Moor hosted Garstang last Saturday at Green Lane, a side they last played some eight seasons ago when they were both in the RFU North Lancashire 1 Division, which ended in a 10-10 draw. As it turned out, this season’s game also proved to be a close affair as it swung one way and then the other, before Moor finally eased away in the last quarter to secure a victory.

The visitors kicked off and went ahead from a penalty kick a couple of minutes later, when a Moor player stupidly obstructed one of the opposition in front of his posts. Moor immediately went on the attack from the restart and managed to turn the ball over, allowing their back line to take play to within 5 metres of the Garstang line, where the visitors knocked on, resulting in a scrum to Moor. This was won, enabling the home pack to set up a drive and, once over the line, making it a simple matter for No.8, Will Pacey, to touch down for a try, converted by scrum-half Danny Child. Moor kept the pressure on and soon afterwards they won a lineout deep in the opposition’s half, setting up a rolling maul, enabling hooker Mike Maguire to peel off and score, again converted by Child.

Despite this early set-back, Garstang then came back into the game and spent some time camped deep in Moor’s territory, setting up repeated attacks, but the home side were able to defend their line. However, on one of these forays, a Moor player was sin-binned for illegally kicking the ball out of a ruck and the ensuing penalty was taken quickly, catching Moor off guard, resulting in a converted try for the visitors. Being a man down usually results in the opposition taking advantage of the situation, but it was Moor who went on the offensive from the restart and in the space of five minutes, had picked up two more tries. The first came after they turned the ball over, allowing skipper Jack Pipe, to charge through some ineffective tackling to score and again from the restart, the ball was spun out along the back line to centre Asa Bottomley who shrugged off a couple of tackles and ran some 60 metres to touch down under the crossbar, converted by Child, and earning Moor a try bonus-point after only half-an-hour. This comfortable lead seemed to lull Moor into a false sense of security, as for the remaining period up to the break, it was the opposition who played all the rugby, earning them a converted try in injury time at the interval and a 26-17 lead for Moor.

Garstang continued to dominate the game during the third quarter and at times, Moor's play looked somewhat uncoordinated, resulting in a number of unenforced errors and allowing the visitors to get back into the game. Within 10 minutes they were actually in the lead as they scored a converted try and kicked a penalty goal, courtesy of errors and infringements by the home side. They should have gone even further ahead when another kickable penalty was missed, following yet another Moor transgression. This collapse by Moor was only halted when major reshuffling of both forwards and backs was made midway through the half. This realignment certainly worked, as Moor regained the upper hand and dominated play for the rest of the game. They retook the lead with a try by centre Tom Ireland, now playing in his accustomed position of back-row, converted by replacement fly-half Martin Shelley and stretched it even further when their pack won an opposition scrum, allowing Shelley to make a break and feed Brad Pryjmachuk, now playing at full-back, who accelerated up the pitch to score. Moor, playing with a lot more confidence, kept the pressure on as their forwards were now providing their backs with a lot of good, clean ball and were only

denied further scores by solid defensive work from Garstang. The final whistle came with Moor still on the attack, bringing them a 38-27 victory.

Although the win looked comfortable in the end, it must be of some concern that Moor allowed a 17-point lead to be whittled away as a result of loose and ill-disciplined play.

Next week, Moor play away at Littleborough, k.o. 2:15 p.m.

David Todd