Great defence and 3 tries win local derby

Stockport achieved a hard won victory over local rivals Sale with a 20-13 win on Saturday. Despite scoring 3 tries to one by Sale it was the Stockport defence that really allowed the win to be achieved. The Sale backs looked very sharp, all their players carried and offloaded the ball well and they dominated possession for much of the game but Stockport missed very few tackles. Apart from two occasions when the Stockport defence appeared to be beaten, but Sale missed the chances with poor passes, the home side kept Sale very much at bay with their excellent tackling. When in possession Stockport were much more accurate than in recent weeks and did some good attacking themselves. Stockport scored three good tries, one from a dominant scrum, one from a line out right at the end and one from man of the match lock Chris Roddy who sold an outrageous dummy on the Sale 10 metre line and found his way clear for a 30metre run to the line. Despite it being a good natured game there was a yellow card for each side, both for high tackles and a red card for the Sale hooker, for throwing a retaliatory punch, so the visitors played the last 10 minutes with only 13 men. This win was a real encouragement for Stockport before the Christmas break.

Stockport scored first with a penalty by Josh Longmore after 7 minutes, Sale dominated possession until Stockport gained a scrum near the Sale posts, the ball was well controlled and after several pick and drive movements lock Mike Waddington had the strength to get the touchdown under the posts on 24 minutes, Longmore converted for 10-0. Sale quickly replied with a good drive from a line out following a penalty and their No8, Keep got the touchdown, the try was converted for 10-7 Stockport defended really well to keep the score the same at half time.

Sale were playing with a very strong wind in their favour in the second half and Stockport were under real pressure, after the hooker received his red card the Sale backs created a great attack and should have scored but there was a loose final pass and as they tried to get the attack going again Stockport conceded the penalty that resulted in a yellow card for full back Jonny Edwards and 3 points to make it level at 10-10 on 65 minutes. The possession evened up with Sale being one short and 5 minutes later Roddy scored his individual try after some good phases by Stockport. Sale then lost their scrum half for a high tackle and despite being only 13 men the wind allowed Sale to keep the pressure on Stockport and won a penalty, which was converted to make it 15-13 with 5 minutes to go. There were some nervy moments but the defence remained firm and centre Gregg Newton put in a kick, which made the Sale full back take the ball into touch 10 metres out. The line out was well taken by Roddy and after a well controlled drive Dan Eccles fed hooker Paul Milea to get the final try and make it 20-13.