Bolton 1st XV Earn First Win of Season

The opposition (TOC H Didsbury) had for several years previously, thwarted Bolton's first team in both fixtures of each season.

The game started freshly at a frantic pace and Bolton were on the back
foot for several periods. A poorly missed penalty for an offside in
front of the posts by TOC H was the turning point as Bolton's forwards
finally started to play to the game plan, leaving the backs room to
assert their authority over their lesser opposition out wide.

Uncharacteristically poor lineout's were causing concern, however the
clean up job made the ball available to the half backs and even though
scrappy, the Bolton pack kept the team moving forward.

With ten minutes to play, Bolton were awarded and converted a penalty from 20metres to lead the game 3-0. From the kick off, a two phase play saw a blind side open up, and Singleton raced 55 metres, supported by Pritchard to score in the corner. The conversion was narrowly missed.

8-0 at half time.

The scrappy second half was dominated by minor mistakes and the
associated early season organisational problems.

With a great deal of pressure for the first 20minutes of the second half, Bolton pressed well in defence. The Toc H try came when a huge gap opened on the near side from a line out and the forwards, sucked into the ruck, left an unchallenged second row able to score on the 15metre line.

A poor kick meant the conversion was missed. Bolton picked up the pace from the restart and made good ground in the last period. This led to two long range penalties narrowly missing from the Bolton team.

The game finished with an 8-5 win for Bolton.

A better team performance was seen with the team playing a far more
structured and assertive game. The training and team understanding was
slowly proving evident.

Next week sees the First team travel to Old Bedians with over 70 players to select from, there is real competition for places across the whole playing body.