The One Where Morgan Went All The Way To Congleton Just For A Shower

Having not played since 6th January, Stockport 3's were back in cup action as they travelled to league opponents Congleton to face off against their 2nd XV in the quarter final of the Cotton Traders Shield. The team welcomed back skipper and recent new father Jimmy Finnigan into the front row and also gave a 3rd XV debut to wing Gaz (Pie Eater) Hughes.

The pre-match was somewhat turbulent with wing Duncan Hedar driving all the way to Congleton to ensure he arrived on time however his kit bag did not as it was warm and comfortable back in Bramhall. With spare kit issued from the back row legend that is Daniel Cockersmith (good job they both wear clothes aged 11-12 years) and boots from centre Craig Lee, a trip back home was not required on this occasion. We made the 'short' trek from the clubhouse to the pitch, well most of us did but scrum half James Singleton decided that he was ill-equipped to park his car and so was demoted to the bench for his shoddy time keeping however was soon reinstated after the 3rd calamity which saw regular full back Rick Morgan pull a hamstring running up a slight slope in the warm up which saw Keith Warhurst again prevented from wearing the 12 shirt to be replaced by Craig Lee and Singleton on at 15.

The game started with Congleton opting to kick, and not for the first time the Irish salmon that is lock Mel McCaughey rose to claim the ball and made a surging run into the home side defence which set the tone for the game. Stockport were soon into their stride and putting together some excellent phases of play which were only brought to a half by several unforced errors. With holes being punched everywhere by the pack, a dominant carry saw prop Llewellyn Coveney-Winter make yards, ably supported by the gallivanting flanker Chris Dodd whilst No.8 Elliot Galloway was relentless with his carrying into heavy traffic. Solid line out work from skipper Finnigan was married to punishing carries from Dave 'The Mouth' Burr and soon the away side were over for their first try as centre Jason Holmwood slalomed his way over out wide which was unfortunately not improved on by fly half Rhys Warhurst. 5-0 soon became 12-0 as excellent hands saw the ball moved out to the wide right and wing Gaz Hughes was over for his first try which was brilliantly improved from the touchline by Warhurst. Congleton tried to get some phases going combined with indiscipline by Stockport however the ferociousness of the travelling defence kept them at bay and it was from pressure in defence that a loose ball was pounced on by wing Duncan Hedar who kicked ahead twice and managed to win the race to the ball for the 3rd try of the afternoon which again went unconverted and with that Stockport took a 17-0 lead into the half time break.

Pearls of wisdom at half time from Finnigan which was basically to play rugby and stop getting embroiled in the verbal jousting. One change saw Mark Shiel replace LCW in the front row and the game restarted and what a restart. That man McCaughey again fielded the kick and 4 lung busting phases later Hughes was going over again for another try. What followed was another 2 quickfire tries for Burr and Craig Lee and that was basically the game over which led to Finnigan ringing the changes. This saw the introduction of Nathan Jackson for Cockersmith, Jez Taylor for Burr and Elliot Lee for Elliot Galloway with the latter soon on the scoresheet as he burst through the attempted tackles to dot down directly under the posts. Taylor lasted all of approximately 30 seconds as his first involvement was to end up fighting upside down on the wrong side of the ruck for which he and his new Congleton friend saw yellow however this made no difference whatsoever as further tries were registered from Craig Lee again, Singleton, Rhys Warhurst and debutant Hughes completing his hat trick with Warhurst adding several conversions (unlike Dodd and second row James Shaw) who would have struggled to hit a cow with a shovel. This however had no impact on the score line and with that the ref blew the whistle on a resounding victory which saw Stockport into the semi finals.

Now there were a number of people who could have been MOTM however when you score 3 tries on your debut and set up a few others, it was hard to look past that man Gaz Hughes on the wing.

For the first time ever we had an overwhelming number of contenders for DOTD. Duncan Hedar, how come all the clever people have no common sense managing to leave his complete kit at home? Rick Morgan who lasted less time in the warm up than Brad Pearson and had to walk touch rather than run. James Singleton who having advised he would be late found his driving skills in a car park were below par and finally Jez Taylor who contributed nothing in the 30 seconds he was introduced on to the field other than to end up seeing yellow! With such a closely fought race, in a Stockport 3's first the decision was made at the highest level to award DOTD to all 4 named!!!!