That in mind, Winnies would be no tough scalp having had a tough first bout at Avenue Street earlier on in the season. The Bolton lads trotted out onto the pitch to begin their usual match day warm up, but it was soon apparent that David Bruen wasn’t among his team mates. He was found shortly after laughing and joking with the opposition whilst they were warming up. His centre partner Will Bate (VVC) had a brief but strong word with him, and the matter was smoothed over with an apology from the overly tanned man.

The game started with Aldwinians having a spell of possession around the half way line, and after a number of phases opted to pin Bolton back in there half with a well-placed kick. As usual, the Bolton line out served to provide Aldwinians with good attacking ball, but stout defence from the Bolton forwards at the break down, and the agile cover defence from the best back line in the league was enough to dispel the pressure via a cunning trademark turnover from Ash Cooper, and a well-executed clearance kick from Bolton’s sterling standoff, James Singleton.

Although Bolton’s line out wasn’t functioning at 100%, this wasn’t the case in the scrum. Sheer and utter dominance in all aspects of the scrummaging set piece provided Bolton with superb attacking ball all game, whether it was the away sides feed or not. Man of the Match Chris Mee, Chris Cockton and Sam Hilton utilised there knowledge and power of the front row dark arts to their advantage, and tears were soon visible on the Winnies’ front-rowers faces. It was through an overturned scrum in the middle of the park, a determined crash ball from James Brodie, and a lovely little off load from Chris Cockton that unleashed Will Bate up the middle of the pitch, drawing in and stepping the home sides’ defenders for fun. Twenty yards later Will Bate was set upon by one to many of the opposition and therefor off loaded to James Brodie who then took the ball on and unleashed James Singleton with a deftly weighted pop to his left. James Singleton shifted into top gear, covered the remaining twenty yards at the speed of light and cruised over the line for the opening score. The wind was to be Mark Doherty’s toughest adversary of the day, and he unfortunately could not convert for the extra two. Bolton 5 – Aldwinians 0.

James Singleton was the only player to get on the score sheet in the first half, although it should be noted that Aldwinians did have two attempts at goal within the Bolton half. One from an infringement at the breakdown, and another resulting from a Bolton twenty two drop out. Will Bate being an attack minded and flair driven player opted to deceive the opposition, dribbled the ball over the twenty two line, regained it but then was tackled and pinged for holding on. The question does have to be asked …. Where were the Bolton forwards? No harm no foul, penalty attempt missed.

Just before the half time whistle Bolton enjoyed a few phases of possession around the home defenders twenty two. Bolton hammered the defensive line, with two quick drives to the open side, then big Louis Critchlow called a rewind ball, and Andrew Crimmins was only too happy to provide him with the attacking opportunity. Louis caught the ball (a feat in itself for the … special … second row) attacking the line at pace and proceeded to violate his opposite number by trucking over the poor lad. The opposition scrum half managed to firmly latch onto Louis upper body like a leech, but failed to bring the power house down, conceding ten to fifteen yards in the process until more defenders could rally to his aid. With Chris Mee, James Brody and Ben Stubbs waddling behind in his wake, the ball was recycled at the breakdown and spread to James Singelton, who had called upon his ‘big’ centre David Bruen to take the ball up the middle. His eagerness to carry out his generals orders were to be his downfall, as David Bruen isn’t known for his fleet of foot, and the courageous inside centre started his bootlegged run too flat lacking the depth needed for James Singleton to attack the line and ship the ball on, and for the twenty third time this season Bolton were guilty of passing the ball forward. Just after the incident occurred, there were rumours on the touchline that Nick Homes was seen scratching out a name on next week’s team sheet. This break in play saw the referee bring a close to the first half.

Half time.

Upon the second half restart the Aldwinians enjoyed a long spell of possession, but Bolton’s defence held firm, and again the home side opted to pin back the away team deep in their own half. The Aldwinians threw up two jumpers, and managed to disrupt the Bolton lineout enough to gain possession of the football. Winnies took two big carriers to the middle of the pitch, and then flashed back down the blind side. Caught napping with their pants down, the Bolton defenders slipped off two tackles, and the Aldwinians fly half flopped over the try line to score for the home side. Conversion missed. Bolton 5 – Aldwinians 5.

