A BRACE of tries from Jan 'Jaylo' Van DeVenter, along with touchdowns from Jon Skurr and Chris Hall ensured the Tigers ran out 28-21 victors over Coventry to claim the first five points of the season.

Jan Van DeVenter

Las season Coventry won both clashes between the two; the season before it was the Tigers. If Sedgley can repeat this victory when they make the return trip to the Butts Park Arena, history will have completed another cycle.

Coventry had an early opportunity to take the lead but skipper Ben Russell missed with the boot. However, not long after the Tigers spilled the ball deep in Coventry territory and Donovan Sanders needed no invitation to scoop it up and sprint 70 metres to the Tigers’ posts to give Russell an easy conversion and his side a 0-7 lead.

The Tigers then began to get into penalty trouble with referee Nick Williams and when a Coventry drive to the line was pulled down by the home side he had no hesitation in running towards the posts and signifying a penalty try. Another simple conversion from Russell doubled the visitors’ lead to 0-14 inside 10 minutes.

Steve Nutt finally kicked the Tigers onto the scoreboard on 14 minutes and with their tails up the Sedgely backs began to put together some impressive attacking phases before Tim Fourie claimed a loose ball before off-loading to Van DeVenter who had enough pace to scoot over in the corner. Nutt added the extras to make it 10-14.

Sedgley kept plugging away and seven minutes before the interval Nutt’s touch-finding kick gave his forwards a line-out within striking distance of the Coventry line. A well-worked catch-and-drive followed with No 8 Jon Skurr driving over for an unconverted try to give Sedgley a slender 15-14 half-time lead.

The break seemed to do the Tigers a favour and they emerged for the second half refreshed. More good back play was rewarded when at a scrum 20 metres from the Coventry line Jamie Albinson used the possession won by the pack to kick ahead and Van DeVenter was again on hand to use his speed to grab another try.

But any thoughts of a Coventry collapse were dispelled when they made the most of some poor Sedgley tackling to send George Dixon on his way. His touchdown was converted by Russell to put Coventry into a one point lead.

With ten minutes to go Sedgley introduced flanker Juan Crous and one of his powerful, downfield drives was rounded off by winger Chris Hall who bagged Sedgley’s fourth try to claim the bonus point and make it 25-21 to the home side.

Phil Jones, now fully recovered from his summer surgery, replaced Nutt late on and his successful penalty assured Sedgley of an important victory, although in truth, it should have been secured far earlier, with several kicking opportunities in particular squandered.

The Tigers looked good in patches, particularly the way the backs used possession, although the forwards need to work on their tight game, particularly in the scrums.

On this showing Coventry, despite being a full-time, professional outfit, appear to have serious early season problems.
 
SEDGLEY TIGERS: Riley, Hall, Craig, Payne, DeVenter, Nutt (P.Jones 64), J.Albinson (Wilkinson 78), Du Plessis, Roddam, Halsall (Birchall 75), Fourie, Townson (Norris 60), Newton (Crous 60), Ponton (c), Skurr.
Replacements not used: Keys and Briers.

Tries: Van DeVenter (15 & 48), Skurr (33) and Hall (66).
Conversions: Nutt 1.
Penalties: Nutt 1 and P.Jones 1.
 
COVENTRY: Toft, Dixon (McLean 70), Russell (c), Sanders, Johnson, Dorrian (Kirisome 65), N.Jones (Slater 50), Rimmer (Whitehall 45), Whitehead (Protherough 73), Brits, Nimmo (Gillanders 50), Hodge, Ventner, Millar (Clayton 44), McGlone.

Tries: Sanders (3), Penalty (10) and Dixon (56).
Conversions: Russell 3.
Yellow cards: Whitehead (24), Technical.