On top of the triple injury blow, Cov will not be appealing the red card issued to second row Sam Herrington, who will now appear before an RFU disciplinary hearing at a date to be decided.

Rugby director Phil Maynard concedes that it will put a strain on squad resources at training this week going into Saturday's game at Doncaster.

"If you have a big squad you can generally get through things like this, but with a small squad you have to miss sessions you would like to do because the people aren't around," said Maynard. "We have been through the DVD of Friday's game and we obviously need to concentrate a little bit more on securing primary ball and controlling the controllable, because at the moment it's obvious that we are putting a lot of pressure on ourselves.

"We've had a coaches meeting, and we know where we the problem is and what we can do to address it. The game threw up other points and it was interesting that some of the players had amazingly good games but do one silly thing. When you are playing top teams like Bedford - and Doncaster and Leeds in our next two games - those small things turn into big problems.

"It's something we have to address and we need to go through games when everyone does the right thing every time. We are entering a difficult part of our season and we are still trying to resolve the technical issues we have got."

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