Bolton Braves Blunt Vale's Valiant Challenge!

After an early pitch inspection had passed the grounds fit to play on at Avenue Street the heavens opened and a blizzard of hail and snow created havoc on the roads and covered the pitches in a fine layer of white. Good work by the ground staff at Avenue Street led to a single pitch being passed to play with the 4th XV game having to be called off due to the adverse conditions. With Bolton 2nd XV also having to abandon their game due to the problems with the local road network, a sizeable crowd had gathered to view the first meeting between these two sides at Avenue Street. Vale had already defeated Bolton once earlier in the season up the M6 but the fortunes of the two teams seemed to be on the turn since that ended with Bolton having won 3 of their last 5 and Vale on a 5 match losing streak.

Bolton were under the cosh from the kick off with the Vale team looking to play a fast expansive game which had been evident in the first meeting between these sides at Powderhouse Lane earlier in the season. The ball was switched with great effectiveness from wing to wing with the Vale back line looking dangerous at every play. The Vale forwards smashed the ball in at pace with patient recycling and Bolton knew they were in a fight from the off. But Bolton have learned from their mistakes at this level and the defence was looking more resolute as each minute passed by and they continued to soak up the pressure with some first class tackling from skipper Ashley Cooper and fly half Mike Mills leading the way.

Vale maintained their pressure kicking for the corners and taking quick taps as Bolton's penalty count began to mount. A scything attack down the right saw the Vale winger appear to cross the whitewash, only for some last ditch tackling from Jonny Stanfield and Mark Docherty to push him over the whitewash and dead in goal, a sigh of relief was heard from the Bolton supporters in the side line as the referee agreed with this view and awarded a 22 drop out to the home team.

This seemed to mark a turning point in the game and Bolton were galvanised into action. The front row trio of Hilton, Gareth Evans and Mee all made their presence felt with a number of powerful scrums whilst Mee and Critchlow began to pound away around the fringes carrying good ball forwards.

By the 20th minute Bolton had been hit by two injuries to the Pritchard brothers which led to them being withdrawn from the fray with Bolton University student Spencer Pettit entering the back line and Tony McLaughlin at second row joining the battle.

Bolton eventually managed to gain a foothold in the Vale half and with their first attack they were awarded a penalty about 30 yards out but unfortunately the usually accurate Mark Doherty was off target and the game remained 0 - 0. Jonny Stanfield, a recent new signing for Bolton, looked dangerous in open field and broken play, making good yards whenever he received the ball whilst scrum half Jack Robinson was constantly sniping and badgering his pack around trying to break the deadlock however the first half ended in a stalemate.

With only a limited bench left Bolton knew that they could not make any tactical changes and Coach Holmes was certain that if the pack continued to keep pushing the Vale scrum around then there would be something in this game for them. With the line out functioning reasonably well under the guidance of veteran James Brodie Bolton maintained a solid, if unspectacular, game plan to try and wear the visitors down.

After initial good work from the Bolton back line Bolton marched down the pitch into the Vale half and following a strong run from the Bolton centre Nick Smith Vale were forced into conceding a penalty in kickable range which Doherty duly converted to give Bolton the lead 3 - 0. With rising confidence Bolton felt they could push on and win the game only for fate to deal them another cruel blow when replacement McLaughlin went off with an injured knee to be replaced by prop forward Jon-Paul Hardman in the second row. The unusual occurrence of effectively having 4 props in the scrum, as hooker Evans is a prop by trade as well, kept the Bolton scum pounding forward at pace and led to Bolton staying on the front foot. Good service from Robinson to Mills allowed Mills to offload to centre Smith who then broke 3 tackles to accelerate into the middle of the field further good recycling from the Bolton back row of Sandbrook and Cooper freed James Brodie to rampage down the middle forcing Vale to concede another penalty, Doherty stepped up confidently and slotted a long distance 3 points to leave Bolton in the ascendency.

Bolton maintained their composure and from the kick off managed to break the Vale defensive line again forcing another penalty however Doherty was unfortunately just off the mark with his fourth attempt for the day.

For the last 10 mins Vale rang the changes with their substitutes to try and find a key to unlock the Vale defence but good tackling from Joseph, Stanfield and Doherty managed to snuff out any attacks from the every dangerous Vale backline. Louis Crichton piled in with three or four critical tackles down the blind side whilst Nick Sandbrook epitomised the heart shown by Bolton by hitting anything that moved for the last ten minutes. Bolton managed to close out the game with some sound forward drives into the last few minutes with skipper Cooper again to the fore as he won a critical turn over ball close to the Bolton line.

The delight and relief was evident on all the Bolton players faces when scrum half Robinson kicked the ball into touch and the referee blew for the final time. A tough, hard fought game had seen Bolton walk away with the four points with Vale picking up a losing bonus point. A truly gritty display from a Bolton team that is learning to win ugly and graft out the tough games and all credit goes to a Vale side that visited Avenue Street fully prepared to try and play rugby in difficult conditions.