Bolton 18 – 15 Aspatria

The vagaries of the fixture list and the Great British Winter meant that Bolton were playing their third home game of the year in the second week of April, and it was possibly this lack of familiarity with the surroundings which led to a far from perfect but ultimately successful performance.

With Aspatria arriving as the league leaders and Bolton in he chasing pack there was plenty at stake and the opening was tense and nervy as both teams tested each other out with the ball in hand. The home team just about edged the early exchanges and Mike Mills, with last week’s banjo/cow’s rump interface failure fresh in the mind, settled the nerves with a well struck penalty. Far from providing a platform to push on from, however, this signalled a period of play in which Aspatria showed why they sit currently at the top of the table.

They kept the ball well and made ground without threatening a clean break, but forced an error eventually and kicked the resulting penalty to level the scores at 3-3 after half an hour. During this period Bolton had had decent possession of their own, but their game lacked accuracy and although they created some pressure as the visitors transgressed at the breakdown, mistakes meant that they were unable to recycle the ball often enough to carve out any try scoring opportunities.

Just before half time they were punished when a series of errors gifted Aspatria possession in the home 22. The ball was moved wide and the fullback, who ran dangerously all afternoon, profited as three home defenders left him to each other and he darted through. Then, in the words of the Aspatria match report he “hurdled the last defender to score”. It was far from a clean clearance and the last defender, Rhys Pritchard, was extremely lucky to escape with all his teeth, but the referee awarded the try.

There were only a couple of minutes left in the half, but Bolton were still able to create their best try-scoring situation of the afternoon when a chip by Will Bate and a slip by the fullback left three Bolton attackers and a bouncing rugby ball alone a couple of metres from the Aspatria line. The ball bounced as rugby balls are known to do and the it was knocked on by the overeager attackers. Bolton kept Aspatria penned in, however, and were able to force a penalty from the resulting scrum. Mills stroked it over to leave the score 8-6 to the visitors at half time.

The game had started out in sunshine, but the conditions now worsened as driving rain and a significant drop in temperature made conditions much harder to play decent rugby in. As driving rain and wind are the only conditions that Bolton seem to have trained in this season their handling actually improved in the second half, and although their game was too uncharacteristically narrow to threaten the Aspatria line the pressure created resulted in penalties at regular intervals for Mills. This meant that the game stood at 15-8 with 20 minutes to go when it took another twist.

The home pack had begun to get on top and destroyed an Aspatria scrum. Almost immediately a second front row injury for the visitors meant that the referee had no choice but to take the game to uncontested scrums. (Should the man-off rule have been applied here ?) This rather took the wind out of Bolton’s sails and offered some respite to the Aspatria pack, who came back into the game. They provided good ball for their backs who ran threateningly, but the Bolton defence looked like it would hold firm until a basic handling error gifted the visitors an uncontested scrum 5 metres out and the Aspatria no. 8 went over. The straightforward conversion meant the scores were tied with just a couple of minutes to go. There was just time enough for Bolton to regather the kick off and force a final penalty for a high tackle. It was Mills’ hardest kick of the afternoon, but he slotted it to raise a soggy cheer from the hardy few still on the touchline.

So a win for Bolton, but the losing bonus point for the visitors keeps them in pole position. The Bolton attack has misfired for the past few games and this was no exception – when the ball was moved wide quickly the home team looked threatening, but there was an overall lack of accuracy which has dogged performances in recent weeks and has cost the bonus points which may prove so vital this season. Great work from the back row of Ash Cooper, Louis Townsend and Mike Richardson and the threat posed by Will Bate in attack plus the boot of Mike Mills meant that Bolton may have won the battle, but the war is still far from over.

MoM – Louis Townsend. Top work at the breakdown all afternoon.