Stockport U16's 17-52 Warrington U16's

A decent all round performance kept the recent good form going at a cold and wet Stockport. The scoreline flattered us a bit, for periods of the game we had to defend in numbers and where lucky to only have conceded 17 points, a few less handling errors from Stockport and the scoreline would surely have had a much different look to it.
The early pressure however was on Stockport, Warrington dominated the early ball and kept play well in the Stockport half. Three minutes in Stockport stole a lineout from us 10 yards out but Jim was the first to react pouncing on the loose ball to give us the lead. The next 10 minute period was scrappy, the wet conditions killing any attempt at champagne rugby for both sides, the referee (who was superb today) was kept busy awarding penalties for both sides. In addition our set piece was a bit hit and miss, we lost a few scrums against the head as well as a couple of lineouts. Despite this Jim added our second try on 15 minutes, despite being tackled 10 yards out momentum took him over the line and Matty added the extras.

Nathan and James where both excellent today, Nathan added the next try when following a scrum Jim span a quick ball out to him and he took full advantage of a disorganised Stockport defence to run through a huge gap to make the score 17 nil under the posts.
We added a 4th just before half time, Jack Whit was taken out off the ball following a cheeky grubber kick through the Stockport defence and from the following advantage CJ went in in the corner.

The half time message was slow the game down, the lads didn't listen, the early second half pace was frenetic. The speed of play was good to watch but led to more mistakes which we shouldn't have been making. Despite this we scored the first try of the half with Nathan going over in the corner and Leo converting.

Stockport still wouldn't lie down though and came back with 2 quickfire tries, the first came from an overlap letting their fast winger in down our right, the second really was the result of sloppy tackling from Warrington. The Stockport fullback showed great pace and a step to go around 4 or 5 of our players as he covered half the pitch to score. This spurred them on and we had to step up a gear at this point to kill any hopes they had of a comeback. Man of the match KB had one of the best games he's had for us today, he showed strength and awareness to scoop up a ball 10 metres out and Rhino it over the Stockport line. Two minutes later he nearly did it again, catching a ball over his head he ran a straight line 20 metres out but was tackled 5 metres short, Jacob span it out to CJ who scored his second of the day following another superb step and dummy to leave the Stockport defence bamboozled.
Stockport scored a late consolation before Charlie crashed over to give us a 17-52 win.

FT 17-52

The set piece wasn't good today, we had a couple of moments where we turned Stockport over but lost more than we should have. That aside, once we calmed down and slowed down play we looked good against a strong side.

The lads returning from county duty looked strong as did Cam McKenna and Cam Sutcliffe down the wing, Jack Whit at fullback was dependable as usual. CJ was superb again with his elusive running and MOTM KB had one of his best games.

Thanks to Stockport and the excellent referee. Next week Ormskirk.