Moor opened 2025 with a game against Wilmslow at Green Lane last Saturday and with home advantage, were hoping to reverse their previous encounter earlier in the season. In that game, they were always playing catch-up, but put in a late rally and only just lost narrowly. As it turned out, this game was almost a replica, but this time it was Wilmslow who had to close the gap and in the end, Moor ran out comfortable winners.
The home side kicked off and for the first fifteen minutes, play was confined, in the main, to mid-field, with Moor just edging the possession stakes and did threaten the opposition’s line on a couple of occasions. Eventually, the visitors were penalised on their 22, resulting in Moor kicking to touch. From the resultant lineout, Moor set up a rolling maul that ended with hooker Archie Ward touching down; the attempted conversion just falling short. This lead was doubled on the half-hour mark, when Moor turned the ball over inside their own 22 and recycled it along their three-quarter line to right-winger Sam Firth, who drew the cover, chipped over the top, ran through to collect the ball and then sprinted in to score in the corner; the try again being unconverted. From the restart, the ball was fielded by Moor, allowing fly-half Jacob Atherton to kick over the advancing opposition and for left-winger Myles Maclagan to collect and take the ball up to halfway, where he passed inside to Ward, who out-sprinted the defence to score between the uprights, giving Atherton the simplest of conversions. The next score followed immediately, but this time it was Wilmslow who opened their account, when Moor dropped the ball from the restart kick, allowing the former to gather it up and quickly pass it along to their left-winger, who somehow managed to squeeze through the narrowest of gaps to score an unconverted try in the corner, bringing the score at half-time to 17-5 for Moor.
Within seven minutes of the second half, Moor had added another 10 points to their scoreline. The first addition came shortly after the restart, when Moor were on the attack inside their opponent’s 22 and Wilmslow had a player sin-binned for illegally halting their drive, allowing Atherton to kick a penalty goal. The second came, again, following the restart, when the visitors knocked on, handing Moor a scrum. With a man-advantage, this was easily won and distributed along their back line to Maclagan, who promptly made 50 metres before lobbing an overhead pass to centre Mike Ingham, to run in and score, followed by a conversion from Atherton. Once returned to a full side, Wilmslow began to have the better of the exchanges, resulting in Moor having to really defend their line for the first time in the game. From one of these attacks, they forced the hosts into making a drop-out from behind their line, but unfortunately for Moor, this went straight into touch, handing Wilmslow a 5-metre scrum. From here, they set up repeated mauls, eventually passing the ball out to their right-winger to score in the corner, followed by an excellent conversion from the touchline. Five minutes later, Moor put in a long kick ahead, deep into their opponent’s territory and then forced the latter into touch as they attempted a counter-attack. Winning the lineout, Moor set up a drive, only to lose the ball from a knock-on and waste the momentum. From the resultant scrum, Wilmslow broke down the blindside and made some 60 metres back up the field before being bundled into touch. Now established back in Moor territory, they did not leave until they had added to their account. This came from a penalty kick to touch some 10 metres short of the Moor line, which they won, to set up a rolling maul, culminating in a try, with the attempted conversion bouncing agonisingly off the upright. Moor immediately responded with a long kick from the restart, followed by a knock-on by Wilmslow on their 5-metre line, thus gifting Moor a scrum, which was then converted into a free-kick as the visitors were penalised at the set piece. Moor elected to take a tap penalty, but then promptly lost the ball in the subsequent drive to the line, allowing Wilmslow to clear their lines. This hectic third quarter was then followed by a relatively calm period, much like at the start of the match, when play was confined mainly to mid-field, with both sides cancelling each other out. With less than five minutes to go however, both sides did add to their totals. The first came from a Moor lineout just inside their own half, which they won and the ball was passed along the line to Maclagan, who again made a huge inroad into Wilmslow territory before passing to Ingham to complete the move with an unconverted try. The second in injury-time, came after Moor had a player sin-binned for a high tackle and, from the penalty that followed, Wilmslow created an overlap to score a try, which was converted, bringing the game to an end and a deserved 32-24 victory for Moor and moving them up a couple of places in the league table.

Moor are away to Liverpool St. Helens this Saturday, k.o. 2:15 p.m.