Moor opened their league campaign with a game at Green Lane against Burnley, a case of continuing where they left off last season as their final game then was against the same opponents. On that occasion however, Moor were totally in control as they scored 8 tries and for the first 10 minutes or so of Saturday’s game there was a suggestion that history might repeat itself, but in the event this did not happen.

The home side opened their account after 6 minutes when the ball was passed quickly down the three-quarter line and Nick Hawke deftly chipped over the advancing defence for scrum-half Felipe Silva to collect the ball and score a try, converted by fly-half Martin Shelley. Moor stretched their lead 5 minutes later after centre Petr Stourac had made a break and fed left-winger Jon Newman who scored in the corner, the conversion being missed by Shelley. Any thoughts that Moor might rattle up a convincing win faded soon after this however, as the visitors realised that to limit the potential of the dangerous Moor backs they would need to keep the ball with their larger forwards. Whenever the opportunity presented itself, Burnley would drive the ball towards the Moor line, producing some quite effective rolling mauls and only solid defending by the home side prevented the visitors from scoring. Whenever Moor won clean ball, their backs did look dangerous, but the contest became very much a stalemate.

Turning around 12-0 in the lead, Moor again had the better of the play and stretched their lead with a Shelley penalty after 5 minutes and he narrowly missed with another soon afterwards. For the next 20 minutes, Burnley were camped in the Moor half and during this period scored an unconverted try following a 5-metre scrum, but despite their continued territorial advantage, the visitors never looked like scoring again. With 10 minutes to go, Moor broke out and played the rest of the game in the opposition half and in injury time Shelley slotted another penalty for the home side to record a not altogether convincing win 18-5.

Next Saturday, Moor play their second league at newly relegated Trafford MV, k.o. 3:00pm.