The conditions did not favour flowing rugby. The ground was heavy so slowed down the fleetest of foot and tested the fitness of all; the rain and cold challenged the most skilful of hands. However, the two teams put on a display of enjoyable and spirited rugby with the better team winning but the losers deservedly gaining a point.

Much of the first half was spent with Moortown on the defensive. Morley had the edge in the scrum and the Moortown lineout stuttered at times.

The omens did not good when Morley missed a penalty on 10 minutes from a relatively close positi9on but the heavy ground did make kicking difficult.

Morley had to wait until the 28th minute to make an impression on the scoreboard. After winning their line out about 10 metres from the Moortown line Morley forwards attacked the try line with several powerful drives. Moortown did well to resist the Morley pressure and the ball went wide to standoff Frankland. Frankie saw a gap and took the ball forward before being tackled. The ball was recycled well with Hawkins and Jeffery getting the ball out to George Bowen who raced over near the corner flag to put Morley into a 5 – 0 lead.

Morley continued to press but could not breach the Moortown defence. As so often happens, defence turns into attack and Moortown, on a rare visit to the Morley half, levelled the scores. From a scrum on the Morley 10 metre line, the ball went left and good work saw Moortown make progress. When the ball was returned to the right, Morley were well out of position and Moortown had a 4 on 1 overlap. Fullback Joe Parkin evaded one tackle, cut inside and then sprinted to touch down in the corner to tie the scores 5 – 5 just before half time.

Moortown came out intending to carry on where they left off and added a penalty on 45 minutes to go into a 8 – 5 lead. Could they prise the victory from the Maroons?
Before they could any momentum, Morley hit back. After a period of “kick tennis”. Moortown attempted to run the ball out from their 22. A looping pass fell into the eager hands of Bowen and he ran joyfully to dive over the line by the posts. Frankie converted and Morley had re-established their lead at 12 – after 51 minutes.

Morley kept up the pressure. A penalty kick took them deep into Moortown territory and after a series of punishing forward drives George Kelly forced his way over. Again Frankie converted to push the score to 19 – 8 on 55 minutes.

The final ten minutes saw the Moortown standoff, Jordan Gale, break the first line of defence and nearly get through. At the other end, Ben Yates also broke through and was pulled down just short of the line.

Moortown continued to fight to avoid defeat and the balance of scrum power had shifted to their advantage. After a couple of scrums and penalties the referee award a penalty try against Morley for a scrum infringement. 19 – 15 on 77 minutes.

However, although tense, Morley saw out the final minutes to gain a well-deserved victory.

1 Dan Lightowler, 2 Robin Bennett, 3 Morgan Hall, 4 Harry Jeffery, 5 Josh Caldwell, 6 George Bowen, 7 Ben Yates, 8 Jon Magrin, 9 Noah Hawkins, 10 Charlie Frankland, 11 Mickey Ryan, 12 George Kelly, 13 Theo Tyrer, 14 Will Kinder, 15 Aaron Jones-Bishop, 16 Owen Merrison, 17 Tomas Phipps, 18 Sam Fox.
Scorers Tries : Bowen (2), Kelly
Con : Frankland (2)

Photos of the match can be found on the media tab or by clicking the link below.

Moortown photo's

A very brief match report for the Cavs this week.

Morley 20 – 19 Moortown November 29, 2025

Cross town opponents Moortown were the visitors to the lane this week, on a day only suitable for ducks.

A hard fought game saw the Cavs come out on top with a 20-19 win to make it three wins in a row. Tries from Joe Leathley, Nathan Parry, Nathan Boote and Ed Kelly saw that the Cavs came away with maximum points in the rain.

Kaiden Wilson made his debut for his first senior game having come up through junior rugby. That now makes it six of last years and one of this year’s colts make the step up to senior rugby.

1 George Huzcavitch, 2 Ben Hall, 3 Harry Ward, 4 Matt Hutchins, 5 Joe Brooke, 6 Kieran Ellis, 7 Ed Kelly, 8 John Estensen ( C), 9 Alex Goodhall, 10 Nathan Boote, 11 Joe Leathley, 12 Jack Butterworth, 13 Luke Peel, 14 Nathan Parry, 15 Ben Taylor, 16 Ian Craigen, 17 Jake Kennedy, 18 Sam Lancaster, 19 Kaiden Wilson, 20 Callum Sowden.

Jonathan Leathley

Both teams have another double header on Saturday. The 1sts are at home to Old Brodleians and the Cavaliers travel to the Hipperholme hills to face Old Brods 2s. Both matches are expected to be close and both kick of at 2.15 pm.