Bolton’s 1st XV arrived with a strong match day squad and with high hopes of earning 4 points in their first of a number of away trips this season. Throughout the game Bolton showed their potential and were unlucky not to come away with at least 1 bonus point for their efforts.

As with all past games between the two opposition, this was a physical game that was played in the true spirit of rugby. Bolton started well from the kick-off, chasing and managing to contain the Hawcoat Park pack within their own half. Good turnover ball at the ruck gave Bolton possession and their first chance to attack the HP line. Despite hard running from the likes of Man of the Match Gaz Pritchard and tighthead prop Chris Mee the HP defence held strong until an infringement at the breakdown gave Bolton a penalty out wide. With a strong sideways wind to contend with Bolton opted to go for the lineout. Clean ball was secured by Dave Ormes but the maul was disrupted before it could start and HP managed to clear their lines.

On a damp and windy day knock-ons were happening far too often for Bolton’s usually high handling standards, however the drilled Bolton pack dominated the scrum from the 1st minute until the 80th and managed to turn several scrums against the head. Hawcoat still managed to withstand the pressure of the Bolton attack with resilient defence. From a Hawcoat line out, they secured good ball by utilising their tall second row players and a maul put Bolton on the back foot. The ball went out to the backs and their centre managed to break the line and release the ball to his supporting runners, good hands followed and the HP full back went over the whitewash for the opening score of the game. The conversion was slotted and score stood at 7-0.

Bolton came back hard at Hawcoat and within a few phases of the restart had turned the ball over, slick handling across the park and into the wind put winger Rhys Pritchard in at the corner to bring the score back to 7-5. The conversion as missed by full back Mark Doherty.

Following a clash of heads between Chris Mee and the Hawcoat 2nd row, Ben Stubbs was brought on at tighthead as a blood replacement. With Bolton having a scrum on their own 5m line it wasn’t the best time to lose their prop, but Stubbs soaked up the pressure and Bolton managed to clear their lines.

Hawcoat responded well and following two successive penalties found themselves with a lineout on the Bolton 5m line. Catch, drive, score…. The conversion was missed and Bolton found themselves 12-5 down. Once again, penalties cost Bolton possession and field position. A further maul was formed from the lineout and despite strong defence Hawcoat managed to bundle their way over the whitewash. The conversion followed and Bolton went into half time 19-5.

Stern words from coach Nick Holmes along with a number of changes, Chris Mee back into the front row and Marcus O’Donohoe onto the wing for Will Bate saw Bolton begin the 2nd half with the same vigour that they had attacked with in the opening 20 minutes. The constant pressure from the Cherry & Whites had Hawcoat on the back foot for the opening exchanges and eventually the pressure told when Hawcoat placed the ball down over their own try line to present Bolton with a scrum 5m out. The Bolton pack formed up and drove the home side back with ease, as the scrum began to turn number 8 Matthew Parrish picked up from the base and brushed aside the defence with ease to open up his tally for the season. Mark Doherty stepped up to make the conversion. 19 – 12.

Once again Bolton peppered the Hawcoat lines and found themselves within touching distance of the whitewash. Following wave after wave of forwards attacks, scrum half Nick Lever spied a gap and took his opportunity for 5 points. Doherty was unable to make the kick. 19-17. With just two points in the game, Bolton were after blood but over eagerness at the breakdown provided Hawcoat with two penalty opportunities which they duly took to take the loosing bonus point away from Bolton. Despite this, Bolton went in search of their 4th try with the aim of earning 2 bonus points in the dying moments. In their haste to attack the ball was lost and some good handling put Hawcoat in at the corner for the final score of the game.

Despite coming away with nothing, Bolton will take the positives from this game and look to utilise them in next week’s home fixture against promotion hopefuls Aspatria. Overall fitness was outstanding as was the scrum dominance shown by the forwards. Unfortunately, a myriad of small errors cost us possession at key moments throughout the match, and it showed that it’s been a number of weeks since Bolton had played a competitive game following Hutton’s last minute cry-off last week. With a full 80 minutes under the belts of most players next week will be a different story.

A huge thank you must go to our travelling support who made the effort to come and cheer us on. We hope to see you all again this Saturday at Avenue Street, where hopefully we'll be able to produce a better result.