Moor played their first away match of the season at Trafford Metrovick, a fixture that has quite often produced a close result, but with the latter nearly always coming out on top. The game lived up to expectations but with the Green Lane side taking the honours this time, albeit somewhat fortuitously.

As in previous games, Moor started very brightly and took the lead within 10 minutes following a scrum on Metrovick’s 10-metre line from which No 8 Nick Smith picked up, broke down the blind-side and fed scrum-half Felipe Silva who sped around the opposition left wing to score a try in the corner that fly-half Martin Shelley was unable to convert. Moor continued to dominate play, but were unable to extend their lead until the 30 minute mark when centre Petr Stourac was illegally brought down with a high tackle and Shelley was successful with the resultant penalty kick. With 5 minutes of the half remaining, the home side took play into Moor’s 22’ for only the second time in the match and following a number of rucks, Moor turned the ball over but the clearance kick by Shelley was charged down by his opposite number who followed up to touch down and then converted the try. The interval whistle brought an end to a half that Moor had dominated for most of the time, but were only 1 point ahead.

Heartened by their late rally, Metrovick continued where they had left off and Moor had to defend far more at the start of the second half than in the previous 40 minutes. This was soon compounded as Silva was forced to leave the field with a knee injury and shortly afterwards the home side went ahead following a penalty and then an unconverted try. Moor reduced the deficit with only 12 minutes to go when, following a 5-metre scrum, full back Ivan Smetana joined the line at pace and fed left wing Adrian Reynolds who scored a try, but Shelley was unable to convert. Moor finally regained the lead with 5 minutes remaining as prop Stewart Poole was driven over for a try by his fellow forwards, Shelley again unsuccessful with the conversion, but he did stretch the lead with a penalty kick at the end of normal time. What hope Metrovick had of saving the match disappeared when they lost 2 players to injury during the 6 minutes of added-on time and Moor took full advantage of the superior numbers to score 2 more tries; the first by Stourac and the second by Smith, both converted by Shelley. The final score of 35-15 was somewhat flattering to Moor, but they do remain undefeated this season.

Next Saturday, Moor play a league game at home to Bolton, k.o. 3:00pm.

The 2^nd XV finally got on the winning trail following 2 defeats as they comprehensively beat last season’s league winners Littleborough 3^rds, 41-7 with tries from Stonehouse (2), Ogden-Smith, Newman, Moosa, Ames and Kondratowicz M. (+3 conversions)