The caution had a record behind it. Across the World Cup finals of 2013, 2017 and 2022, the game's two powerhouse nations had been separated by only 10 points in all: two in the first match, and four in each of the next two.
For four years he had wanted a more attacking mindset as the side chased back-to-back world titles. Sharks and ladders were part of how that message was put in front of the players.
In Australia, a ladder stood in team meetings so the squad could picture the route to the trophy. After each victory, a rung was spray-painted gold.
The other image was the shark. The group were primed to think forward, to attack the attack when they did not have the ball, and, when they did, to play like a shark smelling blood in the water.
Coyd had steered clear of talk about defending the title since England lifted the trophy in November 2022. The side had been world number one since that month.
He said that framing felt defensive and a bit passive. With the ranking already theirs, he wanted the team to arrive with an attacking mindset and a hunter's mindset.
This time his team were positive from the start, scoring 386 points across the group stage and semi-finals and conceding 68.
Captain Lewis King supplied a quieter moment. A short half-time huddle he led reassured the group and helped lay the platform for the title.
Coyd was not in the changing room for the last messages, and had not been all tournament. Jack Brown, playing at his fifth World Cup and earning a third winner's medal, said the squad took that as trust.
"I don't think the team missed that because we saw it as a confidence in the team,"Brown said.
The four-year shift held. An aggressive brief, a gold ladder and a hunter's mindset ended with a third Wheelchair World Cup for England, a first for any nation.