Bolton U16's will play either Fleetwood or Wigan in the Lancashire Blackstick Vase final being held at Southport RUFC on Sunday the 10th April. They travelled to Broughton Park in the semi final which was going to be a tough fixture.
Broughton Park has been a well established club over the years with a great history. Once up there with the top teams in the country.
The players found out that they were to play on the first team pitch at Broughton which even had a stand for spectators to sit in, a very rare occasion. After an excellent warm up Bolton were ready to play. Just prior to the game news came through that they had lost their loose head prop when Tom Crook w unavailable to play through illness. Alfie Kay stepped up to the mark going in at tight head with Abdullah Hussain switching to Loose head. This meant Owen Patel came in at second row with Matthew Moore moving to eight with Morgan Skeels-Caldwell moving to open side.
Bolton started the stronger and within 5 minutes of the kick off Alex Greenhalgh playing at number 6 trundled over after early pressure from the Bolton forwards , Ben Turner stepped up to convert the try making it 0-7 after just 5 minutes.
Broughton Park weren't going to let Bolton have their own way and started to claw their way back into the game 'jackaling' the ball at every opportunity. Broughton Park weren't able to turn possession into points and on 25 minutes after further pressure from the Bolton pack, Captain Milo Holmes playing at scrum half dived over for a try which remained unconverted.
Bolton continued to dominate the first half with a great defensive effort, and the Broughton Park forwards started to tire.
James Evans playing with a slight injury made a powerful run beating all attempts to tackle him to score on 32 minutes making the score 0-17 after Ben couldn't convert it.
Just prior to half time Kier Kernick as rewarded with a try after he had made several powerful runs into the Broughton defence after he went over the whitewash just under the posts. Ben s on hand to convert it making the half time score 0-24.
Surely Broughton couldn't come back from that but 5 minutes into the second half Broughton replied with a try after James Evans had to leave the field through injury. Joe Fraser-Taylor came on in his place. Harry Dawber replaced Alfie Kay who was struggling with a shoulder injury. Both teams were struggling with the March sun and size of the pitch and were beginning to tire. Broughton spotted this in the Bolton defence and capitalised on a two man overlap to score the first of two tries. With the score now 10-24 Bolton had to shore up their defence. James McDowell came on at scrum half, Milo Holmes moved to inside centre, pushing Joe Fraser-Taylor out to outside centre. Kier Kernick left the field for a well earned rest. In the last 10 minutes Bolton's coach's heart was in his mouth as the clock ticked down and Broughton were coming back into the game. But it was not to be Bolton held out for a well deserved victory. Bolton now March on to the final. Players of note Ben Turner marshalled the backs well, Morgan Skeels-Caldwell was everywhere today driving the forwards on. Joshua Grundy and Sam Dawson part of the back three made some try saving tackles. Powerful runs from all the forwards in the first half wore the home team down.
A great day for Bolton in South Manchester.
As picked by the parents watching today Morgan won most contribution award (pictured above) Sam Dawson won best tackling award and the player of the match award went to the whole team.