Bolton u13 60 v Marple u13 0

Ski trips and half term had already taken their toll on player availability and when 5 more cried off things looked grim. We eventually found 12 players to pull on the cherry & white shirts and when Marple appeared with 11 we agreed 11 a side.
Bolton had some different starters and some different pairings so as Marple kicked off the coaches had no idea how things would work. After a pretty even start Louie Ramm showed an amazing turn of pace to collect his 1st try. Marple didn't notice this speed and within a minute Louie doubled his tally with a storming run of around 70mtrs. Play then settled down until the 8th minute when an excellent team move saw the ball moved out to Luke Parry on the left wing and he outpaced the defence to make it 3-0. Two minutes later Louie completed his hat-trick, when he smashed thru' some indifferent Marple tackles. Once again play was very even until Ben Hammond went on a jinking but powerful run to go over after 15mins. The next 10 mins was a very even passage of play but in the last play of the half Louie added his 4th to make the half time score 30-0.
Three minutes in yet another successful scrum saw Jack Good feed Louie, he scattered the defence, ran pretty well the full lenght of the pitch but with Jack having supported all the way Louie generously passed to Jack who scored. Six minutes Marple had a 5mtr scrum, with a mighty effort Bolton won the ball, scrum half Jack shot down the blindside, drew the defending wing and released Ben who ran the 80mtrs to claim his second. Four minutes later Marple won a scrum on the half way line but a wayward pass from the scrum half saw the ball land between fly half & centre, whilst they decided who was going to deal with it Jack hacked thru' and two controlled kicks later touched down despite the valiant attempts of the Marple full back. With Marple finding it impossible to deal with Louie's pace and strength he scored again after 13 mins, followed 3 minutes later by Ben claiming his hat-trick with a very powerful burst thru' a tiring defence. Finlay Morgan was then denied a try when clean thru' as the referee blew for what appeared to be a serious injury. With Marple down to 10, Bolton withdrew a player for the last few minutes, during which time they scored the try of the match. Louie went blasting down the right, for once he was held up about 20mtrs out, he passed to Josh Bentley Hughes, who was heading for the right corner BUT Jack, coming in off the right wing intercepted, ran laterally where he produced a perfect scissors move to feed Harry Connor who, still with work to do, span round two defenders to make the final score 60-0. Not only the best try but vindication for the coaches who have been trying to get the team to play like this all season.
The front row of Daniel McGuiness, Matthew Cooney & Nathaniel Wright deserve special mention - not just for winning all their scrums but most of the opposition. Jack Wright played his 1st full game and was superb, Callum Purnell returned from a long lay-off having suffered two broken thumbs (ski-ing, not rugby) and excelled at fly half.
Best of all was the camaraderie, players backing each other up, talking to each other and constantly re-organising which, given the ad-hoc nature of the team, was truly incredible. That they kept a clean sheet was a testament to that spirit.