Moor defence needs to stop leaking

Moor had hopes of continuing the record of not having lost to them in the previous five home fixtures. In the event, this was not to be as Moor not only lost the game, but ended up conceding the most points so far this season and as has happened on a number of occasions in their current campaign, it was the second half of the match that was their undoing, when mistakes and their defence let them down.

Moor’s performance for much of the first half certainly suggested that they would be in contention all the way through the match, as their forwards dominated the set pieces, especially the scrums, and their young back line, with an average age of 20, always looked threatening in attack. It was the visitors who opened the scoring within a minute of the start however, as Moor spilt the ball from the kick-off, enabling Fleetwood to gather it and set up an attack, resulting in an unconverted try in the right-hand corner. Fortunately, this error did not seem to affect the hosts as soon afterwards, they were able to keep the opposition pinned back in the latter’s own half and it became evident that the Moor forwards had the edge in the set pieces. Unsurprisingly, on being awarded a penalty not far from the Fleetwood line, Moor elected to take a scrum, from where the ball was quickly passed along their back line, allowing full-back Ben Haspell to take the final pass and score in the corner. Midway through the first period, with Fleetwood on the attack, the ball was turned over and centre Will Kay made a powerful run from his own 22, to take play deep into the visitor’s territory and on winning yet another penalty, Moor again chose to take a scrum. From the subsequent drive, No. 8 Andy Tetlow picked up and when stopped, the ball was recycled down the blind side to left-winger Trevor Chappell, who scored in the corner, followed by an excellent conversion from Haspell, allowing Moor to take the lead for the first and, as it turned out, only time in the match. Fleetwood were soon back on level terms when, from a lineout, the ball was transferred to midfield and a powerful run, aided by some half-hearted tackling, resulted in a converted try between the posts. From this point, it was Fleetwood who gradually had the better of the exchanges, something they then didn’t relinquish, as their strong running backs repeatedly tested the Moor defence and on the stroke of half-time, retook the lead, when some slick handling provided them with another converted try, to turn around 19-12 in the lead.

The second half was nearly all Fleetwood as their powerful back row and hard-running backs continually caused problems for the Moor defence, which became flakier as each attack was met, with the home side seemingly running out of steam as the match progressed. With just over three-quarters of the game played, the visitors had stretched their lead with three more tries. The first of these came when they turned the ball over in a tackle on Moor’s 22, to score in the corner, the next came when a pass by Moor, on one of their few forays into their opponent’s territory in this period, was intercepted by the opposition right-winger and when stopped just short of the line, support was on hand to collect and score, again in the corner, and the third came immediately from the kick-off following the second try, as the ball was collected by a Fleetwood player, who proceeded to run straight through a flailing Moor defence and score under the crossbar, making the conversion a formality. With the addition of a penalty goal, which was kicked soon after the interval restart, Fleetwood were now comfortably in the lead, but to Moor's credit, they did not quite give up and managed to gain a bonus-point when they scored two further tries before the end. Chappell picked up his second of the afternoon when he ran on to a delicate kick through by fly-half Pat Chatterton and right-winger David Adebo scored in the opposite corner, following a line-out and re-distribution of the ball along the back line. In between these scores, Fleetwood had added another converted try and in the dying minutes, sealed an emphatic win with two more, all three of which were courtesy of very ineffective, or non-existent, tackling, making the final score 58-22.

Next week, Moor host Aldwinians at Green Lane in the first reverse fixture of the season, k.o. 2:15 p.m.

David Todd