Bolton 2nd team v Broughton 1st team Saturday 4th Sept 2010

The 2nd XV travelled to newly promoted Broughton with a much changed side from last season. However leaving Bolton with 15 players only 14 managed to make it to Broughton.
The home side started strongly dominating possession in the first 10 minutes but Bolton's defence held strong and Broughton were awarded a penalty which they kicked to put them 3-0 up. Their lack of indiscipline started to show as their fly half took a swing at Mark Townsend. From there Bolton started to dominate the scrum and take control of the game. Bolton should have taken the lead following a kick through and a chase from Waller and Whittaker but unfortunately Whittaker knocked on before he could put the ball down. Following some excellent forward play, Hardman from nowhere showed a burst of pace and maybe even a sidestep to find a gap and score under the posts which was converted by Clarke. Bolton continued controlling possession as Alan Catherall stole the ball from numerous Broughton rucks. Some strong running from Parrish Bolton going forward providing some good ball from the backs with youngster Kulgowski and old-timer Marriott looking dangerous with ball in hand. Waller extended Bolton's lead darting into a gap to score which Bolton failed to convert taking the score to 12-3. Some indiscipline from Bolton gave Broughton a penalty 5 metres from our line which they took quickly and crashed over. They try was converted reducing the lead to 2 points. Broughton had a spell of good possession and looked dangerous with a big overlap. As they looked like they were going to use the overlap to score, a miss pass was intercepted by James Dean who ran the full length to score at the other end. Bolton failed to add on the extras. Broughton's indiscipline started to show again with Metcalfe being the instigator. The Broughton captain took a swing at Metcalfe for which this time he was sin binned. Bolton continued to dominate at scrums with the Bolton pack forcing the referee to take the scrums to uncontested for safety reasons. With the game drawing to a close Broughton got a penalty in front of the posts which they kicked to take the score to 17-13. Bolton's defence held strong in the final few minutes and wound down the clock to bring the first victory of the season.

Tries: Hardman, Waller, Dean
Conversions: Clarke
MOM: Parrish