Nottingham Head Coach Craig Hammond took the opportunity to rest a few first team regulars for this Premiership Rugby Cup trip to Coventry, who fielded a strong lineup as they were looking to restore some confidence after winning only one of their last five matches.
The greater experience told in a dominant performance by the home side that saw them score 38 points in each half, recording 11 tries in total as they kept their quarter-final hopes alive.
Jack Stapley cancelled out Sam Maunders’s early opener for Coventry as he claimed a kick over the top and ran in unopposed. Centre Tom Hitchcock put the hosts back in front before his midfield partner and former Archer Daffyd-Rhys Tiueti extended the lead midway through the half.
Nottingham were able to capitalise on Coventry’s loosehead Toby Trinder having a ten minute breather at referee Charlie Gayther’s invitation, after the penalty count was starting to mount, by pushing Jack Dickinson over for his eighth try of the season in all competitions.
But Alex Rae’s men started to run away with it thereafter as a Tommy Mathews penalty and the first two of a 19-minute hat-trick of tries from winger James Martin made it Coventry 38-14 Nottingham at the break.
Martin got the third of his trio 10 minutes into the second period and, as the game entered its final quarter, Coventry reached a half century of points as replacement Will Biggs went over.
Nottingham skipper Nathan Tweedy gave the Archers the opportunity to start thinking about a try bonus point after he drove over from a lineout in the 63rd minute. But it wasn’t to be as both Biggs and Hitchcock notched their second scores before Josh Barton grabbed a brace of his own to make the final score Coventry 76-21 Nottingham