For the second week running, Moor were on their travels, this time to Droylsden to play Aldwinians. When the teams last met in November, just two scores separated the sides and although Moor were the losers, they did end up with a try bonus-point. This time the outcome was the same, with the hosts posting an almost identical score, but Moor could only muster half as many points as before and so finished the game without any reward.
The home side kicked off and almost immediately, the visitors were penalised, allowing Aldwinians to kick to touch and from the resultant lineout, they set up a catch-and-drive, which ended with a converted try with only a couple of minutes played. They continued to dominate both position and possession but it wasn’t for another twenty minutes before they extended their lead. This came following a Moor lineout on their 22, which they lost, resulting in Aldwinians recycling the ball first one way and then the other along their back line, before scoring between the uprights, followed by a straightforward conversion. With five minutes to go before the break, the hosts scored their third converted try after Moor were penalised on their 10-metre line and a quickly taken tap-penalty caught them flat-footed, enabling Aldwinians to break through to score. From the restart, Moor forced their opponents into conceding three penalties in quick succession and found themselves in the Aldwinians 22 for the first time in the game. The last of these infringements was kicked to touch and with the lineout won, a rolling maul was set up, ending with flanker Freddie McIlwraith dotting down, followed by a conversion from scrum-half Mike Ingham. This proved to be the last play of the half and a comfortable 21-7 lead for Aldwinians.
Within ten minutes following the interval, the home side had added two further tries and a conversion to their score. The first came from a kick to touch when Moor conceded a penalty and on winning the lineout, Aldwinians set up a number of rucks, before driving over to score and the second was from another lineout, followed by a catch-and-drive, after Moor were forced into making a relieving kick to touch. Aldwinians continued to dominate, and scored their final try a quarter-of-an-hour into the second period. This came when Moor, on one of their few forays into the opposition’s territory, dropped the ball, resulting in a kick ahead by Aldwinians, taking play back into the Moor half of the field, forcing the latter into conceding another lineout. Having won the ball, Aldwinians quickly passed it along their three-quarter line and burst through some poor tackling to score. Although the game had slipped away from them, Moor did have the better of the play in the final quarter of the match and were camped almost permanently within Aldwinian’s half of the field, during which time they forced the home side into conceding a number of penalties and now dominated the set scrums. On a couple of occasions their attacks were held up on the line and but for some handling errors, should have added to their score. Finally, with just five minutes remaining, this pressure paid off, as from a scrum, Moor went down the blind side and when halted, switched play to the open, allowing winger Sam Firth to loop around and take the final pass and score in the corner. With the conversion being missed, the game finally ended with a comfortable 40-12 victory to Aldwinians.
Despite this loss, Moor should take some consolation from the way they turned the game around in the final twenty minutes and had they been able to do so earlier, might have managed to come away with something from the match.

This Saturday Moor entertain Eccles at Green Lane, k.o. 3:00 p.m.