g

Neverthel ess, they did acquire two valuable bonus points.

The home side had the best of starts, when fly-half Louis Vaughan, having a fine debut season, danced his way through the Old Coventrians defence to score under the posts. Josh Jones quickly added the conversion.

Almost from the restart, Old Coventrians gave an indication of their strength, when a positive scrum opened up the home defence for a converted score to draw level.

Leamington were very quick to respond, and began an intense period of pressure on the Coventry side. Back-row, Rich Mullis, cleaned up lineout ball and set his side on the attack, down the nearside flank, only to see his side fluff their lines, when a try seemed inevitable.

This situation was replicated on two further, potential, try scoring occasions, before the inevitable happened, with Old Coventrians hitting back with a converted score.

Debutant Chris Harkness was instrumental in orchestrating Leamington’s reply, by claiming possession and setting up an attack that Gareth Shuttleworth finished off with the important touch down. Jones once again obliged with the conversion.

The home side increased their lead following a lineout, which Jimmy Creith took full advantage of to crash through and get Leamington’s third try of the afternoon.

However, disappointingly, they left the door open just before the half-time whistle to allow the opposition an unconverted score and thus send the sides in even at the break.

The second period lacked the zest of the first half and became a very tight affair; the visitors defence more than capable of suppressing the Leamington attack.

Then, when the chances arose, Old Coventrians took advantage of two kickable penalty decisions in their favour, to take a six point lead.

Winger Sam Russell provided a potential lifeline, diving in at the corner to finish off a strong attack and earning another valuable bonus point, but Leamington were left ruing the missed chances of the first half to lose by a single point.