Bolton 22 - 7 Hawcoat Park

Some of them require little more than the application of brute force, but others require sleight of hand, timing and regular practice under pressure. Training helps, of course, and the Bolton team has trained well throughout the winter, but there is no substitute for playing matches. Because Bolton are habitually less physically blessed than their opponents – the fly half is normally the tallest player in the team – they have to find other ways of playing than simply giving it to the big guys to plough a furrow down the middle of the pitch and those ways require more practice than the match every fortnight this winter has allowed.

So it was that Bolton went into their home game with Hawcoat Park from Barrow two weeks since the win at Fleetwood and the by now usual five changes in the pack from that match. Hawcoat Park kicked off on the driest day Bolton had seen for many months and forced a scrum immediately as the Bolton forwards stood transfixed and watched the ball bounce a couple of times. The visitors kept the ball well, forced a penalty which they kicked to the corner and drove a maul over the line for the opening try with only one Bolton player having touched the ball, and that was to knock it on. The conversion was added and the crowd wondered if the home team would wake up before it was too late. They did show some signs of life from the kick off and Mike Mills kicked a penalty to reduce the arrears, but the game became a very stop/start affair as the referee decided to police the scrums like they do on the telly. This meant that the first half dozen scrums resulted in only one being the pushing contest that they are supposed to be and five free kicks or penalties with Bolton on the debit side.

When the home team could get their hands on the ball Matthew Parrish and Mike Richardson ran strongly, but when they made a mistake or a move broke down Bolton would inevitably find themselves trotting back towards their own line as the visitors kicked to touch. It was from one such piece of Hawcoat possession that Bolton scored their first try: a kick from the visitors was fielded by Will Bate who made good ground before the ball moved through a couple of pairs of hands to scrum half Harry Stocks. Harry cut against the drift defence, rounded the last defender and dotted down under the posts for his first senior try to wild acclaim and a hint of a smile from his dad Gareth who has been helping out with the coaching.

Bolton scored again soon after as Mike Richardson, a regular in previous seasons as a winger but starting his first game at no. 8 for the club burst through a gap 40 metres out and showed his old finishing instincts to score by the posts. Mike Mills converted both tries and as Bolton advanced, soon after Jack Robinson, a threat all afternoon on the right wing, appeared to have scored only for the touch judge to wave an unconvincing flag long after Jack had touched down.

17-7 at half time soon became 22-7 as Richardson broke quickly from a scrum and fed Stocks to dive over for another try, but thereafter the game rather fell apart as the referee and the home team became frustrated with each other. There is only ever one winner in such a situation and Bolton spent most of the rest of the match in their half repelling Hawcoat attacks from driving mauls an close range tapped penalties. That the visitors failed to score even when the home team was down to 14 men should be a source of some satisfaction, but the home team never really looked like securing the try bonus point they were looking for. Hawcoat defended very well when they had to and gave the home team a stiff examination to the final whistle.

A very rusty performance once again for the Cherry and Whites of Bolton, but the win keeps them in playoff contention and the warmer weather will hopefully guarantee a run of games to enable them to gather some momentum for the challenging games to come.

MoM – Mike Richardson.