Three from Three at The Avenue

After the opening exchanges it was very evident that the match was going to be an exciting contest. De La Salle’s handling and running caused a few problems for Bolton but Bolton’s defence held up well; they made some good headway into De La Salle’s half with some hard running from the forwards, particularly Niall Murphy. De La Salle opened the scoring with two penalties within the first twenty minutes. Bolton responded with a penalty from Rhys Pritchard on the twenty-eighth minute. Bolton were on top at this stage and had many attacking opportunities during this period of the game but gave away penalty after penalty which allowed De La Salle back into the match. On one of these attacking moves, Bolton moved the ball wide through several pairs of hands and Alex Waddicar caught a difficult pass to go over for a try in the thirty-first minute. Bolton continued to pile on the pressure and were perhaps unfortunate not to score more points. The half time score was Bolton 8 De La Salle 6.
The second half started in the same vein with both sides attacking and defending well. In the forty-fourth minute Bolton had a scrum on De La Salle’s line and Niall Murphy went over for a try. De La Salle came back into the game and scored a relatively easy try due to poor defence play by Bolton and in the fifty-second minute they also scored a penalty to take the lead 13-14. Rhys Prichard was tackled very late by one of De La Salle’s forwards and Alex Waddicar converted the ensuing penalty to make the score 16-14 in Bolton’s favour. The standard of play deteriorated at this stage of the game as De La Salle kept giving away penalties for arguing with the referee. From one of these penalties Bolton took full advantage. The forwards drove forward to allow James Franks to score a try in the sixty-ninth minute which Rhys Pritchard subsequently converted. In the last few minutes of the match De La Salle converted a penalty and that made the final score Bolton 23 De la Salle 17.
It was a very good team performance from Bolton as there were quite a few last minute changes. All the players ‘Stepped up’ and everyone played with great discipline and energy. James Franks was Man of the Match.