Moor played away at Trafford MV last Saturday in what was a lower-table battle, as both sides were in need of a much-needed win. In the event, it was the Green Lane side who came away with the spoils, but it was very much a two-part affair, with at one stage, Moor in danger of relinquishing a healthy half-time lead.
The home side kicked off allowing Moor to immediately set up a counter-attack and the ball was quickly passed along their three-quarter line, reaching left-winger Myles Maclagan just over the halfway line, from where he burst up his wing to score an unconverted try in the corner. Moor then had to sustain some ten minutes of pressure from Metrovick but they eventually broke out, with hooker Mike Maguire leading the charge and when he was halted, he offloaded to flanker Archie Ward who again sped up the left wing to score a second unconverted try. From the restart, Moor went back on the offensive, with Maclagan again making inroads into the opposition before passing inside to centre Mike Ingham, who then put in a delicate chip over the advancing defence for right-winger Sam Firth to run on to. Unfortunately for the latter, just as he was about to collect the ball on the MV 22 and with the line at his mercy, he slipped, ending what would have been a spectacular move had he stayed upright to score an almost certain try. Moor didn’t have long to wait for their next score however, as a careless pass by the hosts just inside the visitors half was intercepted by Ingham, who out-sprinted the cover to score between the uprights, giving fly-half James Brady a straight-forward conversion. Three minutes later, Moor were again on the rampage and following inter-passing between first Firth and then Ward, centre Tom Shaw was put away to score a fourth try; the conversion being missed. With only a quarter of the game gone, Moor had already claimed at least a bonus-point for their efforts and looked as if they might rack up a large score if they could keep their dominance going. On the half-hour mark, they were again pressing and had a drive held up just short of the MV line, but quickly recycled the ball one way and then the other from the subsequent ruck and in so doing, caught the hosts offside. A quickly-taken tap-penalty by Brady was fed to Shaw, who cut through the defence to score his second try, again unconverted. Despite being on the wrong side of a large score line, the home side kept battling away and in the last few minutes before the break, forced Moor into defending deep into their own territory, where they conceded three penalties in quick succession. From the last of these just metres away from the Moor line, MV took a quick tap and forced their way over to open their account with a converted try, bringing the score at the interval to a comfortable 27-7 for Moor.
Any thoughts by the visitors that there might be more of the same in the second half were quickly dispelled, as for the first quarter-of-an-hour, play was confined for the most part within their half of the pitch, with MV keeping them on the defensive. On a couple of occasions when Moor looked as if they might regain the upper hand, the momentum was lost either from a mistake or from indiscipline. MV doubled their score when Moor attempted to run the ball out of their own 22, but lost it in a tackle, handing the former a scrum. Winning this, MV fed the ball out along their back line and then back inside to force their way over for another converted try. Their tails now up, MV continued to press as they now only had to score two more converted tries to take the lead; something that seemed very unlikely only fifteen minutes before, but was now a distinct possibility. Just as another attack looked as if it might produce the first of these scores, MV lost the ball inches short of the Moor line and it was instantly gathered up by Maclagan, who set off down his wing, jinking around and handing off opposition players until he was clear and ended up sprinting the full length of the pitch, to touch down under the crossbar, followed by another conversion from Brady. This score, very much against the run of play, eased the pressure on Moor and the home side seemed to lose the initiative, as Moor eased themselves back into the game and with just over ten minutes to go, MV had a player sin-binned deep within their own 22. Unsurprisingly, Moor elected to take the resultant penalty as a scrum and proceeded to push their opposite numbers back over the latter’s try line, but the ball was adjudged to have been held up, resulting in a drop-out. The visitors continued to press with their man advantage, but dogged defence by MV prevented them from extending their lead. Once returned to a full compliment of players, MV once more took the game to Moor and were rewarded with a third converted try just as normal time was completed. This came from a scrum on Moor’s 22, followed by the ball being quickly transferred down their three-quarter line and their left-winger cutting back inside to run in unopposed to touch down. Moor did, however, have the last say in the contest, as in injury time, MV lost the ball as they attempted to run it out of their own half, which Firth pounced on and took it to just short of the line and when stopped, popped it up for replacement Joe Taylor to collect and score, converted by Brady, bringing the game to a close and a 41-21 win for Moor. This was a vital win for Moor and although a comfortable victory in the end, they could have so easily have let the game slip away in the second half.
Moor are at home next Saturday to Broughton Park, k.o. 2:15 p.m.