Coventry 10 London Welsh 19

Friday night’s fixture at the Butts Park Arena saw the Welsh bounce back from last weekend’s setback against Doncaster Knights with a dominant first half display condemning the Midlanders to their seventh defeat of the campaign.

The Exiles were ahead after just two minutes with a converted try from Paul Mackey, and fly-half Aled Thomas added two penalties for a 13-0 interval lead.

Thomas and home fly-half Joey Carlisle traded penalties early in the second period before James hall touched down for Coventry in the 64 th minute. Carlisle’s conversion briefly threatened a home revival before a fourth penalty from Thomas ten minutes from the end settled the affair.

Coventry Telegraph verdict:-

Coventry’s players are backing themselves to turn around their season after slipping into the bottom four of the Championship.

Friday's 19-10 home defeat by London Welsh was Cov's seventh loss in ten matches and their fourth from six games at the Butts Park Arena ­ prompting rugby director Phil Maynard to ask his squad for an honest assessment of how they saw the future.

"I said I wanted everyone to think about what was happening, to consider whether they wanted to go or stay and to give me a phone call over the weekend," said Maynard. "The response was positive - I had calls all through Saturday from lads pledging their commitment to see it through and put things right.

"There is a collective desire among the squad and the coaching staff."

Maynard admitted concern at another slow start ­ Cov falling behind to a converted try inside two minutes. "It was a lacklustre first half, which reflected the sort of season we are having, and we need to sit down as a group and discuss why," he said.

"At the end of the day, if we hadn't given away the softest try of the season right at the start it might have turned out very different and if Joey Carlisle's last penalty had bounced inside off the post and not back into play, we would have had a point and time left to add to that.

"At some stage, we will get a bounce that goes our way, but the only way it will is if we continue to work hard. We based our season on a strong work ethic and clearly that wasn't there at the start of the game.

"Hats off to London Welsh, their midfield was up on us very quickly and their blitz defence was outstanding ­ that is very difficult to beat and we couldn't get any pattern into our game, which is something that we clearly have to address.

"You could see what the win meant to Welsh by how elated they were at the final whistle. This club is treated with some reverence within this division

Doncaster Knights 36 Birmingham & Solihull 7

The Knights continued their revival with a fourth straight win and their first five-point haul of the campaign as they finally moved out of the bottom four after beating the Bees.

Centre Hudson Tonga`uiha opened the scoring for the Knights with a converted try after 26 minutes but it took until just before the break before the match really opened up. The first of two penalty tries came moments after Warnock had slotted a penalty as the Bees collapsed a scrum on their own line.

Chris Briers added a third try within two minutes of the restart before Chris Brightwell replied for the visitors on the hour. Hunt converted.

The second penalty try for the Knights came six minutes from time as once again the Bees pack capitulated and in the dying seconds Dougie Flockhart added try number five for the home side.

Knights head coach Lynn Howells told the Doncaster Star, "The first half was not a very good game of rugby. We fell into the trap of playing the way they wanted us to play. We were just chucking the ball around everywhere and we had no structure to our game

"But the second half was a much better performance and it was more of what we are about and what we've been trying to do in recent weeks. The forwards were dominant and they laid the foundations for our victory.

"Our defence was good - though we were a bit annoyed with ourselves over their try because it was something that they didn't have to work hard for, which was disappointing.”

Full story..www.thestar.co.uk/rugbyunion

Birmingham Mail report.. www.birminghammail.net

Moseley 31 Rotherham Titans 27

Moseley fought back from a 20-6 deficit with just 15 minutes played to win this tense battle at Billesley Common.

The Titans buoyed by their success against the Cornish Pirates were on fire at the start with early tries from Gregor Hayter and Neil Chivers both converted by Jonny West. The young fly-half added a further two penalties in reply to a brace from Moseley’s Andy Borgen as the Midlanders toiled.

Nathan Bressington try after half an hour gave Moseley a glimmer of hope and Ali Muldowney`s converted try two minutes into the second half turned the game on its head.

A penalty try to the home side after 52 minutes stole the lead from the Titans as their scrum malfunctioned on their own line. Borgen converted and added two penalties for a 31-20 lead before Jon Feeley`s late try for the Titans, converted by West, ensured a nervy finale.

