Bolton 16 - 11 Fleetwood

The weather has meant that most teams have a fixture backlog longer than the queue of people lining up to ask how Ben Youngs got the Man of the Match for England against Italy, and the conditions that those matches that have been played in have meant that the games have been more of a slog than a free-flowing festival of rugby.

Saturday’s visit of Fleetwood to the theatre of trees was Bolton’s first home match for almost 2 months and only their fourth match in 8 weeks, so it was no surprise that rustiness was the order of the day as the hosts tried to get their game going against a bigger and spirited side. The visitors struck first and were ahead inside a minute as Bolton made a mess of the kick off reception and Fleetwood kicked a penalty. This temporarily roused the home side who responded well to the setback. The Bolton forwards ran strongly and set up good positions for the backs to move the ball quickly for Jack Robinson to score a brace of tries wide on the right within the first 15 minutes, neither of which were converted. The home team were on top at this stage with skipper Chris Cockton marshalling the forwards well and Chris Mee, Ryan McClusky and the returning Niall Murphy all making goods yards, but after a couple of driving mauls near the Fleetwood line were turned over, Robinson was bundled into touch a couple of feet from a hat-trick and Manny Tailor looked for someone to run into rather than crossing the try line Bolton rather retreated into their shell and allowed the larger Fleetwood pack back into the game.
From their first visit into the Bolton 22 the visitors scored a try wide out after a concerted series of attacks on the Bolton line and the rest of the half petered out into a midfield battle as neither side could put together enough phases to threaten.

So 10-8 to Bolton at half time, and the second half continued as the first had finished. The Fleetwood pack ran strongly without threatening to break the Bolton defence, and the home team lacked the accuracy at the breakdown and with ball in hand to exert any real pressure. Fleetwood took the lead briefly with a long range well struck penalty, but Mike Mills replied with a couple of his own to give the home team the spoils.

So a hard-fought victory for a Bolton team who never really hit their straps on the day. There were encouraging returns from injury for Will Bate, Niall Murphy and especially Rhys Pritchard playing his first game for 10 months after surgery. With a couple more long-term absentees returning to training the cherry and whites will be bolstered for the difficult run in ahead, but for now, although they know they are capable of better, they will be happy enough with the win that keeps them third in the table.

MoM – Jack Robinson