South Lancs and Cheshire League Division Two North
Moore 9, Oswestry 35.
THE opening 10 minutes found both sides testing each other out, but it was Oswestry who were looking the most dangerous, and from some good forward interlinking the ball went through several pairs of hands with Andrew Smith crossing for the try only for it to be ruled out for a forward pass.
But Oswestry were in no mood to let the Moore side off lightly and after several dominant scrums with the front five of Oswestry pushing Moore off the ball several times Oswestry found themselves with a scrum 10 metres out. From the scrum Oswestry drove Moore over the line for Thomas Thorpe to score Andy Howell stepping up for the conversion.
Moore’s response was a penalty that was converted for 3-7 score line.
Oswestry went back on the attack with the back row of Sam Wright, Dan Samuels, and Thomas Thorpe winning a good turn over ball and linking well with Jim Dilks who released the backs, Sam Martin bursting through the centre to score for 3-12, only for Oswestry to give another penalty away for 6-12.
Gareth Morris put a high kick up, fielded his own kick then good interchange between Mike Keavney, Oliver Willford and Guy Howell set up Jim Dilks darting over from 10 metres out, Howell’s conversion giving a 6-19 half time lead.
Moore started the second half with another kickable penalty but Howell slotted a drop goal for 9-22 kicking two more penalties in the next 15 minutes, conceded by the pressure on the Moore scrum for 9-28.
Nathan Parker came on for Sam Wright and from the kick off caught the ball and ran through three Moore forwards only for the referee to bring the ball back for an Oswestry penalty, Howell kicking Oswestry to the 22.
Graham Fox won good ball and Oswestry ran a superb move feeding Robert Massam who broke the defence and within a few metres of the try line was held up but Gareth Jones who was making his first return from a long-term injury was on hand to take the ball and score. Andy Howell made the conversion for five out of six plus a drop goal and the score 9-35. Gaz Jones received a yellow card but with a man down the Oswestry defence did not look like conceding any more points.
Oswestry introduced the young Tom Bowker for the last 10 minutes who did not look out of place behind the Oswestry pack.