Good news week - Kvesic, Bainbridge, Pelligrini and Kilford

And if you'd open your eyes

You'd know there's so much you could do.

Oh

If you'd open your eyes

You'd make a thousand wishes come true.

Well

This must be one of the troubles

Of a-living in forgotten town.

Don't get me wrong

Forgotten Town - The Christians

It's almost as if the eyes of the rugby world have at long last been truly opened to what's currently happening down at the BPA.

The club, mostly forgotten during the nine long years it remained in the shadows of its more illustrious (now infamous?) neighbour, Wasps RFC, is now well and truly in the spotlight once again.

Coventry Rugby is suddenly not just the talk of the town, it's also fast becoming a focus of interest nationally after a series of notable performances last season in the Championship and a number of players and/or coaches attracting the interest of some of the top clubs in England and elsewhere. Although I'm sure that's gone unnoticed by Bill Sweeney and his cronies down at HQ.

More often than not, for many rugby fans this time of the year is often the most frustrating.

There's never much news during these fallow months. With the RFU seemingly unable, or at least unwilling, to release the Championship fixture list for 2023/24, I don't even have the enjoyment of filling in the calendar in the kitchen with all the season's games so that when I'm asked about a weekend away in October or a visit from a distant relative who's come all the way over from Australia in December, I can apologise and say that I've already made plans, but don't let that stop you from arranging something for yourself.

Not that I'd ever do that, of course.

There's still a good few weeks to go until the pre-season friendlies begin (Moseley again, yay!) and whilst Cov have been back in training for a couple of weeks now (longer than many of the other Championship sides it would appear), it's not the most exciting of times.

In fairness, Cov has released plenty of little clips of the players in training, often looking exhausted following a particularly energetic session! Whilst that certainly whets the appetite, it's no substitute for watching them play.

It would also appear that all the players who have been recruited for next season have now been announced, other than perhaps those who might be on trial during pre-season (or anyone Pat Pellegrini can persuade to come over to join us whilst lighting up the Summer with Tonga!), so we don't even have any reason to speculate further on incomings.

That said, this week has been one in which there has been plenty to enjoy if you're a Cov supporter. Not news as such, and you might have to look hard to find some of it, but it's all confirmation that Coventry Rugby is a club very much on the up and that the rest of the rugby community is starting to take note of our achievements and is beginning to look at us in a new light.

The Rugby Paper, always a good read, has contained plenty of references to Coventry over the past few weeks and last Sunday's edition again highlighted the club. Of lesser significance, but still something to provide encouragement to anyone who follows Cov, was the inclusion of new boy Matt Kvesic in Dan George's 'Dream Team' - his choice of the best XV he has played with or against.

George's description of Matt as being: 'massively underrated...Should have had a lot more England caps. So physical and strong for his size and is always consistent' is enough to get the imagination working overdrive. This from a man who played for Llanelli and Scarlets, as well as at Gloucester and Worcester in the Premiership and who is currently the head honcho at Old Albanian.

To give this even more context, also in his side are Alun Wyn Jones, Dwayne Peel, Freddie Burns, Jonny May and Gavin Henson, just to name a few. That Kvesic is included says a great deal about the player we have recruited and the impact he could have next season.

Players like Kvesic not only improve the quality of the rugby a team plays, they put bums on seats and these days every backside is worth a bob or two to clubs struggling to make ends meet. He might cost a bit more in terms of salary and so on, but with him could come additional gains, financial and otherwise, that more than make up for that. At least that's the plan.

At 31, Kvesic has several years in front of him at this level, should he so choose. If his arrival has a similar effect on the club to that of his close friend Will Chudley, then Coventry is likely to have another strong season. With Jack Bartlett also joining us, the back row could be a real strength and whilst the absence of Josh Bainbridge will be a blow, maybe it won't be quite such the upheaval that most of us believed it would be when his departure was first announced.

Ryan Burrows was influential when he joined us in 2019; if MK can play a similar role in this squad, which is stronger overall than it was back then, perhaps Cov has a realistic chance of a further push towards parity with the very best clubs in the Championship; an exciting prospect, for sure.

Credit where credit's due, Alex Rae said those players coming in would be at least as good as, if not better, than those departing and at this very early stage of the season he certainly seems to have been true to his word.

And if that wasn't enough, a feature length article in the same edition focused on Josh Bainbridge's move to Newcastle. Whilst much of it centered on his excitement at the prospect of playing in the Premiership after a couple of false dawns a few years back, he does talk effusively about his time with Cov. He's quick to point out that of all the clubs he's been at, Cov is the one he owes most to and he appears genuinely grateful for the time he spent with us...

