Tarleton were the visitors to Green Lane on Saturday in a rearranged game from December that had been cancelled due to a water-logged pitch. Following the close encounter the week before against table-toppers West Park and fielding a side that contained only three changes to the starting line-up from that match, Moor were hopeful that they might be able to repeat that performance and upset the form-book. In the event, this was not to be as the guests ran away with the game in the final thirty minutes.
Tarleton immediately opened their account following the start, when an attempted clearance kick by Moor was charged down, gifting the visitors an attacking scrum, from where the ball was passed along their back-line, resulting in an unconverted try in the corner. Moor responded immediately, however, and in an almost identical scenario, scored an unconverted try by centre Mike Ingham, following a scrum deep in their opponent’s territory. Both sides then had their own share of possession, with Tarleton just edging the positional stakes, but midway through the first half, a knock-on by Moor just outside their 22 was pounced on by the visitors, who immediately ran through some less than convincing tackling to touch down, followed by a conversion. Again, the home side came straight back, when they collected a kick ahead from the restart and following a couple of passes in midfield, the ball found left-winger Myles Maclagan, who sped up his wing, fended off a couple of attempted tackles and ended up scoring under the crossbar, providing a simple conversion to level the scores. Five minutes later, Tarleton went ahead once more when they notched up an unconverted try from a lineout, following a penalty kick to touch. The scoreboard then remained untroubled for the final fifteen minutes, giving a 17-12 lead to Tarleton at the break.
The gap was narrowed directly from the restart when the visitors were penalised on their 22, providing a successful kick for goal to Moor. The home side then kept up the pressure resulting in Tarleton conceding penalties and each time the resultant kick or drive took them nearer to the opposition's line. In spite of this attack, stout defence by the latter kept Moor out, but eventually they were rewarded with a penalty goal, to edge into the lead 18-17. For Moor spectators, it was a case of déjà vu, as this was the exact score the week before when they took the lead, the only difference being that there was still some thirty minutes to be played in this game and this proved to be crucial as Tarleton then took a stranglehold on the game and it was the last time that Moor troubled the scoreboard. The visitors restored their lead shortly afterwards with a penalty goal of their own, but then had a player sin-binned for a high tackle. This, however, only seemed to galvanise them as they scored two converted tries in the next ten minutes; one following a concerted attack on the Moor line, eventually squeezing in at the corner, and the other following a lineout, from where the ball was recycled along their three-quarter line, ending with a touch-down between the sticks. This more or less put the game out of reach for Moor and their cause was also hampered with the loss of two key players with injuries, but to their credit, they continued to try and reduce the deficit. Unfortunately, on one of their attacks, they had a pass along their back line intercepted, handing Tarleton another converted try. Just as it seemed as if there would be no further addition to the score line, Tarleton managed to conjure up their fourth converted try of the half, bringing the contest to a close with a convincing 48-18 victory.

Moor are away to Didsbury Toc H on Saturday, k.o. 2:15 p.m., but play at MMU’s Platt Lane complex, due to Toc’s Ford Lane ground being out of action following the recent floods.