Moor entertained Ellesmere Port at Green Lane last Saturday, a club they had not previously played against at 1st XV level. Given Moor's see-saw performances in league fixtures this season of win-one-lose-one, then the outcome of the game was likely to result in a victory and in the event it did and a relatively comfortable one at that.

From the kick-off, Moor forced the visitors onto the defensive, setting up repeated drives and eventually the defensive wall was breached when centre Kingsley Child jinked through to score, with the resultant conversion seemingly kicked by fly-half Martin Shelley. The opposition soon followed up with their own score as, from the restart, a Moor player knocked on, allowing ‘Port to set up their own attacks from the resultant scrum, eventually forcing Moor into conceding a penalty. This was quickly taken, and ended up with the ‘Port forwards trundling over for an unconverted try, which proved to be the last time that they troubled the scoreboard.

This setback didn't seem to affect the home side however, as for the remainder of the half, they resumed their pressure on the opposition, dominating both the set pieces and loose play, but stubborn defence denied them a further score until midway through the period. This came when Moor won an opposition scrum, catching them flat-footed, and a series of drives later, found back-row Jimmy Hine diving through to touch down between the uprights, converted by Shelley. Shortly before the break, 'Port did have a resurgence, but Moor were able to soak up this pressure and a breakout by back-row Dan McDonagh took play deep into the visitor’s territory, where another set of rucks ended up with lock Remi Akinbode going over for a third score, again converted. The half-time whistle found Moor ostensibly 21-5 in the lead, but this was amended to 19-5 as, during the interval, the referee advised that he had not awarded a conversion for the first of Moor’s tries, much to the puzzlement of players and spectators alike.

More of the same was to be the order of the second half, as Moor dominated both possession and position, whilst continually disrupting ‘Port's scrums, but to the opposition’s credit, they still managed to somehow control these set pieces, although it rarely provided their back line with any sort of clean ball and resulted in them conceding the occasional penalty. From one such infringement, a tap was taken and the ball was switched to the blindside allowing Hine to break through the cover, where he fed winger Sam Firth, who went round his opposite number to score his debut try in the corner and earn Moor a try-bonus point. This relentless pressure was resulting in ‘Port conceding penalties at regular intervals and Moor took full advantage of this by quickly taking the restarts. From one of these, player/coach Wynand van Zyl, who had come on as a replacement centre, broke the gain line, fed scrum-half Elliot Mepham, who in turn put winger David Adebo in for an unconverted try in the corner. Immediately following the restart, Moor added to their tally, as yet another quickly-taken penalty resulted in the ball being recycled up-field with Firth taking the final pass to score his second try in the corner. This wasn’t to be his final contribution to the game, as deep into injury time, he was again put away and just as it looked as if he might score his hat-trick, he was adjudged to have been brought down illegally, resulting in the opposition player being sin-binned.

Unsurprisingly, Moor again scored from the ensuing penalty to bring an end to the game and a 39-5 victory. Although Moor did have the upper-hand for most of the match, it was by no means easy, as when in possession, ‘Port did play a structured game and only solid defence by the home side prevented the visitors from having more to show for their efforts and had the latter’s defence not been as sound as it was, then the score line would have been far greater.

Moor have no game next Saturday, but resume their league programme on 20th November with a game at home against Thornton Cleveleys, K.O. 2:15 p.m.

David Todd