The much-used phrase “game of two halves” was most applicable as Moor played Aldwinians for the first time in their club’s history. An early mistake gifted the visitors with a try after only 4 minutes, but Moor regrouped to force two penalty chances before slick handling put winger Ivan Smetana in for the first of his three tries, fly-half Martin Shelley converting. With half time approaching, Aldwinians took a deserved lead as their inside-centre split Moor’s defence to put his wing in for an unconverted try. From the restart, Moor had a chance to level the scores, but the kick slid past the upright to leave them 7-10 in arrears.

The second half saw Moor dominate possession and scoring, helped in some measure by the visitor’s lack of discipline, which resulted in two yellow cards. Ten minutes into the half, clean line-out ball allowed Shelley to pick out centre Petr Stourac who went for a gap to force his way over, the former’s conversion putting Moor into a lead they were to increase as the half progressed, despite conceding an easy penalty. Although only a point behind, the visitors started to make unforced errors and one such scoring opportunity was punished by Moor as Smetana picked up a dropped pass on his 22’ to race 70 metres for a try, which Shelley converted, quickly followed by a penalty for a 24-13 lead.

Aldwinians then gave Moor the game on a plate as two players were yellow-carded in quick succession. A drive and dummy by prop Craig Buckley provided the ball for scrum-half Felipe Silva to chip ahead for Shelley to beat the cover defence. This was followed by a quick-passing move along the three-quarter line that put Smetana clear for his hat-trick, Shelley again converting. With time running out, the visitors decided to run a penalty, but this was intercepted by No. 8 Nick Smith, who scored in the corner for a 41-13 score-line, that seemed improbable at half-time and provided something of a red-letter day at Heatons Sports Club, as all the rugby and lacrosse sides won their games.

This Saturday, Moor complete the first half of their league programme with a visit to Burnley, k.o. 2:15 pm.