I really can't stay
(Baby, don't hold out)
Ah, but it's cold outside
I got to get home (But, baby, you'd freeze out there) Say, lend me a coat (It's up to your knees out there)
Why don't you see?
(How can you do this thing to me?)
Baby It's Cold Outside - Ray Charles and Dionne Warwick
After Cov's heroics against Jersey the week before, the players must have been champing at the bit come Friday, keen to put an end to a run of indifferent performances in recent seasons at Dillingham Park, home to Ampthill RUFC.
Cov have yet to win a league game there whilst in the Championship and having myself watched several...let's call them 'disappointing'...Cov displays at Ampthill in recent years I, too, was hopeful that they could overcome a side that has only won 2 of its 11 games so far this season.
They are always a tough side to beat at home. DIllingham Park has an atmosphere unlike any ground I've ever been to as a Cov supporter. There are no stands , no shelter even (at least there hasn't be in previous seasons - apologies if this has now changed) and the pitch is set in an amphitheatre that means it is exposed to the elements for both players and spectators alike.
In the late summer or early spring it can be delightful. With a 5 minute walk through a wooded area from the clubhouse and changing rooms to the pitch, it's the most bucolic setting you could possibly wish for. It's quite the most engaging of experiences.
But in the depths of winter, with a freezing cold headwind blowing a gale, it's anything but that. It's the most inhospitable and miserable place to be if you're with the away team. It can't be much fun for home supporters, but at least you know what's coming. Visitors are, quite literally, caught cold.
For the record, I've always found the club officials and supporters very friendly and welcoming. But in late January with temperatures close to zero, well I wasn't altogether surprised, or even disappointed (as a supporter), to learn on the Friday that it had been call off as a result of a frozen pitch.
I wonder how the Cov players and coaches reacted to the news. It can't be much fun playing in near freezing conditions, especially at a ground that doesn't have quite the same atmosphere as the BPA despite the current run of form; hard to get as motivated I guess. Even though they must have fancied themselves to take the points in a season where their away form has been the best since Cov gained promotion into the Championship, the trip to Ampthill can't have been one they were relishing given the current weather.
Mark Lavery, Ampthill's Director of Rugby, will have wanted the game to go ahead for sure. Coventry's hard fought draw against Jersey, as good a performance as I've seen for some time, did come at a cost. Injuries to Pat Pellegrini and Tom Dodd are a worry, especially Pellegrini's. Without them, Ampthill's chances must surely have improved slightly?
Pellegrini's natural replacement, Evan Mitchell, has plenty of ability as we've seen over the last 12 months, but he hasn't played a great deal this season and he still has to prove himself at this level. And if Mitchell was injured or carded, who would take over the role of fly-half then? Brown perhaps?
In fairness, Mitchell has done well when he's had the opportunity and of all the players selected to play on Saturday he will surely have been the most disappointed as Pellegrini's performances so far make him a shoe-in for the 10 shirt when he's fit.
Tom Ball will have wanted to impress too; like Pellegrini, Tom Dodd will be hard to dislodge in the backrow when he returns so for him, opportunities won't come along too often.
Without either Pellegrini or Dodd, perhaps Saturday's game offered Ampthill a better chance of extending their run of home wins against Cov too - by the time the rearranged fixture takes place both players might well be fit again.
I wouldn't have been able to get to the game on Saturday, sadly, so with the postponement I might get to see a game that otherwise I'd have missed. No complaints from me then.
Another unexpected bonus resulting from Saturday's postponement is that Cov will have had two full weeks in which to recover from the physicality of the Jersey game - Cov fronted up to the visitors manfully so the extra week's recovery will have been appreciated.
Next up it's Ealing Trailfinders away. It doesn't come any tougher. Yes, Ealing are top of the league and looking on course for a fully deserved promotion, but they have had a few wobbles of late, a surprise loss to Caldy and several narrow wins in the last few weeks suggest that they aren't as infallible as many thought following a string of impressive wins early on in the season.
Cov will likely still be without Pellegrini or Dodd but if that is the case, the additional week will have given Alex Rae and the coaches more time to regroup and work out a game plan best suited to the the players available. We've never won at Ealing, a 28-28 draw back in November 2019 was the closest we've come (David Halafainoa scoring the final Cov try making it a doubly rare) but if they can get in the faces of the Ealing pack in the same way they did against Jersey, well a shock (and, in fairness, away from home it would be a shock) could be on the cards.
Here's hoping.
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