SOGGY FIVE POINTS IN THE BAG

With a convincing 31-0 bonus point victory against visitors West Hartlepool Stockport have narrowed the gap with top of the table Morley to 1 point and increased their lead over 3rd place to 7 points. Returning home after successive away matches Stockport played some impressive running rugby despite the atrocious conditions with full back Steve Pearson scoring three tries.
The home side did not have it all their own way and the forwards had a very hard game against a determined West Hartlepool pack. For the first 20 minutes the visitors pack dominated play but never managed to get over the Stockport 22 as the Stockport defence was good. Stockport lost flanker John Wilson to the sin bin for holding on in the tackle on 25 minutes, however despite this loss Stockport produced some good play, with Newton running round his opposite number to set up an attack. West Hartlepool tried to clear but Stockport attacked again and from a scrum Bebbington passed to Pearson coming up at pace from fullback and breaking the defence to score wide out. Bebbington converted from the touch line for a 7-0 lead. From a lineout on the right Ben Blakley carried the ball into midfield and the recycled ball was moved via Raven and Bebbington to Greg Newton, who dummied the defence to make room for Pearson to score his second try. Bebbington was again on target for 14-0. Flanker Harvey fielded the kick off and ran the ball back into the visitors half and moved it to Blakley, who set Newton on a run, the wing kicked ahead and Stockport regained possession and carried the ball to near the posts. A penalty was awarded as West Hartlepool tried to kill the ball, it was quickly taken by Raven and centre Kelly got the score in the corner after Marwick and Cruse had carried the ball on. Bebbington converted from the touchline to make it 3 out of 3 and Stockport finished the half 21 points to the good.
Five minutes into the second half the West Hartlepool hooker was sent to the sin bin for offside, despite a number of penalties in their favour Stockport were unable to drive over from the resulting line outs and a good attack down the right came to nothing as Bebbington’s kick ahead was fielded by a West player. There was a period of stalemate before a lineout 5m metres out from the West Hartlepool line was not caught cleanly but the loose ball was moved right to Drew, coming in from the opposite wing. Drew made ground and passed to Pearson who gave Newton room to score in the corner, the conversion was just wide to make it 26-0. West Hartlepool then had a spell of real pressure with their forwards camping in the Stockport 22 but the home pack defended well with a number of great tackles keeping them out. Stockport finished strongly with more good running and Steve Pearson completed his hatrick after Bebbington fielded a West clearance kick on the visitors 22 and quickly moved the ball to Anthony to allow Craig Cooper to pass to Pearson and his pace took him over the line despite the attempted tackles by the defence. With no final conversion it was a 31-0 victory, with Stockport deserving of their clean sheet after the excellent defence in the last quarter of the game.
There is no game next week so the next match is away to Beverley on 28 November.