Nick Homes is a thoughtful, quiet man. Not one to scream and shout when things aren’t following the minute by minute tactical game plan he wrote five days before hand. Clip board in hand, he made what historians and sports fans worldwide will call the tactical maneuverer of the 21st century. Andrew Crimmins was to come off, Will Bate was to glide into his favoured scrum half position, Rhys Pritchard dropped into outside centre, and Andrew Murtagh was to slot in on the wing.

As Bolton always do upon conceding, the side rallied to their captain Chris Cockton’s call to front up and took it to the opposition. The forwards stepped up and began to dominate the breakdown area, the backs carried the ball forward aggressively and cleverly and Bolton began to completely dictate the game.

Bolton were awarded a penalty just inside their own half, which Will Bate kicked 45 yards down field to give the Bolton pack a great opportunity to apply some pressure to the home side. Failing to secure the line out, Bolton managed to force Aldwinians into conceding a scrum just off their own try line. The call came from James Brodie, and the forwards packed down and went for a walk. Inch by inch they drove the deflated opposition further and further back. James Brody deftly controlled the ball at the back of scrum with nibble touches from his size 14 feet. Alas, as the try line loomed and James began to gather his thoughts on which celebration he was going to go for when he scored, the oppositions scrum half ruined his pre-planned backflip celebration by booting the ball back through the scrum, out the other side and into his own in-goal area. James outpaced Ash Cooper to the ball and applied downward pressure, but the referee decided to award a penalty try, stripping James of his first try of the season. To add insult to injury the Winnies scrum half was sent to twiddle his thumbs for ten on the side line, and Mark Doherty slotted the conversion. Bolton 12 – Aldwinians 5.

With play resuming Nick Homes looked at his watch, and then signalled to the bench for players to start warming up. The next break in play saw the fresh legs of Nick Sandbrook and Gareth Evans replace Ben Stubbs and Sam Hilton. This injection of pace rewarded Bolton with a try within five minutes.

Will Bate was to sow the seeds of Boltons third try, by casually stepping the Aldwinians prop, handing off their nine, gassing there back row and feeding James Singleton who drew the oppositions full back, looked outside for support and almost tripped over in shock to see the 35 year old David Bruen flailing his arms in support. James weighted the pass to perfection, and David covered the final fifteen yards to the home sides try line as if running through treacle. As David Bruen originally hailed from Aldwinians the classy, elderly player choose to ….. celebrate as loudly and as abrasively as possible like a giddy drunken teenager. Mark Doherty failed to add the extras. Bolton 17 – Aldwinians 5.

A defensive play was to create the fourth and last Bolton try. Man of the Match Chris Mee is an intelligent rugby player. He looked up and noticed that there was only James Singleton, David Bruen, Rhys Pritchard, Mark Doherty, Mike Richardson, and Andrew Murtagh defending out wide so opted to stand out in the back line and grab a quick breather away from the breakdown action. This decision finalised Aldwinians defeat and secured a bonus point victory for the Cherry and Whites (who played in black). The Aldwinians fly half took the ball and zipped a looping pass towards his outside centre. Chris Mee read the play superbly, accelerated off the mark like a Jamaican sprinter and hit man and ball with perfect timing. The ball came free to … you guessed it folks … Will Bate, who was sweeping behind the line for an opportunity to strike. Will attacked the ball so aggressively and with such pace he was later to receive a speeding ticket from a mobile speed camera camped just off the home teams’ car park. Having reacted quickly to the loose ball Bate found himself in the Aldwinians back field. The opposition’s winger covered across and the full back closed down the space to present one last line of defence to Will’s assault. Just when hope began to fade, a shimmering, beacon of gingerness came galloping down the right wing in the form of Andrew Murtagh to provide a life line to the Bolton attack. Will Bate drew the defenders and passed an inch perfect twenty yard stunner to his fellow team mate and Andrew snatched up the ball, stepped on the gas and teleported to the try line for his first try of the season. Mark Doherty failed to add the extras. Bolton 22 – Aldwinians 5.

The final ten minutes saw Bolton close out the game comfortably.

A big thank you to all Bolton’s away support, to the beautiful Sue Crimmins for the action shots, and to Aldwinians for hosting a fine game of rugby. Best of luck to Aldwinians for the rest of the season.

MOTM – Chris Mee