Determination...

A busy day with a trip to Spinning Green to pose for some photos in our new strip and team sponsors, then off to the club for a tough opening game against Leigh. A cautious start played out with both sides defending well, and it was almost 15 minutes before Leigh opened the scoring with a strong set of drives down the right to score in the corner.

The Bolton forwards responded well and with increased intensity at the ruck and maul pinned Leigh back into their own half for long periods or time. Some excellent kicking from their full back were met week each time by Jaime Lambert in his first game as full back for the club.

Myles Garth was well shepherded by the Leigh drift defense, but a gap eventually opened up and Myles powered over to go ahead, the conversion being slotted over by Jake Rimmer.

By this time, the Bolton forwards were ripping the ball from Leigh and inevitably Lewis Picton powered over for a try to put the boys further ahead. Another try from great support work by Joel Matthews put Bolton 3 tries to one ahead, but Jake Rimmer couldn’t quite put them over from out wide.

At this point the coaches put on the substitutes, and this disrupted the rhythm to enable Leigh to pull a try back. Leigh were looking for blood, but yet again Josh Padmore, Sean Carragher and Lewis Picton smashed hard up the field to restore the lead.

With great skill and determination in attack, Leigh hammered away at the Bolton line to try and close the gap. A last ditch arm hook by Jake Rimmer and a great drive by Tom Simpson and Oliver McKeown kept the Leigh boys out.

Having failed to break through the front line defense, Leigh made a great overlap out wide and a three man overlap left Ben Harrop and Tom McNulty with no chance as Leigh pulled back to 22-19. Bolton panicked a bit and hung on at the death, instead of playing to their strengths,

So it was a close win, but with a great performance from all 22 boys it was a great day in the sun for their first ever 15 a side game.

Thanks to Louis Townsend for coming down and showing the boys how the first team prepare for a game.