Bolton u15's match v Fylde

The u15's had a mammoth task on their hands travelling away to top of the table Fylde.
With 11 players missing through injury,illness and vacations the outcome of the game was in no doubt. 4 players became unavailable the day before the game with the flu bug doing the circuit.

Bolton travelled with 17 players two of which were playing only their second game for the team.
Connor McGaughey and Jordan Hurst both Thornleigh students.

Several other players were playing out of position Cameron Barker-Allan slotted in at hooker at the last minute. Bolton had been working on its defence over the last weeks having found themselves in Pool A pitted against the top teams in the Northwest. They needed to stem the flow of tries against them.

The players revelled in the fact they were playing on the first team pitch at such a big club as Fylde RUFC, one was overheard to say they have got a stand.

The game started and they did exactly what they were asked. Their defensive play was superb for the first half. During the first 20 minutes Bolton had opportunities to score but the final pass wasn't quite there.

Unfortunately Cameron Barker-Allan had to retire with a shoulder injury and we could easily have gone to uncontested scrums but it was decided to play Harry Dawber at hooker to replace Cameron.

Fylde who I am sure will boast several Lancashire u15's players scored several tries without reply with the score being 28 v 0 at half time. This was a great effort by the depleted away team against class outfit. Owen Patel and Cameron Richardson were the pick of the first half with Daniel Southworth returning to the team after several months of injury and playing out of position and playing well.

Bolton never gave up throughout the whole game and battled hard with excellent tackling around the ruck area. Fylde were much stronger in the scrum and won most of the them.

The game was over after 12 minutes into the second half after Fylde reached the 40 point margin.

The game was restarted as a training game and soon after Kier Kernick pounced on a ball which had been knocked on by a Fylde player after an excellent Ben Turner kick ahead. Kier fended off several tacklers to score near to the posts which was Bolton's only score.

Ben converted the try. The second game finished 17 v 7 to Fylde.

Bolton team spirit was on a high even in defeat and although beaten convincingly not one persons head dropped. Any person reading this would think that the coaches would be unhappy with the performance but they were more than happy with the 100% effort put in by every player, ending the year on a high.

Milo Holmes won the player of the match award.
Owen Patel won the tacklers award.
Cameron Richardson won the most contribution awa