Although it was a disappointing start to their league season as they went down to a home defeat in Saturday’s game, Stockport were able to take a lot of positives. Luctonians, the opposition from Hereford, had finished 4th in the League last season and brought a largely unchanged team. Stockport were still bedding in six new players and showed a lot of good rugby over the 80 minutes.
Stockport were the first the score with a 4th minute penalty by new fly half Mark Edwards. That seemed to energise the visitors and they used their back line to carve open the Stockport defence 2 minutes later. The try went to Luctonian’s right wing Drew Cheshire who would end the day with a hat trick of tries.
The game settled and Stockport composed themselves and were rewarded with two more penalties dispatched impressively by Mark Edwards for a 9-5 lead. Luctonians then broke loose again with a neat centre field move within sight of the Stockport line. On the end of it was Drew Cheshire who went under the posts and his try was converted, 9-12. The remainder of the half was a midfield war of attrition and there were no more scores.
The opening minutes of the 2nd half saw Stockport at their best. Good ball retention, the ball recycled fast and the backs looking dangerous. Then came a pivotal moment. After a long period of Stockport possession, the ball was kicked ahead for the wing to chase and the ball went into touch. Luctonians then went straight on the attack and Stockport barely had a touch of the ball before they had scored two more tries and established a 9-24 lead. The first was Drew Cheshire’s hat trick try and the other was a close range effort from Luctonian’s No.8 Paul Hulland.
Stockport continued to work hard and got some reward with 10 minutes remaining. They capitalised on pressure applied to a Luctonian set scrum. The ball went loose and flanker Dan Eccles picked up and ran into the score. Stockport were down to 14 men at the time with kicker Mark Edwards in the sin bin, but Cypriot international, Alex Zavallis-Roebuck, adding the extras. 16-24.
Stockport’s new found momentum was brought to an abrupt halt with a serious injury to second row Jordan Pearson. He was on a charge from the half way line. Just 5 metres short of the line he was sandwiched in a tackle by two Luctonian players. It was immediately obvious that Jordan had suffered a serious leg injury. The two teams and spectators waited patiently as it was 50 minutes before it was possible to safely remove him to Hospital for treatment to a double leg fracture. The remaining 7 minutes ebbed away and Stockport were unable to secure a losing bonus point.