BOLTON TAKE 2ND PLACE

Littleborough arrived at Avenue Street full of confidence after picking up their first win of the season last weekend away at Workington, but faced a stern test as Bolton looked to continue their fine run of form and maintain their home record.

Despite the league standings, Bolton were under no illusions and knew they should expect a hard physical game from the Hollingworth Lake men. Bolton chose to rest centre Will Bate moving him to the bench with Rhys Pritchard moving into the vacant 13 shirt and Ryan Wignall starting on the wing. In the forwards, Nick Holmes made just one shuffle choosing to start Matthew Parrish at number 8 and Gaz Pritchard on the bench along with Simon Frost.

The opening exchanges were all Littleborough as they started the game in much the same vein that Bolton has the week before against St Benedicts. Boro dominated possession thanks to their strong driving maul, solid scrum and hard running backs. Whilst Bolton’s defence held well, inevitably a penalty was conceded which the Boro kicker duly converted to open the scoring.

Bolton didn’t panic and continued to play their game. Once again Boro showed their strength in the driving maul to earn the good yards eventually resulting in a converted try.

Bolton then enjoyed a period of possession and started to play Boro at their own game. An outstanding maul saw the forwards march on to claim 15 metres before their opposite numbers illegally brought it down, perhaps too far from the whitewash to invoke a yellow but the home support certainly made their thoughts heard… The penalty opportunity was pushed wide by Mark Doherty and the pressure was off Littleborough.

Boro managed to earn themselves another kickable penalty outside the Bolton 22 which was once again converted to take the score to 0-13. Under the posts, Bolton took solace in the fact that the visitors were looking notably tired after their high intensity efforts in the opening 30 minutes and they knew that a 13 point deficit was a score that could be turned around.

That confidence showed from the restart as winger Mike Richardson and Ash Cooper flattened the catcher and put Bolton onto the front foot. The input of Will Bate off the bench was immediately felt as he valuable yards from which the forwards were able to make more ground. Boro resorted to giving away a penalty in front of the sticks which Doherty slotted with the last meaningful play of the half to take the scores to 3-13.

The half time team talk was all positive as Bolton knew they had it within them to turn the game around against a tiring Littleborough side. A few technical issues need ironing out and stronger rucking from the forwards would bring the possession required. For the first time this season no changes were made at half time as Nick Holmes showed faith in his players.

This faith was repaid as Bolton attacked the visitors with a renewed vigour. Forwards and backs continued to link up and the metres began to tumble away as they approached the whitewash. A well worked move saw the ball shipped from right to left into the waiting hands of Bate who set off on one his trademark runs to go under the posts for Bolton’s first try. Doherty stepped up to take the extras and Bolton were back in the game at 10-13.

Littleborough responded immediately with a converted penalty of their own, leaving Bolton needing a converted try to take the lead. Bolton were only too happy to oblige as they set up an driving maul just inside the away teams 22. Despite numerous attempts the stop the drive Bolton continued to rearrange and crashed over the whitewash with Alex Youngman the player at the bottom with the ball in his hand. Doherty once again added the extras and Bolton were in the lead for the first time in the game at 17-16

Simon Frost and Gaz Pritchard were then introduced into the pack to add some fresh legs as Bolton looked to put the game to bed. Pritchard’s presence was immediately felt as he carried the ball into contact, a clash of heads saw Boro 8 Ben Irving unceremoniously sat down and further metres were gained. For several phases Bolton kept the ball in the forwards and continued to attack the tired looking visitors, before the ball was shipped out for James Singleton to distribute from 10. Great interplay from the backs division saw ground being gained once again and an infringement from Boro at the ruck gave the official no choice but to brandish a yellow card and Bolton took the opportunity for 3 points.

Bolton collected the ball from the restart and once again marched up field through a combination of forwards and backs moves. As the clock ticked down Bolton retained possession and thanks to Littleboroughs over-eagerness to win the ball back, were presented with another opportunity for 3 with the final play of the game. Doherty stepped up and rounded off a good personal performance as he took his tally to 16 for the day.

Littleborough put in a performance that far outweighed their league position and there is no doubt that many teams will be troubled by them throughout the remainder of the season. Whether they are able to earn themselves enough points to avoid the drop remains to be seen, but a team of that quality deserve to playing rugby at this level.

Despite this it has to be said there were a number of unnecessary off the ball incidents that were missed by the officials, one of which, a blatant stamp to the knee in the opening minutes, may have put number 8 Parrish out for up to 12 weeks – Bolton are currently waiting on the results of a scan. This kind of incident is not one that should be seen within our sport and Bolton did well not to react.