Ten League Matches Unbeaten for !st Team High Flyers.

After a week off, Moor resumed their league action at Green Lane against third-placed Eccles. Contests between these sides have traditionally been close affairs and this game was to prove no exception with the result in the balance right down to the final whistle. Both sides were evenly matched with small, mobile packs and fast, elusive backs but the wet conditions did not allow a fluent game to develop and mistakes were aplenty, especially from the home side in the first half.

Moor immediately went on the offensive from the kick-off and should have opened the scoring within the first 2 minutes as the ball was fed quickly out along the three-quarter line, but with an overlap on his outside, centre Stourac chose to cut back inside and the attack was snuffled out. The visitors opened the scoring a few minutes later, however, when they produced a similar move but chose to use their overlap to score a try wide out, which was converted. Moor responded immediately, as scrum-half Silva produced a typical sniping run down the blind-side to score a try, but fly-half Shelley was just wide with the attempted conversion. Play was then mainly confined to the middle of the park for the rest of the half as both sides cancelled each other out, but Eccles did have the better of the play and with Moor producing a number of handling mistakes and being forced to give away too many penalties, it was the visitors who added 2 penalty goals to a solitary penalty by Shelley to maintain their lead at the interval, 13-8.

Shelley reduced the deficit to 2 points shortly after the restart with a penalty kick and from then on Moor slowly began to get the better of their opposition. The home side had more of both possession and position and came close to scoring on a number of occasions, but strong defence by the visitors, mistakes or ill-discipline denied them any success. Despite this superiority, Moor nearly let the game slip from their grasp, as, in one of their rare incursions into the home half, only a last minute tackle stopped Eccles from increasing their lead. Moor’s pressure finally paid off with only 4 minutes to go when Eccles were penalised for illegally halting a rolling maul and Shelley had the easiest of penalty kicks to move his side into the lead for the first time and Moor held on to win 14-13. This was by far and away Moor’s toughest league match this season, but the win has now stretched their unbeaten league run to 10 matches.

Next Saturday, Moor are away at Windermere, the only side they have yet to play in North Lancashire 1.

The 2^nd XV lost 7-15 to Burnage 3^rd XV in Miller Homes League 4 East, the solitary try being scored by Phil Thomas, converted by Maz Kondratowicz. This result means that they have dropped to 5^th in the league. The Women’s XV also suffered their third defeat of the season when they lost 10-31 to Ormskirk and are now fourth in the RFUW NC North 1 league.