and why, as a grown-up should you be for heaven's sake? - there is a box of sweets called Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans which contains jelly beans of – you might have guessed it by now – every conceivable flavour, from the familiar and tasty to the downright disgusting. Watching Bolton play rugby this season has been like taking a bean from the box and eating it: so far we have had mainly edible fare at home, Banana, Watermelon and Marshmallow, but the away trips have been more varied with Earthworm and Soap in Cumbria and last week's Vomit at Ashton.

So it was with much trepidation that the box was opened this week and a bean removed, the hand visibly shaking. With the club losing front five forwards faster than the coach was losing his hair and the visiting Silloth team arriving fresh from a win on the road at Hawcoat Park where Bolton have already lost this season (Rotten Egg) everything pointed to a tough afternoon for the home team at the Theatre of Trees.

A quick and positive start was the key to the game for Bolton, partly to find some form after last week's horrors and also to dent any confidence Silloth may have gained from recent results. And so it came to pass. Bolton kicked off and the pattern of the first half became immediately obvious: Bolton were making inroads behind the Silloth defensive line with strong running from Niall Murphy, Louis Townsend, Mark Chapelhow and Chris Mee and creating opportunities for the backs with quick ball, and Silloth were finding it harder to make progress with the ball in hand and resorted to kicking upfield where the Bolton back 3 of Mark Doherty, Jack Robinson and Jonny Stanfield waited to return the ball with interest.

It was from a Niall Murphy burst through the midfield that the first try came. With the defence turned quick ball was moved to the left wing where Jonny Stanfield outpaced the cover to score. Mike Mills converted, as he continued to do for the rest of the afternoon; his kicking was far from perfect, however, as one of his conversion attempts hit a post before going over. Slipshod work.

More hard running and excellent support saw Louis Townsend touch down under the posts before Alex Waddicar wriggled over and a powerful burst by Will Bate took him over the line to secure the try bonus point after just half an hour. Shortly after that the crowd were treated to a rare sight when Nick Sandbrook reached over a ruck to place the ball on the tryline to register his first try since England won the world cup. The football world cup. Niall Murphy had been having his best half of rugby since joining the club so it was no surprise to see him limp off at this stage, the Bolton no. 2 shirt rapidly becoming the equivalent of the red shirt in Star Trek, but a 35-0 lead at half time was no more than his efforts deserved.

The pattern of the second half mirrored that of the first: the Bolton defence proved impenetrable for the visitors and the home team, despite failing to win a lineout after Murphy's departure, kept testing Silloth's resolve around the breakdown and in midfield. After a Jack Robinson try following a chargedown by Alex Waddicar Silloth won a penalty on Bolton's 10 metre line and opted for the posts: 42-3.

Further tries from Will Bate from a pass that appeared ahead of lateral and the best of the match from Ryan McClusky following a break by Jack Robinson concluded the scoring, but credit must go to a Silloth side who never gave up and who edged the final 20 minutes as the game wound down.

There are a lot of positives to take from the game, with 8 tries from 7 different scorers, a team featuring a 17 year old and three 18year olds demonstrating the strength of Bolton's junior section and a kicker at the top of his game. Overall a much more satisfactory afternoon than the previous week showing the character in the group. Cherry flavour after all.

MoM: Niall Murphy / Ryan McClusky.