Stockport v Chester Cheshire Cuo

New Coach Rick Spencer and captain Kieran Hibbs took what was very much a scratch side to Chester for the first competitive game of the season in the Cheshire Cup. With injury absences and some players still not back following the summer the team included players who would have expected to play 2nd, 3rd or even 4th team rugby this season. The reserve situation was demonstrated when 51 year old Andy Laughlin was called on as an early substitute. Having said that the players who played all put in a tremendous effort and can be proud of their performance

Stockport frustrated a good Chester side with a spirited first half performance, limiting the National 2 side to a 14-3 lead at half time. Given that Chester had scored twice in the first 10 minutes this was a tremendous effort by the Stockport players. Despite being dominated in the early scrums the Stockport front row put in a gritty performance and held their own in the set for most of the game. However the superiority of the Chester team was demonstrated as they ran in 8 second half tries to complete a 73-3 victory. The squad difficulties were made worse by a sin binning for Laughlin and injuries to 3 other players, which left Stockport with only 12 players on the pitch for the final 20 minutes.

The first League game is away, against Morley next week.