Moor left to rue missed opportunities

MOOR travelled to top-of-the-table Liverpool Collegiate last Saturday with a largely unchanged forward line-up from the previous week, but once again, with a re-jigged three-quarter line and for the ninth game running, fielded a different combination of half-backs.

Collegiate kicked-off down the slope and it was soon obvious that their free-running back line would cause a few problems for Moor and after 15 minutes, opened their scoring following a slick move in the centre, with a well-taken try under the posts, which was converted.

Whilst the opposition backs had the edge, the Moor forwards caused all sorts of problems in the set scrums for the home side and soon afterwards, disrupted a Collegiate put-in and were awarded a penalty, which scrum-half Mark Edwards slotted through the uprights to reduce the deficit.

Moor continued to press and following a break by Edwards, play was taken up to the opposition’s try-line and as the ball was passed down their three-quarter line, it looked inevitable that Moor would score.

Unfortunately, a mistimed final pass was intercepted by the ever-lively Collegiate fly-half, who proceeded to run the full length of the pitch to score a converted try under the posts.

Despite this setback, Moor continued to take the game to the home side, but another couple of scoring chances were squandered.

As the interval approached, Collegiate gradually re-took control and following a series of rucks near the visitor’s line, one of their wing-forwards crossed to score their third try, followed by an excellent conversion from the touch-line, to make the half-time score 21-3 to the home side.

Playing down the incline in the second half, Moor forwards had an even greater influence than before the break and their line-outs showed a vast improvement over recent weeks, with the return of second-row James Ellis from a long layoff, but their loose play was just that bit slower than the opposition, who capitalised on this to provide their back line with plenty of fast, clean ball.

From one of these moves on the 50-minute mark, Collegiate’s leftwinger cut inside to join their line at pace and scored their bonus-point try.

This effectively put the game out of reach for Moor, although they again butchered a couple of scoring attempts before finally scoring midway through the half.

This came from a scrum on the home side’s five-metre line and the Moor forwards promptly dumped their opposite numbers back over the line, for No.8 Will Pacey to score from the pushover, Edwards converting.

Further bad luck was to affect Moor however, when, having won a scrum on their own five-metre line, the clearance kick was charged down and a Collegiate player won the race to touch down inches before the ball would have gone out of play.

This final ignominy seemed to knock the stuffing out of Moor, which the opposition took full advantage of to score their sixth and final converted try with five minutes remaining, running out 38-10 winners.

Collegiate thoroughly deserved the win, with their players being just that bit faster to the breakdown and in open play and always up in support of each other, but Moor were left to rue their missed chances, which had they been taken, would have resulted in a much closer scoreline.