Success is my only motherf**king option, failure's not
...you better lose yourself in the music
The moment you own it, you better never let it go (go) You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow This opportunity comes once in a lifetime
You can do anything you set your mind to, man
Lose Yourself - Eminem
Coventry Rugby v Jersey Reds.
Some games are harder to get worked up about than others.
No disrespect to the likes of Hartpury or Ampthill, but fixtures against them just don't have the same appeal for me and as a supporter I find struggle to make the same emotional investment on a Saturday afternoon watching them as I do against, say, Bedford or Jersey.
A little more history perhaps? Certainly against Bedford anyway.
Jersey? The distance? The fact that it's a Crown Dependency in it's own right? Or just that I've travelled over there 4 or 5 times now to watch them and become fond of both the island and its people.
Hartpury and Ampthill just aren't places I'd visit other than to watch a game of rugby. Sorry to be a bit dismissive of both but I can't be alone in feeling a bit more antipathy to them, surely?
Anyway, back to the game this weekend.
I always look forward to this fixture, home or away. But when it's a case of Cov in third place against Jersey in second, with both teams still capable of applying a good deal of pressure on current leaders Ealing Trailfinders, well it's about as big as it gets. And with home advantage too.
It's all set up very nicely indeed.
A win on Saturday would see the gap between us and Jersey narrow, ensuring the away game at Ealing carries even greater significance. But in order for that to have any real significance, we have to get something from this weekend's fixture.
As do Jersey, of course.
Very tasty.
Cov's form going into the game is good and would have been even better had it not been for the rather disappointing result against Hartpury back in mid- December.
That of Jersey, though, is exceptional. Whilst Cov have lost three games this season, the Reds have been beaten just the once, and that to Ealing.
Until that loss, they had put together a run of 10 games unbeaten and have scored more points this season on their travels than any other team.
All of which makes it a tough ask for a Cov side that contains several players who are still very inexperienced at this level.
There is a chink of light though. Jersey have conceded plenty of points on their travels, as the table above (right) shows. Cov do play attacking rugby these days and with plenty of pace outside of Pellegrini, if he can find a bit of space to run the show as he has in some of the games this season, then Jersey might find they have a very tough game on their hands. Easy to forget it will be only his 12th start in the Championship; how valuable could Chudley's experience inside of him yet prove?
Much also depends on how well our forwards can negate the obvious strengths of the Jersey pack - if we get some decent ball it should be a cracking afternoon's entertainment.
The blue of Coventry Rugby v the red of Jersey
Whenever blue and red appear in the same sentence, I'm taken back to the late 80s. And no, it's got nothing to any football game. That would be all too predictable.
No, blue and red are synonymous, for me anyway, with that advert.
You know the one, with the red car and the blue car.
And that race.
If you're in your 30s or above, most likely you'll be familiar with it. It was a real earworm.
You get a bonus point if you can recall what it was that was being advertised.
Yep. Milk Way.
And perhaps it's a good omen because if you recall, after a titanic struggle, it was the the blue car that prevailed in the end.
The bigger, rougher, tougher red car tried to bully the blue car as it chomped its way to an early demise. But the blue car was better prepared, had a plan and won through in the end.
So it's half time Milky Ways in the home dressing, a van load of pizzas in the away.
Jersey struggle with the pace in the second half and 'Smart old blue, he sees the milky way'.
A metaphor, perhaps?
Here's hoping.
What might help Cov a little more than a few Milky Ways at the break is having home advantage. The BPA is never the easiest of grounds to come to but with what ought to be Cov's biggest crowd of the season and with so much at stake, the atmosphere should be something special.
And full marks to Coventry's marketing team for working overtime these past few days to advertise not just the fixture, but also its importance.
Cov has upped it's game massively in this department (although to be honest the bar was pretty low a couple of seasons ago).
Interviews with players, clips from the training ground, both serious and light-hearted, and straightforward promotions (see left) have all helped raise the profile of the game.
Get the numbers through the turnstiles and the BPA becomes and even tougher place to play and we all know what effect a noisy, partisan home crowd can have on a Cov side fired up and on a roll.
In the build up to the game this week, WIll Wand confirmed the importance of the crowd in another tweet released by the Club (see below)
It's got all the makings of being a corker and with a curry or soup for just a quid, the prospect is a mouth-watering one both on and off the pitch. Value for money all round, I'd say.
And I've not even mentioned the Potato Wars.
This is already a home win for me.
Koffmans (very much the new potato on the block by comparison) v the old favourite, the Jersey Royals.
I've been fairly critical of the limited food options available at the ground in seasons past but it's yet another area of the Cov experience that has improved of late. The outdoor stalls, although few in number, do offer a range of foods that aren't overly priced.
Of those available, Koffmann's is the big winner in my book. If you've not tried the fries, then I'd recommend you given them a go (the burger is a fave, too!). I believe Simon Martin (winger James Martin's dad, an ex-Cov player himself and recently appointed to the Cov Board) is managing director of Food For Heroes and co-founder of the Koffmann's Group, so there is a strong Cov link there.
Jersey have their Royals, but Koffmans means it chips for them, I'm afraid.
Burger and fries before the game, washed down by a freshly made coffee from the mobile van next to Koffmann's and you're sorted. Well, I am at least.
All set up then for a game which is so important to two sides still very much in the promotion chase.
Cov have had a fantastic season so far, but against Ealing at the BPA at the start of the season they fell well short. Good as Jersey are, they shouldn't offer quite the same challenges but nevertheless they'll be a huge test for Cov and realistically, even with home advantage, Cov will go into the game as the underdogs. That said, some of the performances since Ealing have given supporters real hope that they can be competitive against the best teams in this league.
Saturday will certainly challenge that belief though.
For the players, the game probably carries rather more significance than it does to those in the stands - thoughts must already be starting to focus on where they'll be playing their rugby next season. A big statement on the pitch can only help their cause. Yes, it's a team game and they'll of course be playing for each other and for the badge, but you never know what's around the corner. Opportunities have to be seized:
The moment you own it, you better never let it go (go) You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow This opportunity comes once in a lifetime
Success has to be the only 'motherf**king' option going into any competitive game.
As a supporter though, it's more of a long game - and this is but one piece of the puzzle. I've seen enough to know that the club, and with it this squad, is moving in the right direction. A loss would be disappointing but in the context of the season so far, no more than that.
But the players know that they can overcome the odds and put in a team performance that will push Jersey all the way. Last week Caldy showed that even Ealing are beatable on any given day - a fabulous result both for them and for the league as a whole. They showed, '
You can do anything you set your mind to, man':
so come on Cov, reach for the stars and go find the Milky Way.
Comments