Chris Locke rejuvenated by summer switch to Cov.

Coventry forward Chris Locke says the move to Butts Park has helped him start enjoying playing rugby again

The young hooker moved to the National One outfit in the summer, thereby ending a five-year relationship with Championship Bedford.

The 24-year-old spent the first three seasons coming through at Goldington Road then kicked on in his fourth year when he made 25 league appearances for the Blues.

But an injury at the start of last season meant he lost ground on Neil Cochrane and Scott Spurling and he found it tough to battle his way back into Mike Rayer’s plans.

“I dislocated my knee in the last pre-season game and was out for four-and-a-half months,” Locke says. “It was February by the time I got back and the season was at a crucial point.

“After that I just thought ‘I am 24, I need to get some rugby under my belt’ because I was sick of training for the sake of training. You stop enjoying it, it’s an effort to keep turning up, it was a tough year.

“But I knew quite a few of the Northampton-based Coventry lads, like Brett Daynes, Lewis Barker and Tom Poole, and when the chance to come to Cov came up it made sense.

“I have loved every minute of it there, I am getting regular rugby and we’re winning quite a few games.”

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