Bolton’s Winning Streak Brought to a Close

Bolton arrived at Mirehouse in plenty of time to catch the first half of England Vs Italy before heading off to being their pre-match preparations. The warm up went well and Bolton went in to the game on a high and in search of yet another win. Opting to kick, the Bolton pack chased the high ball from Mike Mills and the game was underway. Benedicts showed their intentions early with hard carries by their sizeable forwards before the ball was quickly passed out wide utilising their experienced fly half.

Bolton tackled well in the opening exchanges and managed to contain Benedicts in their own half before they resorted to the kicking prowess of their number 10. The small pitch worked in his favour and a well-placed kick put Bolton under early pressure. Doherty collected the ball but was put under extreme pressure from the kick chase and resorted to kicking to touch. From the lineout Benedicts worked well and the ball quickly found its way to the opposite touchline. Strong covering defence from Mike Richardson and Will Bate kept the home side at bay, but they had spotted the gap back the other way and quick ball made the most of it to breach the defensive line and take an early lead. The conversion was kicked and Bolton were 7-0 down.

Bolton now began to play with the pace and power they were used to and following a perfect lineout skipper Chris Cockton found himself charging down the middle of the park. A covering tackle from the Bennie’s back row brought an end to his run and Bennies were awarded the penalty for holding on at the ruck. They cleared their lines, but Bolton were able to disrupt the ball at the line thanks to the work of Louis Critchlow and Alex Youngman in the air. Mike Mills released his backline and Will Bate exploited a gap to break the line. Illegal play at the following ruck gave Bolton a penalty, which despite being in kickable range, Cockton opted for the corner. The maul was set up and Bolton began to drive towards the line, made more difficult by the heavy underfoot conditions. Gareth Evans broke from the back with the line in sight but was held up giving Bolton he scrum.

Following several resets thanks to the poor underfoot conditions, Bolton finally managed to get the nudge on. The experience of Sam Hilton at loose head, influential at the set piece as always kept Bolton moving and with Critchlow and Tony McLaughlin in the engine room Bolton were edging closer to the line. Gaz Pritchard controlled well at 8 and crashed over for the score that Bolton deserved. Unfortunately, following the missed conversion from Doherty, it was to be Bolton’s last score of the day.

Benedicts came back hard and an infringement at the breakdown gave them a chance to extend their lead to 10-0.

This was to be the final score of the half with neither team controlling the play for the remainder of the half.

At half time, Bolton were forced into a change with Rhys Pritchard departing for Andrew Murtagh after an injury to his shoulder. Nick Holmes spoke of ensuring that Bolton played their own game as when they had done in the first half they had made good ground. There must also be an improvement in the speed at the ruck with Bennie’s players being allowed to lie over the ball with referee taking no action.

The half did not last long before it was halted due to a serious injury to the Benedicts’ winger. However, during that period, Bennies got themselves onto the scoreboard once more with a cheeky chip and chase that the outside centre managed to dot down taking the score to 15-5 with the conversion missed.

In the build up to the try a textbook tackle from Will Bate felled the winger and following the try the game was brought to a halt by the official whilst the player received attention. The decision was taken to call an ambulance and the game was delayed for some time whilst the emergency services were called. Our best wishes go to the injured player and we hope that it was nothing too serious.

When the game restarted some 20 minutes later the referee spoke to Cockton regarding the tackle that caused the stoppage. His comment of ‘I didn’t see what happened as I was following the ball, but it was an illegal tackle’ perplexed the skipper, but the game continued regardless.

This mind set within the officials head must have led to his next decision when he sin binned Tony McLaughlin for sacking the maul. On the half way line, a first offence from the player with no prior warning about foul play. A disappointing reaction that was the only spoiler on what was a very good game.

Bolton were now put under pressure by the Benedicts pack but the remaining 7 players held out the 10 minutes with the majority of play being in the middle of the park. The end of the sin bin brought Simon Frost into the game for McLaughlin who remained off the field. An injury to Dave Bruen forced another reshuffle and Spencer Pettitt moved to 12 with Nick Sandbrook joining the fray at scrum half….

This reshuffle presented issues with Sandbrook not known for his scrum half ability doing a relatively good job for a flanker… Gee’d up by the voice of Ash Cooper in the pack, Bolton set about making their way up field in search of another score. Several phases later they found themselves on the front foot and were putting the home side under pressure but the ball out to Mills was dropped and Benedicts had the put in at the scrum.

The remainder of the game saw both sides evenly matched in both attack and defence with Bolton unable to find the edge that they have in other games this season. Credit must go to Bennies who defended stoutly for 80 minutes to grind out the victory with Bolton disappointed to have come away with nothing.

The loss allowed Eccles to catch up to within one point of the Cherry and Whites. Both teams will now be targeting bonus point wins in all their remaining matches in order to fight it out for the title and with both sides matched against Aspatria int he run in, it will make for an interesting end to what has already been an encapsulating season.