THE sight of Mark Gabey leaving the field on Saturday with a broken arm left us all a little cold.

Mark has been a major influence on our team this season and it is a blow to have him on the sidelines for what will be a crucial three weeks of rugby.

But we must get it into perspective. If anyone had said to me in November that Christian Evans would be out for two months I would have been a little shocked.

I may also have thought we might have struggled at places such as Plymouth and Birmingham & Solihull to get results.

We didn't though. We got our heads down and worked hard and overcame our problems, and we rose to the challenge.

Sport is all about challenges. They come in all different shapes and sizes and Mark's injury is just that.

The good thing, of course, is that we have Christian back in the reckoning and I thought he did extremely well when he replaced Mark in the first half against Coventry.

We have always said that the best squad will win the league title, not the first 15. We are well aware of that now after all of our problems!

You have to say, though, that we still have players such as Jim Jenner, Gavin Pfister and, of course, Christian Evans to call upon and I think they were excellent against our Midland rivals at the weekend.

Delighted

We were all very aware at just what a physical side Coventry were after our game, at the start of the season, at Coundon Road.

They did not disappoint on Saturday and that, more than anything, was why we were delighted to beat them so convincingly 62-14.

To run in 10 tries against such opposition was a real achievement.

True, their set-piece work was not the greatest in the world but I think our forwards really stuck to the task in hand while our backs tore them apart.

I was pleased with our lineout work against Coventry. Obviously that is an area which has come under some scrutiny this season but there has been improvement.

That was clear against Coventry. Not only did we secure on our own ball, we disrupted a lot of theirs and it gave me and the rest of the backs a great platform to break through.

I know John Brain has worked really hard on the calls and the understanding. It looks to me as if it's paying off.

The lineout area will be vital on Saturday when we travel to Orrell. It promises to be a very attractive game between two sides who love to play rugby.

I cannot see a lot of kicking at the weekend.

Both teams will want to keep the ball in hand on hard, dry ground and will be looking for the bonus point.

Orrell will fancy their chances because they have improved dramatically since we beat them earlier in the season at Sixways.

It is a great challenge, but that's what all of us are in this rugby business for!