Match report.. www.birminghammail.net

Titan’s viewpoint.. www.thestar.co.uk/rugbyunion

Nottingham 11 Exeter Chiefs 42

The Chiefs warmed-up for next Saturday’s cross-Tamar derby against the Cornish Pirates with a routine demolition of a woefully under strength Nottingham side at Leicester’s Welford Road.

The home side, ravaged by injuries and recalls of dual registered players, never threatened the Chiefs as the Sandy Park side strolled to a tenth successive victory. The visitors were ten points ahead inside ten minutes as Matt Jess’s try, converted by Gareth Steenson, was added to by a couple of Steenson penalties.

Tim Taylor landed an early penalty for the home side and added a second just before the break but in the meantime further tries from Simon Alcott and Haydn Thomas, converted by Steenson, contributed to a 28-6 lead for the Chiefs.

It didn`t get any better for Nottingham, who were missing 13 first team players, after the break as the Chiefs quickly added converted tries from James Scaysbrook and Chris Budgen.

Tim Streather claimed a consolation score for the home side deep into stoppage time.

Nottingham director of rugby Glenn Delaney told the Evening Post,

"It wasn't our greatest game, but there will now be an added edge when we play Bristol. We've struggled with our squad this week and hopefully the next seven days will bring better news."

"You can't give a team like Exeter a start like that," said Delaney. "We were on the back foot after that and it was always going to be difficult to recover."

Full story.. www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/rugby

Plymouth Albion 8 Bristol 33

Plymouth Albion remain rooted in the bottom four asa result of this home defeat against second-placed Bristol at Brickfields.

Just one week after causing a major upset by beating Nottingham on home soil Albion were ruthlessly punsihed for their mistakes in a second half which saw them leak four tries to the west country side.

Flanker James Phillips posted the only score of a difficult first half for both teams in tricky weather conditions before Jason Spice added try number two in stoppage time. Jarvis converted as Kieran Hallett replied with a sole penalty for Albion.

Hallet scored his side`s only try of the game just shy of the hour mark as Bristol were reduced to fourteen men for the second time.

Bristol`s reply was an instant one with hooker David Blaney rounding off a catch and drive move to score, before Luke Arscott and Phillips again punished Albion`s repeated indiscretions with two furher tries in the final ten minutes.

Match report.. hwww.thisisplymouth.co.uk/albion

Albion chairman of rugby Graham Dawe told The Herald, "We lost a game of rugby and we lost it with a heavy score. We did a lot of power plays in the first half, but we couldn't break them.”

"We didn't seem to be able to break them with our kick game, our running game or our power game. They were happy to give away penalties occasionally and we didn't respond with those opportunities."

"We need to digest this game, pick ourselves up and get back on the road. We have been knocked in the gutter a little bit."

Full story.. hwww.thisisplymouth.co.uk/albion

Bristol head coach Paul Hull praised his side for what he felt was their most complete performance to date. He told the Evening Post, “It's not always going to be glamorous but I thought we were quite ruthless in a lot of aspects of our game-plan.”

"As we have found out, no away match is easy. We're coming to terms with that and coming to terms with the expectations that are put on our shoulders. We know that we are the Premiership team that has come down, so there will be raised motivation from the opposition.”

"We found that difficult at the start but I think we're coming to terms with it now."

Full story.. www.thisisbristol.co.uk/bristolrugby

Cornish Pirates 25 Bedford Blues 24

Match preview from this site.. Pirates v Bedford

Western Morning News view.. www.thisiswesternmorningnews.co.uk

Bedford Times & Citizen report.. www.bedfordtoday.co.uk

Bedford Blues director of rugby Mike Rayer told Pirates TV,

“For the third week in a row we have probably lost a game rather than in this case the Pirates having won it.

We overthrew a lineout and switched off with a quick lineout there at the end and they are big turning points. We had a kick to win it at the end but we should have had the game in the bag

by then. We had a poor thirty minutes in the first hal and a poor ten minutes at the start of the second half, but I`m scratching my head how we haven`t won that game. It`s frustrating.”

“We conceded ten points in six minutes at the start of the second half mainly down to our errors and the Pirates have gleefully taken them. I`m just nonplussed as to how we have lost today.”