Bolton 'Fantastic Fours' overcome Blackburn 'Mighty 3s'

From the off, the home team were keen to pressure the Bolton line. But sound defence and good forward play held the attackers at bay.

As Bolton settled they gradually moved the game upfield. With Blackburn still keen to open the scoring they launched a speculative kick deep into the Bolton half.Boltn winger, Ben Hill fielded the kick and sped off down the pitch. As the Blackburn winger tackled him he offloaded to supporting player Mike Smith who continued the move. The Blackburn full back made the covering tackle, but Bolton had yet another supporting player, Jack Dickinson, who finished the move by running to touch down under the posts. Captain Keith Howie added the extras.

Blackburn came straight back, keen to redress the balance, but their eagerness exposed holes in their defence which flanker Ian McAuley exploited to chase his own kick, collect the ball and cross the whitewash to touchdown. Blackburn were rattled !

Meanwhile the back row of Kev Spencer, Mark Higgins and McAuley, aided by the second row pairing of Duncan Craigen and Jim Sharples (and John Kelly) were ensuring that there were very limited opportunities for Blackburn to get back into the game, aided by great tackling from centre pairing of Gaz Flounders and Jack Dickinson. As Blackburn tried to claw their way back into the game, more openings appeared for the fleet footed Bolton team, as other winger Mitchell Ashcroft, playing his first game for the Seniors, outpaced his opposite number to score in the corner, with the referee finally adjudging that he had been forced into touch in the dead ball area.

The second half opened with more of the same, as Bolton looked to run the ball at every chance. From a Blackburn clearance, full back Smith collected the ball in his own half and turned defence into attack as he glided thru the Blackburn defence to touch down unopposed. Blackburn 0 Bolton 17.

Blackburn finally responded and scored 2 tries of their own before Bolton opened the gap again as Ben Hill outsprinted the Blackburn defence to chase a kicked ball into the corner and touch down in the middle of the only puddle on the whole pitch. Watched from the side by the Blackburn 8 who had been sinbinned for excessive use of his elbows. With minutes to go Blackburn scored a further try, but Bolton had done enough.

A complete team performance.

Result: Blackburn 3rd 19 Bolton 4th 24