounted wave after wave of attack in the Saints’ 22 in the first half. A piece of Ginger Ninja magic saw Saints go into the interval in the lead by two points. Cov had had the most of possession until George Hendy collected the ball in his own 22 and the Cov defenders, like Munster and Bath players before them, discovered how hard it is to tackle someone with his legs on back to front. Once he got clear of the speed bumps Hendy coasted over the line and George Makepeace Cubitt slotted the ball over for the full 7.

Cov’s persistence paid off, however and former Gloucester and Worcester no 8 Matt Kvesic reached out his large paw to score which went unconverted.

The rain that had been unpleasant and problematical in the first half became biblical in the second half. It had an uncanny knack of blowing into your face wherever you were standing and soaking through just about every waterproof layer known to man.

Cov mastered the conditions better at the start of the second half when they went ahead from a try by winger Hutley. The Saints faithful behind the posts were doing their best to keep up the spirits of the replacements – a wry smile from Charlie Savala when we pointed out that he could have hot shower and a change of clothes at the final whistle whilst others of us faced a dripping trek home on the train and we’d paid for privilege.

The replacements when they came on – with little or no acknowledgement from the stadium announcer – made the difference. Manny Iyogun with a supporting role from Angus Scott-Young saw Saints back in the lead and GMC managed to land the conversion despite the wind whipping the ball off the tee. Then Curtis Langdon, replacement hooker, proved to be his usual hyper-energetic self to break free from a maul and hurtle over the line. GMC couldn’t find the target this time but it didn’t matter as Cov couldn’t find a way to get past Saints’ defence.

Special mention to Tom Lockett and Juarno Augustus who are both returned from injury and played the full 80. Well done Gents – good to have you back!

So we close this block of Prem Cup games at the top of the pool. Back to Premiership action next week, at home to Gloucester who were on the sticky end of a defeat this weekend to Exeter – let’s hope there’s no “backlash!”

Pictures, as ever provided by Claire Jones at Redhat Photo. More can be found here. And to listen to Claire and Lis talk about things Saintly and other rugby stuff find LadiesWotPod on Youtube, Spotify or other podcast platforms. For Facebook chat about Saints take a look at Saints Sinners group.