Moor secure 4th place in league with final match victory.

Moor played their last league game away at Burnley on Saturday in the knowledge that a win would mean that they would finish fourth in North Lancashire/Cumbria, which for their first season in the division would exceed all expectations. They were without skipper James McIntosh and centre Phil Thomas but had adequate replacements in James Ellis and Petr Stourac respectively; the former ensuring that for the first time in weeks they would consistently win their own line-outs and the latter playing his first game since December.

From the kick-off, it was clear that the Green Lane side intended to run the ball from all areas of the pitch, utilising their speedy back line as often as possible and for the first 10 minutes the opposition spent most of the time defending. At the end of this period, Moor opened the scoring with arguably their best team effort of the season. From a line-out just inside their own half the ball was passed quickly along the back line, then brought back infield where their back row got involved and after no less than eight interchanges, fly-half Martin Snidal was up in support to take the scoring pass, but full-back Martin Shelley was unable to convert.

They stretched their lead midway through the half when from another line-out, scrum-half Jaz Kondratowicz made a break to feed flanker Keith Young and following a number of rucks, Kondratowicz was on hand to dart down the blindside to score wide out, the conversion again being missed.

Ten minutes later, in what was their first real incursion into the visitor’s 22, the home side won a penalty on the Moor 5-metre line, but instead of taking an easy kick, they ran the ball and eventually forced their way over for an unconverted try. Almost at the interval, both sides had a front row player yellow-carded following indiscipline at a scrum and then Snidal kicked a penalty to make the half-time score 13-5 to Moor.

Within 10 minutes of the restart, Moor made the game virtually safe with three unconverted tries. The first came when they caught their own kick-off and the ball was passed down the line to winger Tom Ireland who forced his way through two tackles to score wide out; the second came from almost identical play but instead of again going on his own, Ireland timed a beautiful pass back inside to Shelley coming in at pace for the latter to touch down and the third came after Burnley made a clearance kick straight into the safe hands of Snidal who ran the ball back, fed Kondratowicz who in turn passed inside to Joe James and the prop outpaced the cover to crash over. Ireland then got his second try midway through when Moor took a quick throw in to catch the opposition off guard and the ball was passed down the line for the Colts captain to finish off a fine afternoon’s performance.

The visitors then made life difficult for themselves when they had another player yellow-carded following repeated penalties at the breakdowns and Burnley took advantage of this to record a second unconverted try. This was to prove the last score of the game as Moor ran out comfortable 33-10 winners, a margin that could have been greater had they been successful with their kicks, missing six conversions and two penalties during the afternoon. Nevertheless, this was a good all round team performance and with squad staying intact, it provides a base to attempt yet another successful campaign next season, especially as league restructuring means that although the top two sides have been promoted, no sides will be relegated from the division above.