Match report v De la Salle

Unbeaten Bolton hosted unbeaten De La Salle. De la Salle won the toss and received kick off. Early exchanges were fairly even with Bolton looking stronger at the scrum, driving DLS back on many occasions and turning the ball over, but struggled to get the ball away from their own scrum cleanly. DLS looked to ship ball wide quickly to utilise their strong back line.

About 10 minutes in DLS were penalised for killing the ball at a ruck. From the Bolton penalty Barlow kicked for touch, which was palmed away from touch by the DLS winger, the ball bounced over the visitor’s try line. O’Donahue had chased well and dove on the ball for the first try of the day, the extras were missed. DLS kicked off and immediately put Bolton under pressure forcing Bolton to concede penalty in front of the sticks. DLS kicked the penalty to bring them within 2 points. Bolton kicked off and DLS came out strongly with their backs linking well causing Bolton’s defence problems. From a Bolton scrum DLS won the ball against the head and their backs worked an overlap well to score in the corner.

Half time Score 8-5

Bolton came out strongly after the restart and worked a good position inside the opposition half allowing Barlow to slot a drop goal from outside the 22, levelling the scores. DLS came back at Bolton with good running from their backs. Once again DLS turned over a Bolton scrum against the head and converted an overlap to score in the corner, the conversion missed. DLS began to try and kill the game with scuffles springing up off the ball. Their indiscipline again showed with their flanker punching Ormes after a lineout. The referee sent him to the bin with about 12 minutes remaining. From the penalty Barlow kicked to the corner, Bolton mauled the lineout and were heading towards the DLS line before Lee broke from the back of the maul and dived over to bring the scores level. The conversion was missed leaving the scores level at 13-13. DLS came back after kick off looking to regain their lead, but Bolton’s defence held strong and the game finished 13-13 a fair result for two evenly matched sides.

Tries: O’Donohue, Lee

Drop Goals: Barlow

Best Dead Fly impression: Tony McLaughlin (after being on the receiving end of a punch)