Down to earth with a bump

Bolton travelled to Dukinfield for the semi-final of the Raging Bull Plate competition. We were under no illusions of the task ahead of us, as Dukinfield were undefeated in their league and had scored 748 points and only conceded 64. Their cup run was even more daunting, played 4, points for 332, points against 0. But buoyed by good team spirit we were ready for them.
Early Dukinfield pressure was repelled by stout defence, with dust rising from the bone dry pitch every time tackler and tackled hit the ground. Finally from a line out, the Dukinfield wing forward, their stand out player of the game, ran across the face of the Bolton backs before he cut thru to open the scoring, 0 – 7. Bolton responded with a good spell in the Dukinfield half, but lost possession and as Dukinfield broke away, a penalty conceded just in the Bolton half was kicked by their stand-off, 0 – 10. Once again, Bolton responded, with the Bolton scrum having the edge for most of the afternoon. However missed tackles and another Dukinfield break lead to another score, 0 – 17. And another, 0 – 24. And another, 0 – 31. To their credit, despite the landslide, Bolton never gave up and always looked to take their chances when they came. Andy Jolly was the sole Bolton scorer of the day, converting a penalty opportunity, 3-31. Dukinfield responded with another concerted try, 3-38.
Half time came and Bolton were determined to give it all they had got, but Dukinfield always had too much pace and power. They added another 6 tries in the second half to make the final score 3 – 74. Despite the heavy loss, there were no fingers pointed within the Bolton team, we’d given our best, but been outplayed by the better team. Dukinfield thoroughly deserved their victory, and will undoubtedly walk away with the spoils from the Final in 2 weeks time.