Continuing with a series of friendly fixtures under the Covid Rules, Stockport hosted local rivals Manchester on Friday evening. In a closely matched game, it was Manchester who ran out 21-26 winners, despite Stockport leading 21-14 until the last 7 minutes. While Manchester dominated the first quarter, Stockport responded well and scored 3 good tries before having to defend desperately for long periods in the 3rd quarter. But a stream of penalties and two yellow cards against Stockport allowed Manchester to get onto the score board twice in the final minutes to seal their win.

Manchester started well, and created several scoring chances but the Stockport defence secured turnovers on 3 occasions to keep their visitors out. The home side had a good spell but conceded a penalty to allow Manchester to clear. The visitors then attacked well and only a desperate tackle by Stockport stopped a score but the ensuing line out was overthrown by Stockport and Manchester scrum half Josh Jones took the ball for an easy try, which was converted for 0-7. Stockport then put the pressure on their visitors and after several good moves a tap kick and accurate passing gave skipper Rory Austin a try under the posts, Dudley Southern converted for 7-7. Two tries followed in quick succession as Tom Gardner took a good off load by Ben Jones and ran in from 15 metres and Austin picked up a loose ball on half way and out ran the defence to score under the posts. Southern converted both tries to give Stockport a 21-7 lead at the break.

Manchester dominated long periods of the second half and despite conceding a stream of penalties in their 22 Stockport defended well to keep Manchester out until the last few minutes. There were a number of good breaks by Stockport, the best of which was an interchange of passes between Austin and hooker Dom Sherrat, which took Stockport close to the Manchester line but as the ball was recycled it was knocked on and Manchester cleared. With 20 minutes to go a good passing movement by Manchester gave Jake Stewart a try, which was converted for 21-14. Stockport again defended well and got a turnover but a penalty for not releasing gave Manchester a line out 30 metres out and a high tackle and a yellow card for Tataloka resulted in a penalty try to bring Manchester level at 21-21 with 6 minutes to go. A good run which broke several Stockport tackles allowed Manchester to complete a passing movement to score wide on the left, with no conversion the visitors had secured a 21-26 victory.