Bolton 2s come up short on the coast

A number of new faces again in the squad but a strong line up and full bench gave Captain Panda confidence in leading his troops out onto what was a surprisingly good pitch after the morning downpours.

Both teams had several strong runners making yards, with Paz, Mike and Kenny leading for Bolton, however it was Fylde who started quicker getting on the scoreboard after a few minutes following some weak tackling and with Bolton hardly touching the ball. Bolton responded well though and following a couple of well worked lineouts, got some territory and from another lineout Kenny steamrollered over (who was either in slow motion or running at the speed of a steamroller) to bring Bolton back level.

The forward packs were well matched in the first half at both scrum and lineout, but it was the at the breakdown where Fylde had the edge manging to recycle quicker ball and slow and turnover some of Boltons ball. It was through this recycling that Fylde put on 2 more scores and looked to be pulling away.

Pleasingly for the Bolton Officials the team while getting a tad frustrated with some of the decisions began to claw themselves back into the game, getting more speed from the breakdown and beginning to exert some dominance at the scrum. It was from a scrum that Bolton got themselves on the scoreboard again. A well worked backs move and silky hands allowed Tom Bradley to go over in the corner.

Half time came with Bolton 17:10 behind.

The second half started well with Tom Didlock catching the restart and with a dancers grace, glided through the Fylde defence with the last man stopping him short. Tom is the first of the Colts team to play for the seniors this year and had a cracking game, setting the bar high for his fellow Colts.

From this encouraging start the second half mirrored much of the first with Bolton coughing up possession through loose hands or through Fyldes scavenging at the breakdown. Bolton struggled to exert any territorial dominance and after Brad Maclure had a try disallowed in the corner, frustrations began to spill over.

Panda rolled the subs on and Harvey Banks brought some power to the scrum where Bolton were driving Fylde back at will. Callum and Ethan adding some zip and pace in the backs but with phase play difficult to come by, we didn’t really get to see these young guns in full flow.
It was through these young backs that Bolton drove down the left hand side but after a loose pass, the Fylde full back picked up, evaded half of the team and sprinted down the wing, a couple of phases later and Fylde scored to pull 2 scores ahead. With minutes running out fast Bolton threw the ball around and from the 22 Brad scorched up the wing and went over under the posts.

This drew the scores back to 24:17 and with only seconds left Bolton threw everything they had but Fylde held out and took the spoils.

A great game of rugby and some strong performances from returning players including Gaz and Woody in the backs. Some big games coming up for the 2s to begin climbing themselves up the table.