Bolton Defeated by Oldham Away

...with the hope of keeping their two match winning streak on track.

Changes to the team saw Joe Waller stepping up for his first start at 9 this season, and James Brodie returning to the starting XV at number 8 after a week off. Unavailability caused a re-shuffle to, what has been a very consistent, Bolton backline seeing John Keech move to inside centre.

The first 20 minutes started badly for Bolton conceding two early tries out wide, the pace of Oldham’s backline causing trouble for the Bolton defence. Following this the Bolton pack picked up the intensity taking the game to Oldham, and constant pressure created a penalty scoring opportunity which was scored by fly-half Tom Price. A further penalty was missed just before half time leaving the score at 12-5.

Bolton started the second half exactly how they finished the first throwing everything they had at Oldham. However, Bolton were guilty of playing ‘one-up’ rugby and making life easier for the Oldham defence. Eventually the pressure told and number 8 James Brodie went over for a Bolton score. Conversion missed and the score was 12-8.

Bolton kept up the pressure in the Oldham 22 but mistakes started to happen and Oldham managed to make quick ball from a turn over in their own half and release their 12 to run around the Bolton backline and feed the winger for another score. Bolton rallied under the posts and went straight back at Oldham looking for another score, however several bad decisions ended up with Oldham turning over possession on their own five metre line. From the ensuing scrum the Bolton forwards, in particular Chris Mee and Gareth Evans, dominated the larger Oldham pack driving them off their own ball, unfortunately a combination of loose hands and good Oldham defence saw another knock-on returning possession to the home side. Once again the Bolton pack took the Oldham forwards apart and drove them back over the tryline for what should have been a push-over try, but an interesting decision at the base of the scrum allowed the Oldham backrow to come around the sides and disrupt the play. Eventually Oldham took advantage of a tiring Bolton defence and used the width of the pitch to their advantage scoring two further tries taking the final score to 31-8.

All in all a very disappointing loss for Bolton against the former coach’s new side, however positives can still be taken with Bolton controlling their own set-piece fantastically and creating numerous issues for the Oldham pack at both scrum and line-out.

Bolton have a tough few weeks coming up but the positives from this week combined with the positives of the previous two weeks will help Bolton get the 11/12 season back on track, starting with a home game against Birchfield next week.