Moor ease to 35-3 victory scoring 5 tries in the November gloom.

Following a two-week layoff, the Lancashire Trophy second round tie against Burnage the previous Saturday being postponed, Moor returned to league action this week with a home game against Oldham. Before the start, a minute’s silence was observed in memory of David Berry who had died suddenly in the week leading up the game; the pause was even more poignant as he had had overall responsibility for the pitch on which the game was about to be played, commonly acknowledged as one of the best playing surfaces in the area.

From the kick-off, Moor had the opposition on the back-foot, mauling and rucking the ball well before releasing their quicksilver back line, but good tackling by the visitors and a tendency for the former to be standing a bit too flat, deprived the home side of any score in the early exchanges. It was, in fact, Oldham who opened the scoring after 15 minutes when, on their very first incursion into the Moor 22, they were awarded a penalty, which was successfully kicked. Home supporters did not have long to wait for Moor to register their first score however, as shortly afterwards they overturned the opposition’s ball in mid-field and with an overlap on the left, winger Ivan Smetana was put away to score, the conversion being missed by scrum-half Shaun Stirrup. He then failed with a penalty kick before being on target with another on the half-hour and then the visitors added to their woe when they had an attempted clearance kick charged down by centre Felipe Silva, who collected the loose ball to sprint in for a try, converted by Stirrup, as Moor reached the interval 15-3 up.

More of the same came in the second half with the Green Lane side having the better of the set pieces and loose play. Their third try came when they were awarded a penalty just 5 metres from the Oldham line, which was taken quickly, catching the defence off guard and enabling lock James McIntosh to crash over for an unconverted try. Another penalty was kicked by Stirrup before the fourth try was scored. This was undoubtedly the best of the game as the ball was recycled from a ruck on the Moor 10-metre line and taken down the narrow left-hand side with slick inter-passing between the backs before fly-half Martin Shelley received the final pass to run in to score, converted by Stirrup. Although the game was over as a contest, Moor continued to press and their fifth and final try came just before the final whistle when No. 8 Keith Young picked up at the base of the scrum, drew a couple of defenders before releasing Silva who raced in from 40 metres to score out wide, the conversion falling just short. The final score of 35-3 to Moor could have been even greater had it not been for a well-organised defence by the opposition but was nonetheless satisfying and move them up to second place in the division.