CHERRY AND WHITES RUN AMOK

After suffering relegation in 2014, Workington spent a few seasons rebuilding in the Cumbria league and eventually claimed the league title at the end of the 2015/2016 season to earn themselves a return to level 7. Unfortunately for Workington, Bolton have since cemented themselves at level 7 and under the watchful eye of Dave Crouch are starting to develop a more all round running game that the Zebra’s were unable to handle.

Avenue Street was bathed in sunshine for this weekends’ home fixture and the good weather brought with it an influx of home team support on the sidelines. The game kicked off with Bolton playing towards the club house and the opening exchanges saw both sides trade blows in the middle of the pitch. Workington enjoyed some early possession and their backs and forwards combined well, attacking around the fringes and out wide but a defence that showed the aggression and passion that it was missing last week held them at bay.

Despite their early possession, Workington were unable to put any real pressure on the Bolton line, lead superbly by Gaz Pritchard in his first match back in over a year and Ash Cooper. Bolton started well with ball in hand, but a combination of missed final passes and well organised drift defence from the visitors kept them at bay.

15 minutes in and with the score sat at 0-0 many of the Bolton faithful were wondering if their side would be able to get across the whitewash at all. Fortunately, the first real opportunity came following a penalty offence from a Workington player. The ball was kicked to the corner by Mike Mills and Louis Critchlow broke from the back of a well organised Bolton maul to open the scoring, converted by Mills.

Critchlow was on the scoresheet once again after a series of forward drives and well worked back play had Bolton just 5m out. A short ball around the side of the ruck gave Louis the opportunity to crash over from close range and with Mills on target once again, the score stood at 14-0 and Bolton were in the ascendancy.

Sniffing blood, Bolton began to play with some real fluidity, utilising their strong forward runners and pacey backline. Jonny Stanfield was the next name on the scoresheet after some hard lines down the middle of the pitch opened up the space out wide for the irish man to dash down the line and touch down for his first of the season, this time Mills wasn’t on target but the bonus point was in touching distance.

The bonus point score came with just 34 minutes on the clock, a break in midfield from captain Rhys Pritchard opened up the Workington defensive line and despite a last ditch tackle halting the centre, brother Gaz Pritchard was on hand to pick up from the ensuing ruck to drive over the line with Critchlow in support. Great to see Gaz back on the pitch after missing the whole of last season through injury and hopefully this performance is a sign of things to come from the young back row.

With the bonus point secured and half time looming, Bolton could have been forgiven for sitting back and allowing the half to run out, but Dave Crouch made it clear that he expected more of his side. VC Critchlow picked up on this and scored the try of the game with an excellent running line off Mills, 40m out that gave the defensive line no chance, despite the attempted tackle of the fullback, Critchlow ran in to claim a first half hat trick, converted by Mills to take the score to 33-0.

Bolton continued the second half in much the same way they ended the first, utilising both forwards and backs to create havoc for the Workington defence. Rhys Pritchard in particular was causing issues with his elusive running and Joe Smith was proving hard to stop at 12. One such run from Smith opened up the space for Pritchard to saunter in under the posts after just 3 minutes.

Soon after it was try scoring machine Jack Robinson’s turn to add his name to the scoresheet. The scrum half spotted a gap and despite pulling up half way through with a hamstring injury, the young flyer managed to add 5 points to his tally before he leaves for university this weekend. Mark Doherty came on at 9 for the injured Robinson and his pinpoint passing brought the backline in to play even more, with winger Sam Fogg next on the score sheet and Mills converting once again 47-0.

Alex Waddicar came on for Danny Joseph who had enjoyed a usually strong game and was unlucky to be disallowed a try after a strong last ditch tackle from a Workington defender. Waddicar was in on the action straight away slotting in at 12 with Joe Smith moving out to 13 and Pritchard onto the wing. With the ball in his possession and seemingly nowhere to go, Waddicar chipped over the black and white defence and won the footrace to take the score past 50 with Mills converting to add to it.

Once again, Crouch made changes to keep the side fresh, with George Wilkes who had enjoyed an excellent home debut at 7 coming off for Chris Cockton who moved into the front row with Niall Murphy moving to the back row. Cockton was also straight in on the action making the most of a rapidly moving maul to touch down. This time the conversion was missed.

Bolton rounded off the final 10 minutes with 4 more tries against a tired Workington defence, Sam Fogg, Alex Waddicar and Rhys Pritchard all ran in for their second tries and prop Manny Tailor finally got over the line having been on hand for nearly every score throughout the game, Mills kicked all 4 conversions to make the final score 94-0.

Credit must be given to Workington who battled hard throughout but who struggled to deal with the pace at which Bolton attacked. Despite the one-sided scoreline, Workington enjoyed some good periods of possession and looked particularly useful at set piece time.

From a Bolton perspective, it was particularly pleasing to see Gaz Pritchard get through a full 80 minutes, new signing George Wilkes had an excellent 60 minutes at openside and looks a great prospect for the future of Bolton rugby and keeping a clean sheet on home turf is always a huge bonus. The win means Bolton sit in 4th place and gives them some momentum going into their away fixture against 3rd placed Carlisle next Saturday.

MOM - Rhys Pritchard