Bolton u16s 45 - Bury u16s 5

Dominant U16s bury opponents.

Bolton played local rivals Bury in the Lancashire League and came away with an emphatic win. Bury struggled to live with the pace and power of the Bolton pack from the start. An early line-out gave the Bolton pack opportunities to go through 3 phases before Alex Tonge crashed over within the first 2 minutes to open the scoring. Issac Woods added the conversion. Bury struck back with a well-worked try before Bolton's aggression and physicality took control. Alex Tonge again unstoppable running in another of his 3 tries. The pressure was relentless from the Bolton pack, Brandon Booth, Ben Knowles and the two second row forwards Darren Robinson and Joe McHugh crashing forwards time after time, supported by Jake Ryan and Joe Mackey allowing flanker Ollie Thompson to bulldoze his way through for the next score.
Jimmy Holland, restored to the starting line-up after injury in the first game of the season, was pulling the strings in the number 10 position. Taking quick ball from a ruck he sold the dummy before darting through and racing clear of the chasing Bury team to claim a great solo try.
Bolton reset and went again, moving the ball through the forwards then the backs - Jack Philips linking with Jimmy Holland, Jack Byrne, Jordan Griffiths and Harry Cleworth to batter at the Bury line.
Bolton were playing with a degree of freedom that comes from confidence and an ever growing scoreline, their willingness to try different angles and mix up the attack brought the try of the match. Bury were defending phase after phase when Jimmy Holland spotted the huge overlap on the wing. Kicking the ball over the onrushing defense for winger Issac woods to outpace the full back and score in the corner.

It was inevitable that the next points on the board were from the Cherry and Whites, Alex Tonge showing pace and a change of direction to claim another try.

The fitness of the Bolton pack and hard running brought the final 7th try from winger Sam Hart after many phases of play from now convincing team. With the points gap at 40 the official game stopped and converted to a developmental game. To Bury's credit, they kept playing and never gave up.In order to keep the game going Bury needed some extra players and Bolton's Dan Nadin, Jake Ryan and Darren Robinson all showed great camaraderie with our local rivals by pulling on a Bury shirt for the last 10 minutes.