Cov Rugby 2022-2023: what went well, even better if....

'Cause it's a bitter sweet symphony, that's life

Tryin' to make ends meet, you're a slave to money then you die

No change, I can change, I can change, I can change But I'm here in my mold, I am here in my mold But I'm a million different people from one day to the next I can't change my mould, no, no, no, no, no (Have you ever been down?)

Bitter Sweet Symphony - The Verve

Ok, there are 4 games remaining and still much to play for, but I thought I'd take some time out mid-week to look back at the 2022-23 season and consider some of the many positives we can take from the past 9 months or so, as well as perhaps look at one or two ways in which things could be made even better.

What follows are purely my own thoughts and I fully accept that they might not be those shared by the majority of Cov supporters.

Anyway, it's a good starting point for a wider discussion if nothing else...

What When Well...

1. Alex Rae - AR's transition from Scrum Coach to Head Coach following the club parting company with Rowland Winter in April of last year has been virtually seamless.

At a time when there was a good deal of uncertainty surrounding the club and no one knew what was happening with the former DoR, Rae took over the helm, steadied the ship and ensured it was a case of full steam ahead towards new and unchartered lands.

From the middle of February 2022, Rae had stepped up to oversee the games whilst RW was on 'gardening leave'. Following a string of encouraging performances over the remainder of the 21-22 season, it was no real surprise when he was appointed full-time Head Coach in June of last year.

I say 'seamless' but that is actually far from the case.

The upturn in the team's results was marked from day one, with Cov consistently playing a brand of rugby that was, and continues to be, both entertaining and successful. In the past, the two haven't always gone hand in hand, but this season AR seems to have found a way to play an attacking, open brand of rugby whilst also ensuring that the team is defensively far more solid.

He's got the team playing with real confidence and, listening to those who know rather more about what's happening than I do, it seems that the squad is far tighter as a group than it ever was and that in turn has instilled a level of confidence and enjoyment that enables the team to play with so much more freedom.

The role of Director of Rugby is not one that AR has chosen for himself (or has been chosen for him?), opting instead for that of Head Coach, presumably leaving the more strategic side of the club's current and future development to Nick Johnston and the Board. It's a role that clearly suits him; he's brought in the likes of Ed Robinson and Gordon Ross to work alongside James Scaysbrook and in doing so ensured that this is very much his team rather than one he's inherited.

Above all though, AR has been hugely successful at bringing in young, talented players, inexperienced at this level, and fostering a confidence and belief in themselves and each other. And all on a very limited budget.

Adding Dodd and particularly Chudley to the mix part way through the season was a masterstroke. No one player has arguably had a bigger impact on the performances of Cov this season than Will Chudley, so for him to stay on another year is a massive coup. Not only does it send out a message to the rest of the clubs in this league, it will also have been noticed by other Premiership players perhaps looking for a similar move. That could work in Cov's favour, too. AR deserves all the plaudits for his recruitment over the past 12 months or so.

From being most pundits bet for a bottom half finish, Cov has earned the right not only to thought of as a genuine top three side, but also as a future promotion contender in the not too distant future should such progress be maintained.

Only time will tell if Rae's appointment proves to be the voussoir, the keystone around which the future success of the club is built. But if it this post is about the current season, and this season only, then his role in the club's success has to be the defining one.

2. Communication - let's face it, it's not been an area in which Cov has excelled in over the last few seasons. However, of late news about rugby-related matters (separate and distinct from other news - see later!) coming out of the club has been highly informative and at times entertaining too. From regular in-game tweets to weekday news, interviews and trivia, social media is awash with all things Cov. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube the club website - it's all used to bring information to directly supporters. There's really little excuse these days for any of us to claim we don't know what's happening on the playing front.

Dan Lewis has a big part to play in all this. Although appearing regularly for Birmingham Moseley in National One, when available he can be seen at the BPA on a match day amongst the players or interviewing coaches. Team details, match reports and relevant information are all made widely available and on time - something that probably wasn't the case not so long ago.

The ways businesses communicate with stakeholders is ever changing as technology rapidly develops, but Cov has now got a grip on what supporters both want and expect in this area of the club at least.

Definitely a big plus this season

3. The Coventry Academy - the Academy is starting to pay dividends. Take the 2021-22 squad for instance. 12 months on and Rhys Thomas, Jake Bridges, Tom Ball, Ollie Betteridge, Evan Mitchell and Louis James have all appeared regularly this season (when fit). At a time when clubs are struggling to raise finances to strengthen squads, any that can promote youngsters internally from an academy to the first team has a real advantage.

If the next intake of youngsters provides anything like the influx of players that last year's did, then that could enable Cov to reduce the number of players coming into the club, thereby allowing what limited funding is available to be spent on better quality players.

