Despite 2 excellent tries Stockport unable to top Waterloo

Stockport welcomed closest rivals Firwood Waterloo to Headlands Road with hopes of a first win of the season. An excellent start saw Stockport score two first half tries that any team would have been proud of. Stockport tackled well and much more aggressively than in previous matches and Waterloo would have been surprised at the resistance they found. But for a Waterloo try on the stroke of half time there would have been a good half time lead, which could have been even more if all the chances Stockport created in the first half had been converted into points. The home team started the second half well but concurrent yellow cards for fly half Scott Redfern and prop Tony Thoma, which were hard to understand, and an injury to lock Paul Ralph meant Waterloo had more room and their scrum was able to gain some advantage. Waterloo added 3 second half tries to deprive Stockport of any points with a final score of 24-12.

Following a good first 15 minutes by Stockport they defended a series of Waterloo attacks. Redfern intercepted a Waterloo pass and made ground into the visitors half, the ball was moved right and a good kick by centre Alex Wilson was collected and after a series of good offloads lock James Shaw scored the try in the corner for a 5-0 lead. Waterloo had one of their second rows sent off for a ruck offence and the penalty to touch gave Stockport a line out on the right, the ball was moved quickly across the back line and wing James Keane finished well to run in under the posts, Redfern converted for a 12-0 lead with the break due. Waterloo ran the ball from their own 22 with real pace and the Stockport defence was unable to prevent a score under the posts for a half time score of 12-7.

Despite a great effort by the Stockport players and some very good tackling and determined defence, the loss of two players made the second half an up hill struggle for Stockport. The Waterloo pack got 2 push over tries from 5 metre scrums before their No 13 went blind from a scrum to score for the 24-12 final score.

Next week's game is away at top the table Huddersfield.