As part of their 125th Anniversary celebrations, Moor entertained the Anti-Assassins at Green Lane last Sunday, continuing a tradition when they played the invitation side in their 75th and Centenary years. As befits a game against the A-As, made up as it is of players predominantly from North West clubs, Moor selected a side from both its’ senior and Colts teams, blending a mixture of youth with experience, with the sole aim of playing fast, open and enjoyable rugby. And so it proved, with a pattern of rapid scoring throughout the game, resulting in a total of fifteen tries being scored.
The visitors kicked off and within five minutes, Moor had opened their account when right-winger Sam Firth looped round to join his fellow backs and collect a pass to score an unconverted try in the left-hand corner. The A-As replied immediately from the kick-off with their own unconverted try, following a break by their strong-running centre and a couple of hand-offs. Not long afterwards, Moor were awarded a penalty that was kicked to touch and from the subsequent lineout, were awarded a free-kick. This was quickly taken and sent along the line where centre and ex-Colt Josh Kenworthy was able to nip through a gap and touch down for another unconverted try. Moor kept the pressure on and were further rewarded when, after interplay between forwards and backs at the end of the first quarter, scrum-half and club coach Mike Ingham squeezed over in the corner for a try, with the attempted conversion by fly-half and senior Colts captain Jacob Atherton, agonisingly rebounding off the upright. The A-As came back after Moor were penalised for being offside inside their own 22 and a quickly taken tap, followed by swift handling between the visitor’s forwards, produced a try next to the posts, providing a simple conversion. The home side went further ahead, when Atherton put in a delicate chip over the advancing defence from just inside his own 10-metre line, allowing Firth to chase, collect and sprint in to score under the crossbar, converted by Atherton. In the last five minutes before the interval, the A-As made up the deficit with two unconverted tries after setting up repeated drives in Moor’s territory, making the half-time score 22-22, and somewhat breathless competitors.
Moor emptied their bench at the start of the second-half, enabling everyone selected to participate, but no less determined to enjoy the occasion. Moor did begin brightly, and should have scored straight after the restart, when the ball was passed swiftly along their three-quarter line, but somehow failed to get the last pass away cleanly and were held up over the line. The visitors then proceeded to score four more tries, two of which were converted, by the end of the third quarter, which turned out to be the difference between the sides at the end. Two of these tries came from breakouts deep within the A-As territory as Moor failed to adequately defend breakdowns and a third was as a result of missed tackles, no doubt brought on by weariness due to the high tempo of the game. Moor did rally in the last ten minutes and scored two tries to one of their opponents. The first of these came from a tap penalty ten metres from the opposition line, setting up a driving maul and ending with replacement hooker, James Brennan, squeezing over, converted by Atherton, and the second one was made and scored by left-winger Myles Maclagan, after he fielded the ball from a kick ahead and then set off down his wing, chipped over the advancing defence, collected the ball on the bounce and touched down; the conversion bouncing off the post. In between these scores, the A-As produced their last try of the afternoon and it came when they turned the ball over as Moor were halted just short of the line, followed by another breakout down the full length of the pitch to score, again converted. The final whistle brought a thoroughly entertaining game to an end with a convincing 53-34 win for the A-As, but given the occasion, the result was secondary to the enjoyment and camaraderie shared by players and spectators alike.
A huge thanks to the A-A’s committee and to their players for giving up their afternoon to help Moor celebrate their 125th Anniversary.

Next Saturday, Moor travel to the Wirral to play New Brighton, k.o. 2:15 p.m.