Coventry Rugby v Hartpury: a score to be settled and a little bit of history to be made?

There will be no replacements

Ya better get your gun

Because I'm comin' after you

For everything you done

And then when you are captured

It won't be like before

'Cuz you teased me, deceived me

But this is what's in store

This means war--and you will see it's senseless

This means war--and soon you'll be defenseless

This Means War - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

I'm not altogether sure what Hartpury's official title is, these days.

The website address is Hartpury RFC (as is its Twitter feed) but once on there, it's referred to as both Hartpury University and Hartpury College. On the BBC website it's Hartpury RFC, whilst on the official RFU England Championship website, it's Hartpury University RFC.

Clearly, it's a club with something of an identity crisis, if not within itself, then certainly with the way it's perceived outside of the club and its supporters. None of this is made any easier as a result of the club's ever increasing ties to Gloucester Rugby Club, of course - indeed, I believe the women's side is officially referred to as Gloucester-Hartpury just to add to the confusion.

And there are those who refer to Hartpury University as Gloucester's Second XV, but that's just being harsh.

Me, I'll just call them Hartpury for the sake of clarity.

Cards on the table. I don't harbour any real fondness for them. I'm not altogether sure why either, although it might be partly down to the advantages university/college clubs have in terms of funding and/or facilities. It's never seems a level playing field, although those a little less blinkered than me will doubtless counter that it never has been.

It's not a route I particularly want to go down right now, but it's hard to argue that Hartpury doesn't have a number of advantages over other Championship sides.

Government funding for facilities and three grass pitches and a 3/4/5G for starters.

Since 2018/19, I think we've played Hartpury on 7 occasions and won just 3. Credit to Hartpury for that, I guess, but in the games I've seen and we've lost (all but the game earlier this season, I think), I've always felt it's been a case of could have, should have.

Last season we were beaten 18-7 after going 7-0 up. And probably one of the worst Cov performances I've watched in the Championship was against Hartpury back in 2018, in our first season back, when we were beaten 23-17. In his post-match interview, Rowland Winter played his 'understatement card' when he said of the game that, 'It doesn’t leave too many positives'.

We were really poor that day, really poor, again beaten by ourselves as much as we were by Hartpury. It was Cov's first season back in the Championship and although we finished well above them that year (they only avoided relegation by 3 points), we gifted Hartpury that game. Luke Cozens kicked pretty much everything for them and the much maligned Jake Sharp had a something of a 'mare for us. I always felt it was that game that really spelt the end of his short, and rather disappointing, career at the club.

Fair play to RW, he came onto the Supporters' Club coach after the game and for perhaps the only time publicly he faced some quite negative comments from a supporter about one of his players; yep, Jake Sharp. RW wasn't a happy man that day and gave the person who made the comments some very short shrift...and rightly so.

But it was the beginning of the end for Jake Sharp, I think.

We also lost away to them this season in another game, according to supporters who were there, we should have won.

Highlights of Cov's loss to Hartpury earlier this season:

I used to feel the same way about Ampthill, but only because I saw hem as a team we really should always beat. I still sometimes suffer from the 'illness' that so many supporters of my generation fall victim to - living in the past and occasionally believing Coventry remains the powerhouse of English club rugby that it once was, a time when no one had heard of Ampthill or Hartpury or even Ealing for that matter.

However, there's something really rather refreshing about Ampthill - the ground for starters, with that dingley dell walk to an amphitheatre of a setting, with no stands and supporters exposed to the elements whatever the weather. There's a romance about it all. And of course, they are a 'community' club in every sense of the word, a world apart from Hartpury really.

It's not a view I'm especially proud of - it's patronising and symptomatic of the club's own malaise in the 80s/90s/00s and even into the mid-2010s until RW came along and made us all realise just how far we had fallen. For far too long the club, its board and its supporters had all thought Cov was too big to be in any league other than the Premiership, without being prepared to invest sufficiently in the club in order to make it happen.

How arrogant we were back then. Not so now really, other than the occasional relapse, but it's taken a long, long time.

To add a little extra spice to the game on Friday evening, Hartpury are the only side left this season who could do the double over us. We've already played against the three others sides we've previously lost to and beaten them, so I'd be cheesed off if we don't come out on top against Hartpury. We've drawn with Jersey, beaten Pirates at home and pulled off the surprise (outside of Cov) of the season with the win down at Ealing, having been thumped by them 5-50 at home back in early October.

Friday's game must be about settling the score and avenging that earlier defeat. They'll be no need for Alex Rae to motivate the team given that 45-36 defeat over at the ALPAS Arena.

And if Coventry was to beat Hartpury, it begs an interesting question.

When was the last time that Coventry went through a season in the Championship with no side doing the double over us?

I'm pretty sure it hasn't happened since the 1980s. Coventry's best season to date was in 1996-97, the year we lost to London Irish in the play-off final and thereby missed out on promotion into the top flight. But that year, winners Richmond only lost once and I'm pretty sure we didn't beat them and everyone's aware of what happened when Rob Andrew's Newcastle came a-visiting.

Before '97, I think we struggled in the Championship so it's unlikely to have happened then.

An added incentive for Alex Rae then, perhaps. What were the odds back in September of Coventry having its best season ever in the Championship under a new Head Coach. Should we finish third, and with no more than five losses (we have four at the moment, remember), then it will have been a magnificent effort (it's already a great one, of course).

I can't help but think of the eponymous Ted Lasso (Apple TV) and his comments before the AFC Richmond v Man City game, the result of which would decide whether Richmond stays in the Premiership or is relegated into the Championship.

None of his players believed that they could beat City and Ted was particularly irritated by the phrase, 'It's the hope that kills you' that he kept hearing from those around him, believing that instead that it was the lack of hope that did for you in the end.

He's not wrong.

The hope that supporters have had since 2016 has made watching Cov as enjoyable as it's been for as long as I can recall. Win or lose, there's always the bigger picture to cling to. Before that there were some dark days, dark seasons in truth, and that lack of hope, a belief that there was little to look forward to other than mid-table mediocrity in National One or worse, made following Cov tough at times.

Back then, it was best not raising hopes or expectations because if you did, when those hopes were crushed with another series of disappointing performances, well it only made it worse. Ted understood in that situation, it's the lack of hope that kills your passion and enthusiasm.

Which is why Cov supporters are on such a high at the moment. Hope springs eternal whatever the result these days and the BPA is a good place to be.

Especially this Friday evening.

The players have a score to settle with Hartpury and in doing so can give Alex Rae and his coaching staff the opportunity of potentially making a little bit of Cov history in the process.

This means war...

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