It's now a very important part of the Coventry Rugby Pathway, as the appointment of Gordon Ross demonstrates. His official title is Head of Academy Pathway and Talent, a full time post set up to identify talented youngsters who will come through the development system, 'accelerating and maintaining a successful pipeline of young, home-grown talent'. Having represented Scottish Schools at U16 and U18 levels and Scotland at U19 and U21 levels, he know just what is needed to make it to the next level.

Definitely another 'What Went Well' for me then.

4. Cov's form away from the BPA - in previous Championship seasons unaffected by Covid, our away record had been pretty mediocre. In both 2018-19 and 2021-22 we only managed 2 wins from 11 games - compare that with 5 wins from just 8 this season and with every chance of another 2 at least.

Its a spectacular turnaround and one which has been largely responsible for Coventry currently riding so high in the table.

I've no idea what the reasons for this are, perhaps in part it's down to the indefatigable confidence that comes with youth, held in check by the maturity and nous of the more experienced players. The coaches have done a great job in preparing players for games away from home, whether it be mentally, physically or through game plans drawn up for each opposing team - again under AR's leadership.

And in recent weeks, in appreciation of Cov's successes on the road, Supporters' Club coaches have been booked up well in advance with waiting lists to boot. How long before we regularly see two coaches packed full of travelling supporters?

Success on the pitch often leads to successes off it. Long may this continue.

Another massive tick in the plus column.

Even Better If...

(Prepare yourself...)

1. First things first. Alex Rae has been a revelation, achieving more in 12 months than I and many others had dared hope.

If such successes were going to come our way, then it wasn't going to be for another year or two according to the road map we were all had in mind.

It's been a remarkable season in so many respects and despite appreciation for all that Rowland Winter did for the club during his six year tenure here, I'm not sure even he would have got the team playing in quite the confident and entertaining way that we're all currently enjoying so much. This is on a different level - who knows how long it will last, but whilst it does, let's sit back and soak it up.

But that said, I was a big fan of Rowland Winter and was very saddened to see him leave, especially under such a cloud. And that's not to take anything away from Alex Rae's achievements.

But personally, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to RW for re-energising my love for the club; he opened Cov up to the supporters and gave them a role that was never there under Phil Maynard or Scott Morgan. The re-emergence of the Supporters' Club bears witness to that.

Supporters never had a chance to thank him, or to say our farewells - it was disappointing in the extreme. Ok, things happened, bad things presumably, that we will never be privy to, but the club's terse 21 word statement I felt was a little, err, disappointing:

'We would like to inform all stakeholders that Rowland Winter has left Coventry Rugby.

We wish him well in the future'.

I'm sure there were legal reasons why the club couldn't go into details as to the nature of its concerns and the statement was probably part of the compromise agreement reached between the two parties, but to not say a word publicly from January to April about what was happening was poor. Months of speculation from without and not a word from within, at first confused many supporters and then frustrated them.

It's probably a 'me' thing, but a simple statement early on when RW hadn't been seen around the BPA on a match day just to say that concerns had been raised, that he had been put on gardening leave and that the club wasn't able to say any more whilst investigations were on-going would have helped.

But silence just led to rumour and that's never a good thing.

Cov's current success is very much built on the foundations laid down by Rowland Winter. It was RW who sought out the club, realising it's uncapped potential, knowing he had the skills to take the club into the Championship and beyond. He contacted Cov first, not the other way round. Sure, he couldn't have done what he did without the tremendous support, financial and otherwise, he received from the Chairman and the Board, but likewise they could never have enjoyed the outcomes that have come the club's way without RW's input.

Whatever the reasons for the breakdown in the relationship between club and DoR, some acknowledgement, even a brief one, of the part Rowland Winter had to play in turning around Coventry's fortunes should have been made at the time his departure was officially announced. The statement made no reference to his achievements or the club's appreciation of them. Nothing other than a bland offering that showed no willingness to acknowledge his part in the success the club had enjoyed over the previous 6 years, success the Board will have enjoyed as much as anyone.

And 12 months on, it's as if he'd never been here.

Could things have been done differently? I believe they could.

It might be that communications regarding the playing side of the business have improved, but when things get difficult, the club has often tended to close ranks leaving its supporters very much in limbo. That really needs to change.

2. Communication - yes, I know it can't be both a positive and a negative, but in this instance I'm reflecting on the club's communication to its supporters on matters other than the rugby itself .

And if you didn't agree with the previous 'Even Better If...' then this will probably really annoy you.

I've given up just how many times as a supporter we've been told that plans were afoot to redevelop the Butts Stadium. Back in May 2018 the Coventry Telegraph published details of the 12,000 capacity stadium (yes it was 12,000 originally) and indeed there was a Forum where this was unveiled to supporters. That was 5 years ago...