'I don't think I could articulate just how good a club (Coventry) is. It's an unbelievable club on and off the field. We had such a good balance and worked hard for each other'.

He goes on to make the point that 12 months ago Kvesic wouldn't have signed for the club but after the last 12 months he now has - and if there's a been better recommendation of Alex Rae's leadership elsewhere, then I've not read it.

As a supporter you often wonder what the players make of their clubs, what the atmosphere is really like in the changing room and whether the relationship between the players and the coaches is really as good as it's often made out to be. For once, we get to hear it from the horses mouth, so-to-speak.

Or Josh's, anyway.

'With the way the club is going now, I think it is in a great spot. It has really good people from top to bottom,. You cannot look past the fans, we'd go to away games and there would be more of our fans than home fans. the support is great.'

Such appreciation is mutual, of course. Josh will be much missed; a player who left everything out on the pitch and was one of our most consistent performers over the period Rae has been in charge. There'll be many of us reading reports of the Newcastle games just to see how Josh is faring up there.

Not that we should be worried. He'll make his mark for sure.

Credit to Rowland Winter for bringing him to the club and to the current Head Coach for helping him to make the step up to the top flight.

Jon Newcombe probably got himself free membership to the Cov Appreciation Society when he penned that 'Coventry's third-place finish in the Championship has made their players and coaches hot property' as well as scotching one disturbing rumour that had been doing the rounds, namely James Scaysbrook's move to Newcastle appears to have come to nothing.

Big relief that...he's made a big impact since joining us Plymouth Albion where he was Head Coach.

Pat Pellegrini's inclusion in the Tonga's official 35 man squad for the July Internationals, and presumably the opportunity to play in the RWC if he can produce the kind of form at that level of which we all believe he's capable, came as something of a surprise.

I'm ashamed to say I didn't even realise he qualified for Tonga; I think he represented New South Wales U20s. It might be that the change to the eligibility laws in 2022 ('...from January 2022 a player will now be able to represent a different country after a stand-down period of three years. A player can move to a nation of their, their parents' or grandparents' birth, but can only switch allegiance once') provided him with that option, but that is pure speculation on my part.

Whatever the grounds for qualification, it's a fantastic opportunity for Pat and in a bonus for me, it's another opportunity for me to purchase a Tongan shirt as I last did when Elisi Vunipola was with us in 2001 or 02. I sincerely hope he does gain selection to the WC squad as it adds a whole new dimension to the WC for some Cov supporters.

It's a massive opportunity for him - although some good performances on the world stage could well see this being his last season with us. A bit of a double edged sword really, but we can only wish him well and enjoy watching him in a Cov shirt whilst he remains with us.

Alex Rae plucked him out of the South East Premier League where he played for Sevenoaks, believing he saw in him a player of rare talent: 'his attitude and hunger to test himself at this level has really stood out, and they are the kind of traits we want. He has an exciting game which will really suit how we want to play'.

Pellegrini has the ability to make things happen, a crowd pleaser who last season became a crowd favourite from the word go. His absence in the first part of this coming season, if he does make the final cut, will be a blow to us but when one door shuts, Mitchell and Mannion have the chance to burst through another - two talented youngsters, one with rather more experience of Championship rugby than the other, but both with plenty to look forward to at this level.

Last weekend's edition of the The Rugby Paper also had a full page article on ex-Coventry full back, Wayne Kilford. Anyone who was around during the Eves era in the mid 90's will remember WK with great fondness. Kilford scored 14 tries in his 52 appearances for Cov and wore the 15 shirt in the Newcastle game back in 1996 when 7000 plus supporters squeezed into Coundon Road to watch Cov get the better of a star-studied Newcastle side that was packed full of internationals, including the much missed Doddie Weir.

See the highlights of the Newcastle game here...great commentary too!

He clearly enjoyed his time at Cov, having dropped down a league after playing for Tigers with some success. In the previous blog I mentioned a couple of times that, as a Cov spectator, over the last few years initially under Rowland Winter and now even more so under Alex Rae, the enjoyment has returned to a greater degree than at any time since the Eves era.

It's not just about the winning (although that obviously helps), it's also about the style of rugby Coventry has adopted under their leadership. Kilford mentions something similar about Coventry back in the mid-90s ...'high tempo, ball in hand rugby suited my game. I really enjoyed the way we went about our rugby, we were one of the fittest sides you could play.'

The article, by Jon Newcombe, made for some interesting reading and brought back some very happy memories.

Hopefully, when Sam (son) and Josh (grandson) are my age now, they'll look back at what's happening now and think much the same about this current squad.

Plenty to feel good about then this week then, despite little happening on the rugby front.

More of the same next week, please.

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