Normal service not quite resumed

Moor hosted newly-promoted Wigan at Green Lane last Saturday in what was a bottom-of-the table clash. In their previous encounter two seasons earlier, Moor narrowly gained victory by one score and this was to be repeated in this game, except that it was the visitors who claimed the spoils.

Moor welcomed back five players who were missing from the previous week's drubbing at Aldwinians and early exchanges suggested that there was a definite improvement, especially in defence, but neither side had anything to show for their efforts during the first quarter. Eventually, Wigan opened the scoring from a penalty kick in front of the home side’s posts and followed it up with another shortly afterwards. This was to be a feature of Moor’s performance, as although they were able to stifle the opposition’s attacks, they gave away unnecessary penalties in doing so.

With only five minutes of normal time remaining in the first half, Moor finally opened their account with an unconverted try. This came following a penalty kick to touch, a driving maul from the subsequent lineout and then a series of rucks, allowing prop and skipper, Sam Ireland, to pick up and crash over. Deep into injury time at the break, Moor again gave away another penalty, which Wigan slotted over to make the interval score 5-9 to the visitors and put an end to a rather lack-lustre first half.

Moor went on the offensive from the kick-off and produced a series of promising attacks, but each broke down following solid defence by Wigan. The home side did not have to wait long before taking the lead however, when right-wing David Adebo looped around into the back line and took play deep into their opponent’s territory and when finally halted, the ball was recycled first one way and then the other, allowing centre Hugues Groshens to run in a try in the corner, which was again unconverted.

From the restart Moor committed the cardinal sin of not playing to the whistle as, thinking that the kick-off had not gone the required 10 metres, did not react to the opposition collecting the ball and making a huge inroad into the Moor half. When finally halted, their forwards were on hand to take play up to the Moor line and eventually forced their way over for a try, which was converted. Moor did not have to wait long to regain the lead, as another lineout was won which led to a series of inter-passing between forwards and backs, stretching the defence and allowing No. 8 Ben Jones to run to in and touch-down, converted by scrum-half Ben Haspell.

Leading by only a single point going into the last quarter, Moor now had to withstand a late surge by Wigan and again gave away a number of penalties, but fortunately these did not result in any further scores - not until injury time, when a further penalty in front of the Moor posts was successfully kicked by the visitors. Moor did have the opportunity to redeem the situation just before the final whistle, when they in turn were awarded a penalty some 40 metres from their opponent’s line, but the attempted kick at goal was just wide, bringing the game to a close and a 19-17 victory to Wigan. This was another disappointing end to a game that Moor could have and perhaps, should have, won, but they did have the satisfaction of a losing bonus-point and having out-scored the opposition by three tries to one.

Next week, Moor are away at another newly-promoted side, Ormskirk, k.o. 3:00 p.m.

David Todd