Aspatria 18-27 Bolton

..at the World Cup to create the biggest shock in the history of the sport. This came a day after the England v Fiji game, surely the longest match ever; the referee is apparently still at Twickenham consulting with the TMO over whether to walk back to his hotel or take a cab. Decision pending.

In the context of all of this a trip to Aspatria does not warrant even a footnote in the margins of the sport, but after only two away wins last season and defeat on the opening day at St Benedicts it may just be the moment that Bolton got their show back on the road.

Spending a summer in Lancashire prepares a person for many things, but warm sunshine isn’t one of them so it is no wonder that Bolton emerged blinking from the changing rooms and with the by now customary six changes in personnel and two debutants in the side took a little while to get going. Aspatria were on the front foot early on with their large pack and even larger backs and a penalty for offside resulted in the first points of the match to the home side. The first couple of scrums of the day then happened and it became clear that Bolton had a considerable advantage over their larger opponents, something that became increasingly decisive as the match wore on. Mike Mills soon levelled the scores 3-3 with a penalty after Bolton’s first decent period of possession, but Aspatria came back and, even with a man in the sin bin, powered over for a converted try.
The Bolton forwards were, literally and metaphorically, warming to their task now and more good possession and pressure led to a scrum near the home line. The Bolton front row bolstered by the return of Chris Cockton at hooker applied pressure and Niall Murphy at no. 8 would have dotted down for the away team until the Aspatria scrum half intervened illegally: penalty try and conversion to level things up again. The to and fro continued with another Aspatria penalty, but Bolton bounced back when Cockton made a break in midfield and centre Matt Boyers, impressive once again in his second game of senior rugby, was on his inside shoulder to score under the posts.

So 17-13 to Bolton at half time, about right on the balance of play, and the away team started the second half much the brighter. Strong running from Louis Critchlow and the returning Ash Cooper, coaxed reluctantly away from his carp for the afternoon, saw further scores for Boyers again following a Will Bate break, and another Mike Mills penalty. More tries could have come as wingers Jonny Stanfield and promising debutant Kieron Shacklock were denied only by last ditch tackles – they would probably both have scored if they’d tucked their shirts in – and the Bolton scrum continued to deny the home team any meaningful possession, but it was Aspatria who had the last word as they scored a good try out wide. At 27-18 up the Bolton forwards controlled the ball to the final whistle and took the plaudits from the vocal travelling support.

Handed two very tough away trips to Cumbria in the first three weeks of the season by the vagaries of the fixture list, Bolton can be pleased and a little surprised to find themselves up to second in the table at this stage of the season. Teams who have been relegated the previous season can find it hard to recapture the winning habit, but it appears as though Bolton are beginning to adjust back to life in their new league. Much hard work still needs to be done, but there are encouraging signs with players returning from injury and young players settling in to senior rugby.