Moor 1s make hard work of victory.

Moor entertained Garstang at Green La nefor the first time on Saturday, hoping to improve upon the 35-8 victory when they last met in October. In the event, this was not to be as, despite superiority in both possession and position throughout the game, the home side was unable to convert this into points due to a lack of cohesion and solid defence by the visitors.

Moor opened the scoring after only 4 minutes when the ball was quickly recycled along the back line and centre Phil Thomas crashed over in the corner, the conversion being missed by fly-half Martin Shelley. This was followed shortly afterwards by another, when flanker Nicholas Smith picked up from a ruck, drew the defence and passed to winger Ivan Smetana who out-paced the cover to score in the same corner, the conversion again being missed. Any thoughts of a high-scoring game soon faded however, as Moor began to over-elaborate, spill the ball at crucial times, take the wrong options and were generally predictable in their play. Garstang should also take credit for disrupting the home side as, although often on the back-foot, they defended tenaciously. It was the 39^th minute before Moor again scored when lock James Ellis charged down an attempted clearance wide out to make the half time score 15-0 to Moor.

The second half was even more disjointed than the first, but not before the opposition opened their account with a penalty and scrum-half Felipe Silva scored Moor’s fourth and final try on 48 minutes following a blindside break from a ruck, which was converted by Shelley. As the game went on, Garstang began to grow in confidence and were eventually rewarded following a mistake by Moor, which typified their play during this period. A casual pass along the back line did not find the intended recipient and whilst the Moor players nearest the loose ball looked on, the alert opposition centre picked it up and with the benefit of an overlap, a try was scored near the posts, which was converted. The final score of 22-10 to Moor was disappointing, given their early dominance and provides player/coach Keith Young, who rested himself for the game, with much food for thought.

This Saturday, Moor take a rest from league action with their next league game on February 9^th, away at Ashton-u-Lyne.

The 2^nd XV continued their good run in the Halbro Shield competition, defeating neighbours Old Bedians 2nds 31-19 in the quarter-finals, scoring 5 tries to the visitor’s 3. Try scorers were Naz Moosa, Matt Griggs, John Farrell, Phil Butcher and Maz Kondratowicz with the latter converting 3. Moor now play Sefton 3rds in the semi-final at Green Lane on March 15^th.