Moor clinch points in league opener.

Last Saturday Moor played hosts to newly promoted Furness in their first league game of the season. Although the visitors had won the North Lancashire 1 division in the previous season, they were somewhat of an unknown quantity, but it did not take long for them to make their mark.Moor kicked off and for the next 20 minutes had to be content with being confined to their own half as the lively Furness side kept them pinned down. On the occasions that Moor had the ball, instead of kicking for position and then mounting attacks within the opposition half, they chose to try and run it out of defence and were repeatedly stopped. The visitors took the lead on 7 minutes from a penalty and 10 minutes later it was extended with a converted try following a lineout 5 metres from the home side’s try line. The lead was increased further soon afterwards as the Furness outside centre sliced through to score another converted try under the posts. With the game just over a quarter of the way through, Moor found themselves 17-0 down and looking as if they might not recover from this onslaught.

Fortunately, the Green Lane side woke up and produced some flowing rugby that provided four tries in ten minutes. The first two were from similar moves as quick handling along the back line enabled full back Zander Claassen to join the line and score in the corner and the third came after centre Petr Stourac had made a break, chipped over the advancing defence and then tapped the ball back for back-row Keith Young to gather up and crash over the line. The fourth came following a quickly taken tap-penalty and prop Jon Jenks was on hand to receive the final pass to score wide out, with all four tries being unconverted. Just prior to this last try, the visitors were successful with another penalty kick, but Moor ensured a 23-20 lead at the interval with one of their own from fly-half Shaun Stirrup right on the whistle.

With such a hectic finish to the first half, spectators were left wondering if the game would continue in the same vein after the restart and for a while it appeared as if it would. Furness were back on level terms with another penalty kick within 5 minutes, but Claassen then made it a hat-trick following an identical move to his other two; the ball was quickly passed down the three-quarter line which he joined at pace to score wide out, with the conversion again being missed. Moor increased their lead with another Stirrup penalty but the visitors again reduced the deficit with another converted try from one of their props, following a scrum 5 metres from the Moor line. Then, just as quickly as it had started in the first half, the scoring spree dried up following what was to prove the final points of the match in the 65^th minute when Stirrup kicked another penalty. Perhaps tiredness had crept in following the almost non-stop attrition from both sides, but try as they might neither side was able to breach this stalemate. The visitors did come close to winning the game in injury time, but Moor, down to 14 men following the yellow-carding of one of their props, just managed to keep Furness at bay after conceding a couple of penalties just short of their line and held on to win 34-30.

Had they been able to convert some or all of their kicks however, the score-line for the Green Lane side would have been just that bit wider and would have possibly relieved a bit of this latter opposition pressure.

This Saturday, Moor travel to Cumbria where they play another promoted side, Netherall, k.o. 3:00 pm.