Bolton 14-31 Ashton

The U16s faced a strong Ashton Under Lyne for the Semi Final of the Lancashire Plate in glorious sunshine at the Avenue of Trees.
Bolton were unable to field a full team for the first time this season after suffering more injuries in last weeks game at Blackburn.
Starting brightly Bolton pressured the Ashton defence and were unlucky to concede the first try after succumbing to lacklustre support play and losing the ball in contact. Bolton dug deep and came back at Ashton hard, with Ollie Thompson, Harry Round and Brandon Booth outstanding for the forwards. It was a break by 2nd row Darren Robinson that opened up the Ashton defence and allowed captain Alex Tonge to explode from inside the 22 and open the Bolton scoring. Conversion by Jimmy Holland. Half time saw the score at 7-12 to Ashon and the second half started with Ashton making the most of some tired tackling and almost scoring from the kickoff. Bolton worked the phases well and came back up the field of play. From a scrum, Jimmy Holland sent a chip ahead and raced through to ground the ball inside the try area and Alex Tonge converted from a tight angle. Bolton took the lead for the first time in the match. 14-12. After a heated passage of play which saw a player from each team yellow carded Bolton had to weather a storm of pressure from Ashton. Clearing the Bolton lines with a massive kick downfield the chasing Cherry and Whites tacklers couldn't get close to the Ashton centre who skipped his way back to the Bolton try line and 2 phases of play later Ashton crossed the line. The entire Bolton team were tiring now after a great defensive display and were unlucky to concede more tries in the last 10 minutes. A brave performance from Bolton