This was a red letter day in the history of Stockport RUFC. They recorded a victory against one of the favourites in the League. The Loughborough Students came to Headlands Road with an awesome reputation and left with only a single bonus point for losing by seven points or less.
It is six years since Stockport last clashed with the Students on route to winning the Intermediate Cup at Twickenham. Stockport still have two players from that game.
In their first league game Stockport had been put on the back foot early on and conceded two early tries. This time the story was reversed and Stockport were quickly out of the blocks and after 5 minutes their diminutive fly half Alex Zavallis-Roebuck squeezed himself through a narrow gap and ran in unopposed under the posts. 7 minutes later prop Jan Anderson, one of the 2006 veterans, was the person who rounded off a forward drive to the line. Alex Z-R added a second conversion for a 14-0 lead.
Loughborough rallied over the next 20 minutes and earned 2 penalties for their efforts. It was Stockport who struck last in the half with man of the match centre Greg Newton finishing off the forwards hard work. H-T 19-6
The Students scored first in the second half but it merely goaded Stockport into creating their best try of the day. They made a charge into the opposition 22 and moved the ball right. Frenchman Michael Baysatt made a clean break and found himself with the Full back to beat. His perfectly timed pass found flanker Nick Smith outside him.
Despite a further Loughborough try the homeside kept the ball tight and saw out the final minutes for a 27-21 win.