Blackburn U13s vs Bolton - Waterfall Cup

Bolton U13s vs Blackburn U13s Waterfall Competition.

Blackburn U13s 20 : Bolton U13s 50
Weather foggy and heavy underfoot but a balmy 8 degrees

For the first match after the Christmas break Bolton showed no signs of having over indulged with Christmas pudding by putting in a convincing team performance. The drive up to Blackburn was in and out of dense fog but visibility at the club was about a full pitch length so some of the action on the far side was difficult to interpret.

Bolton won the toss and kicked off but Blackburn got off to a better start with a try pretty much straight from kick off, some poor tackling on their biggest player allowed them the early form. This got the Bolton team to gel together and play as a team. The forwards started dominating the opposition both at set pieces and loose. With the ground heavy with mud it was never going to be a free running match but the good clean ball supplied by the forwards allowed the Leon Hodson to run in the first of 3 tries in this half. In the loose Sam Atherton was ever present and picked up and drove over for 2 tries. Blackburn were still competing and another missed tackle let the home team in for a try bringing in the score in first half 10 : 25 to Bolton

With visibility still poor the second half got under way with Blackburn kicking off. Bolton had the luxury of a complete set of forwards on the 'subs bench' and so were able to rotate the players to keep up the pressure. Again Blackburn started the better with the first try, the teams then exchanged a try a piece with Leon and Ben Price scoring for Bolton making it 7 tries to 3. Now Bolton started to dominate as their superior fitness and additional subs started to show. The forwards demonstrated strong running from the base of the rucks and set pieces particularly by Luke Davies and Oskar Chadderton. This allowed the space out wide where the backs showed that passing the ball and running straight lines produces space allowed Leon to bag another and Oliver to continue his form of scoring in every match this season. With a 30 point margin the match was called off with 10 mins to go.

Final score Blackburn 20 : 50 Bolton

Overall, with Blackburn in a stage of rebuilding their squad this was a good win for Bolton and evidence of development from individuals into a team.

With the match over and time to spare all the players go onto the pitch and we played a Barbarian mixed team match. No set pieces just freedom to express themselves without consequences made for a free flowing chaotic mass of enjoyment for the boys.