Moor played away at bottom-of-the-table Burnley in a rearranged league game on Saturday and due to various players being unavailable, injured or rested, fielded a side that was a mixture of younger players and ‘old heads’. Having failed to win the previous two matches, Moor were only too aware that they could not afford another slip-up, especially as the hosts had only narrowly lost the week before to another side in the top half of the division. In the event, the side acquitted itself marginally well, given the somewhat inexperienced side, but in what was to turn out to be a somewhat lack-lustre game, they failed to score a try for the first time this season.

The home side kicked off and for the first quarter of the game, play was mainly restricted to the Moor half, with both sides unable to dominate proceedings, giving rise to numerous scrums and line-outs. In addition, the heavy ground did not favour Moor’s usual style of play and apart from stand-in skipper Nick Smith and centre Nik Pearson, no one really stood out. It was not until some 25 minutes before the first chance of the stalemate being broken emerged. This came about when full-back Zander Claassen broke through the defence and with an overlap it seemed as if Moor could not fail to score, but the crucial pass was given perhaps a bit early, allowing the cover to get across and force winger Martin Shelley into touch on the try line. Five minutes later, Moor did open their account with a Shaun Stirrup penalty and he was just wide with another at the interval, giving Moor a narrow 3-0 lead at half-time.

Moor’s game did improve in the second half, but not before the home side had equalised with a penalty after only 5 minutes. The Moor forwards gave the visitors the edge for most of the half with Smith, Jardel De Mendonca and Alex Bolland, the latter playing his first full game for the side, being eminent and coupled with Bolland’s prominence in the line-outs, had Burnley defending for long periods. Despite this, the side had to be content with only another Stirrup penalty to increase their lead and then had to survive for 10 minutes with a man short as they had a player yellow-carded, but fortunately the opposition was unable to capitalise on this advantage. A further penalty with 10 minutes to go increased Moor’s lead but with only a few minutes remaining, they survived a scare as the Burnley centre intercepted a pass and was clean away, but the referee adjudged that he had been off-side and Moor breathed again to run out 9-3 winners.