Cov inspired for derby duel; RUGBY: Addleton and Gulliver team talk to plot Moseley's downfall: CHAMPIONSHIP.

Byline: Brian Dick

WITH Moseley in town, Phil Maynard will sit back and allow old boys Dave Addleton and Tony Gulliver to do his team talk this evening.

The Coventry director of rugby knows anything he says about the value of winning a local derby will be better conveyed by club legends, who played more than 700 games between them and grew up with shreds of a Red and Black shirt clenched in their fists.

And for that reason Maynard is depending on forwards coach Addleton and team manager Gulliver to impress upon his collection of New Zealanders, Tongans, Canadians and Welshman just how important it is that Moseley are not allowed to leave Butts Park with anything other than tail between their legs.

"It will be a case where Dave Addleton and Tony Gulliver just light the blue touch paper," said Maynard.

"There will be no danger our lads will be under any illusions what they are up against and what it means to the people of Coventry and to anyone associated with the club.

"They don't make derbies more passionate than this, it's been going 120 years and must be one of the oldest in the world."

For that reason everything will be about the physical confrontation. Coventry have won that comfortably in their last two home matches against their old enemy. That includes a 27-12 victory, the scoreline of which heavily flatters Mose, registered on Boxing Day last year when Coventry were in a fine run of form.

But as well as winning the battle of the gain-line Maynard will also ask his players to exploit defensive weaknesses out wide and has picked an attacking line-up that surprisingly does not include Ben Russell.

The full back drops to the bench in favour of the inexperienced Drew Lock while Romain Plantey and Will Hurrell complete a quicksilver back three.

Intriguingly George Crook makes his first start at fly half as Tongan Fangatapu Apikotoa also lines up amongst the replacements.

"George has trained with us all week and played with us in pre-season so we have no concerns there," Maynard said. "He brings management and structure to our play and is also a good attacking runner. Also having Fangatapu on the bench gives us a bit of bang."

Also in line for a first appearance is hooker Ryan Prosser who arrived at BPA this week after being released by Bristol following a serious knee injury while scrum half Greg Goodfellow backs up Mike Walls.

COVENTRY: Lock; Hurrell, McKenzie, Lewis, Plantey; Crook, Walls; Roberts, Merrigan, Hall, McGowan, Herrington, Miller, Pons, Carpenter. Replacements: Dugard, Prosser, Deschartres, Bignall, Goodfellow, Apikotoa, Russell.

CAPTION(S):

TOUGH WORDS... Coach Dave Addleton will tell his players what the local derby means.