Moor fail to capitalise on good first half performance.

For the second week running, Moor had to field a somewhat below strength side, especially in the backs, when they travelled to the Kirkby Stephen-based side Upper Eden, last Saturday. Moor had narrowly won when the sides last met before Christmas at Green Lane, much against the run of play, and so this return match looked as if it would be even tougher, given the makeup of the team.

Prior to the kick-off, a minute’s silence was held in memory of the mother of ex-skipper James McIntosh, who had died recently following a long illness, causing him to return at short notice to his New Zealand home. When the game did start, Moor played into a stiff breeze but despite this, had their opposition under pressure for the first 5 minutes, during which time they scored a converted try. This came after Upper Eden failed to find touch with a clearance kick from inside their 22-metre line and the ball was passed quickly from right to left along the Moor back line for winger Verma to touch down in the corner, scrum-half Stirrup converting from the touch line.  Within a few minutes however, the home side had opened their account with a penalty kick and took the lead after 15 minutes following a lineout some 10 metres from the Moor line when their centre cut back inside and easily sliced through the Moor defence to score under the posts, making the conversion a formality. Upper Eden continued to have the edge for the rest of the half, but the sides just had a further penalty each to add their scores, to give the home side a narrow 13-10 lead at the interval.

Playing down the slope in the second half, Moor did initially have the better of the encounters, but failed to capitalise on this slight advantage and the opposition slowly began to retake the initiative. Midway through this second period, Moor failed to clear their lines, allowed Upper Eden to turn the ball over and following repeated phases, their centre again cut through close to the forwards to score another converted try. This lead was further increased and the game put out of Moor’s reach with 10 minutes to go when a back row move, following a lineout, resulted in another converted try under the posts. Shortly afterwards, the home side scored a somewhat bizarre fourth and final converted try in the corner as, after what looked like a knock on, both sides stopped but the referee had correctly spotted that the ball had come off a knee, waved play on and the attacking side reacted the quicker to touch down. Moor did manage a consolation try almost on full time as replacement winger Ellis followed up a kick ahead by Stirrup and beat the cover to score in the corner, to make the final result 34-15 to Upper Eden.

Despite what was Moor’s heaviest defeat of the season, the score did not really reflect the all-round effort and at times, inspired play by a young and inexperienced side, and with a number of them playing out of position, they can take great credit for stepping up to the mark when other, more experienced players failed to do so.