Slippery when Wet

It was the former players’ dinner on Saturday and Bolton entertained a strong Littleborough side, who were coming into the game having won three out of their four League matches.
Despite the rain and in front of a big crowd, Bolton kicked off. Straight away Littleborough started to dominate with their huge forwards making good ground. Due to an early injury to James Franks, in the ninth minute, Chris Cockton came on as substitute. Bolton were beginning to start to dominate the scrums and rucks and after twenty one minutes, Will Bate scored a super opening try by cutting through the Littleborough defence with lovely footwork. In the thirty second minute Bolton let Littleborough in for a very easy try. After the restart Bolton got on track again and were awarded a scrum close to Littleborough’s line. Gaz Pritchard drove over from the base of the scrum in the thirty sixth minute and Joe Speakman converted the try. The half time score was Bolton 12 Littleborough 5.
In the second half Bolton had lots of possession but due to the conditions, made the wrong decisions or gave the ball away. Littleborough opened their scoring in the second half with a penalty. This stung Bolton into action and in the sixty fifth minute, after very strong play from the base of a ruck, Manny Tailor drove over to score and Joe Speakman converted. Bolton’s defence was very much on top and they were putting Littleborough under a lot of pressure. In the seventy second minute Will Bate kicked to open space in Littleborough’s 22 which allowed Joe Speakman to jump for the ball against their winger, cling on to the ball, score in the corner and add the conversion. The last five minutes saw Littleborough really exert a lot of pressure close to Bolton’s try line but superb defence from Bolton didn’t allow them to score.
Although conditions made the ball very greasy, both sides tried to play good rugby. Bolton’s defensive line was very good and Littleborough were held at bay by some strong tackling. Bolton, perhaps, could have scored more points but that said they are still unbeaten at home this season. MoM Louis Critchlow.