Derby City 17 Coventry Bears 44

CARVELL Coventry Bears opened their defence of the Midland Conference title with a comfortable win at Derby despite a second-half performance marred by a string of penalties against the champions. Coventry were rampant in the first half and powered into a 40-6 lead by the break, but they went off the boil and with decisions going against them,

but they went off the boil and with decisions going against them, poor handling and some indiscipline creeping into their game, the only bright spot of the second period was a second try for Matt Cooper on an impressive debut.

The Bears took an early lead when skip-per and half-back Alex Brown powered over near the posts, and the gap was extended on five minutes when centre Chris Brown went in on the wing.

A further try on ten minutes by hooker Matty Allsopp gave Bears a platform from which to sew the game up, and Ben Powis - playing his first game for the side for eight years - scored on the left before player-coach Ty Watson crossed in the opposite corner to secure a 28-0 lead, J&S Landscapes man-of-the-match Graham Healey adding four conversions.

Derby finally troubled the scorer with a converted try, only for Cooper - coming off the interchange bench - to break through the middle and score between the posts, Healey converting.

Another newcomer, England Lionhearts full-back Richard Whitehouse jinked through to complete the first-half scoring, but with the referee finding fault with the Bears and Watson sin-binned for holding down an opponent when the opposite seemed the case, Derby nipped in for two tries and then put over a drop goal after Cooper again carved through the home defence for his side's only score of the half.