Coventry 67 Hull Ionians 14 by John Wilkinson.

Coventry took their time to get going, but in the end they delivered the quality of performance guaranteed to send their fans into the summer break with smiles on their faces and anticipation high for next season.

They made heavy weather of the first half hour, wasting a number of good attacking positions and loosely kicking away possession to find themselves 7-3 down, but two tries on the run to the break turned the game around and it was one-way traffic after that as Hull’s defence was overwhelmed.

Cov finished with ten tries, three apiece for the rampaging Jacques Le Roux and Rob Knox, and in a number of strong individual performances, none stood out more than prop Ben Dawes who, drafted in from Broadstreet, gave an outstanding account over the 80 minutes to win the man-of-the-match award from the game’s sponsors and the approval of head coach Scott Morgan.

“Ben did a great job for us,” said Morgan. “He scrummaged and carried well, and we will have a really close look at him going forward.

“He has played at loose head all season, but he came in today at tight head for the whole game and you can see how much it meant to him to play for Coventry.

“You know what you get with Jacques, he’s a fantastic ball carrier, up there with the very best I have played with, and I’m delighted that he has signed for another two seasons.

“Rob has got the ability to beat people. He’s strong and quick and we saw real glimpses today of what he can do. He’s only young."

Cov went ahead through a Cliffie Hodgson penalty, but they were caught napping four minutes later when Ionians took a quick free-kick and created space for Luke Thundercliffe to go in for a try which Isaac Green converted.

Tries for Le Roux, from a scrum taken against the head, and George Oliver put Cov back in front before the break, Hodgson converting the 
latter score, and Knox added their third try, also converted, within two minutes of the restart from a lovely handling move.

The bonus-point fourth try came on 54 minutes from Le Roux when Hull were again driven off the ball at a scrum, and the floodgates opened.

Knox ran in from 30 metres following a midfield turnover before Pierre Ferre took a quick free-kick to send Brett Daynes clear through the 
middle.

Click here for more on this article.