Since then the world has become very different place and doubtless Covid, a huge decrease in RFU funding, inflation, uncertainty in the future structure of the Premiership etc have all impacted adversely on the club's original plans. The timings and indeed the very nature of the redevelopment itself have had to be rethought.

I get that. And it must have been a huge headache for the Board.

Plans were originally to start the build in 2019 (I believe) but months at a time, seasons too, seem to go by with no statement from the club and each September I come through the turnstiles hoping to see some evidence of a build. Instead, I'm left unsure as to what the position is and what sort of BPA I might expect to see in the future.

Financing such projects and getting council approval takes time. A long time. I totally accept that. But it takes just 10 minutes to put an update on the website, even if it's to say there is no update. But things have been happening behind the scenes, I do appreciate that and I believe the members of the Supporters' Club have been involved in discussing plans or future outcomes which is brilliant.

But if it's all transparent enough to involve one or two of representatives of the Supporters' Club, then it should also be possible to briefly detail where the club is in its plans to those hundreds/thousands of supporters who aren't.

And for once this isn't just about me having a bit of a gripe. Very few supporters could, with any confidence, say what the plans for the ground currently involve or how they've evolved over the past 5 years.

By coincidence, on the day I write this post, there's a message from the Chairman on the official website, in the form of an Open Letter, asking supporters to show they are 'True Blues' by buying a Season Membership. By doing so, 'you will contribute greatly to the funds needed so that we can get to work over the summer months'...

And there appears to be a lot, and I mean A LOT, going on. It's going to be a busy, and hopefully productive, few months down at the BPA.

Fantastic. I'm in - I always buy my season ticket early. If by doing so it helps move things along, all to the good. The letter highlights six specific projects that are in the pipeline, including 'restarting the site development project designed to lead the club to financial sustainability'.

Two things there. First, the project had stopped? That's something I'm not sure we were

aware of. I genuinely apologise if it's something I've missed, although if I have missed an announcement, then after talking with other supporters of late, so have they. Maybe it was officially put on hold, but I was under the misapprehension that it had been on-going all this time in terms of planning applications and discussions with the council and that sort of thing. When did it officially stop?

And secondly - we're being asked to buy early to restart the project, yet we still don't know what the plans are, given we do know they have changed significantly since 2018. I've no problem with being asked to get my ticket early, but if one of the reasons is to restart the development plan, then let me at least see what my money is going towards. Surely that's not unreasonable?

It doesn't need to schematic plans or 3D images - just a brief outline of what the current thinking is, something along the lines of plans for a further stand to seat X000 opposite the main stand with bar areas and a club shop, a hotel at the city end and a casino (that's all made up btw). It would just be really nice to know, especially as I'm being asked to contribute towards it through the purchase of a season ticket.

Look, I'm always going to support the club, and I think the board's ambitions for Coventry Rugby are fantastic. And I trust the Chairman implicitly. They're obviously giving up a lot of their time and expending a lot of effort for the good of the club. But it goes back to the Rowland Winter saga and a lack of communication. Please, just let us know a bit more about what's happening. Generating more interest amongst the supporters can only be a good thing.

The Board are entitled to do as they choose but it would be great if we could all get excited together about the redevelopment rather than a bit non-plussed because nothing seems to be happening and it's another potential false dawn. In fairness, that has happened before.

It's not a massive thing, but it for me it is an area of the club that could be improved.

3. The carpark and the scoreboard - doubling this one up to make it quick as both are relatively minor but annoying nevertheless.

The car park - well, it's the pay machines; they're a 'mare. I think we've all experienced problems with them at some time or other. One or other of them isn't working, coins are rejected, you never know if a game during the week counts as a match day; and above all it's slow and a total phaf. In short, they seem just as unreliable as they were when they were first introduced. Surely the system could be improved to reduce the queues on a match day? Most car parks these days make use of an app.

The scoreboard - it's starting to look in a sorry state with pixels missing across the whole surface area. Whilst it's working ok at the moment, it's not a good look.

And it's still not used to it's full potential - Donny uses its electronic scoreboard to show the previous league game in the build up to kick off on a match day. Why not do something similar or put the week's video clips from Twitter on a loop - they're always informative and often amusing.

---

Some of this you may agree with, some of it probably not. They're just my opinions, nothing more and others will see things very differently. I'm not going to apologise for them, but I do recognise they might not go down well in certain quarters but sometimes the odd 'Even Better If...', if constructive and genuine in nature, can be a useful thing.

It's been a fantastic season if you're a Cov supporter and the future looks as exciting as it's been in the last couple of decades.

Thanks to everyone involved, even if at times reading this it doesn't seem as if it is appreciated.

Believe me, it is.

---