In a season that promised so little it's a sign of the transition under Steve Nicholas that 6 tries & 5 points against Egremont left the Moor Coach feeling very short changed by his team today. After the clinical performance against Blackburn a week earlier pre match expectations were high.

The game started badly for the visitors as they lost their winger within the first 5 minutes quickly followed by 2 more of their players within the following 10 minutes. All the stoppages for injuries and the referees nebulous interpretation at the scrum was not allowing the game to flow. Moor were making massive inroads at the scrum with the helium filled visiting tight head rising less than majestically on numerous occasions with Joe James enjoying his time at the coal face only for the referee not to allow Moors undoubted ascendancy to be of any benefit to them.

The first half half hour for Moor was summed up with a sharp break from Steve Verma who skinned the visitors replacement winger only to inexplicably drop the ball!  The look on Steve's face said it all!

The gloom and the deadlock were finally broken in a purple patch of 25 minutes either side of half time when Moor scored 5 tries courtesy of Steve Verma, Tom Ireland, Perkins Joseph, Danny Ireland & the best of the lot was a short range effort from Jiri Benes after a quite brilliant offload from Perkins Joseph who had been tackled just short of the line after he had caught a kick off from the restart. The scoring was completed near the end of the game courtesy of a catch and drive from the lineout finished by Mitch Wenck who again had another great day with the boot.

There were many individually good performances from the Moor players today even if the team as a whole didn't quite click, Danny Ireland & Jiri Benes both had a full 80 minutes and both had powerful runs with the ball and scored a try apiece and continue to generate competition in the back row. Moors answer to Ballotelli Mike Gurney scrummaged effectively and in one mazy run covered 45 metres 5 of which were in the right direction but on the day the stand out performer for the home side was Perkins Joseph who illuminated proceedings with his sheer determination to get his hands on the ball and make a mark on the game.

I'd also like to mention the gutsy efforts of the Egremont lads who it all went wrong for in the opening minutes of the game but never gave up and made Moor work incredibly hard for the points. It was a very difficult decision to change Coach mid season but it looks more than vindicated with Nicholas at the helm even if he does make it feel like you've lost when you've just scored 6 tries! Moor now break for Easter and will resume their travels meeting Millom away on the 14th April.