Bolton Rugby Club Amazon girls under 12’s and under 14’s made the short trip up the M61 to Preston Grasshoppers who were hosting the most recent Northern Girls Network event last weekend. With 18 girls available at the under 14’s age group, by far the biggest squad of those teams attending.
The first game was against ‘old foes’ Littleborough who the Amazons played earlier in the season and lost heavily 5-55. This time it was a different game as the Amazons defensive work has improved since that defeat. Littleborough are a great team around the breakdown and started to get on top almost immediately, but Bolton stood fast with great tackling by Raid Hodgkinson, Holly Turner, Betty Weall and Lizzie Barrow.
Bolton pressed hard and with 10 minutes gone Eilidh Burns playing scrum half weaved her way through the Littleborough defence from the back of Bolton’s pressure to score. The try wasn’t converted 5-0 to Bolton.
The game was very even between the two sides but after sustained pressure in the Bolton 22m area Littleborough broke through to score their first of two tries. Substitutions were made for Bolton with Philippa Irving and Sofia Reis-Coop, who was playing her first game for Bolton, coming on with Lizzie Barrow switching to scrum half.
Bolton scored their second try through Jasmine Cox who saw that Tope Oyeside was free and passed the ball to her and there was no stopping her, and she ran a third of the pitch to dot down between the posts. Captain Iona Barnes converted the try.
The final score was Bolton 12 v 12 Littleborough. Captain's choice for this game was Raid Hodgkinson in the forwards and the try scorer Tope Oyeside in the backs.
In the second u14’s game Bolton came up against a combined Glossop, Chester and Caldy team who joined together to make 15 a side. This was the combined teams first game so looked very fresh when they came on.
Bolton started the better team and appeared more structured in attack and were soon on the score board with a try which started with Eilidh Burns in the Bolton 22. Several rucks later after a sterling run by the on-form Erin Shaw, the ball was passed through the hands from Iona Barnes to Sofia Reis-Coop and eventually into the hands of Jasmine Cox who darted round underneath the posts from the right wing. Iona Barnes converted the try. 7-0 to Bolton.
Bolton continued with their ascendancy which resulted in new player Sofia Reis-Coop gathering the ball on the left wing and running the whole length of the field only to put the ball down short of the try line. Fortunately for her she realised her mistake quickly gathering the ball up and scoring over the correct line. The try was unconverted, the score was now 12-0 to Bolton.
The combined Chester team started to grow into the game and once the ball was given to their powerful runners Bolton started to drop off tackles. Chester were soon back in the game and two scores brought them back level. The Bolton girls were starting to tire. Chester’s fresh legs started to dominate the attack and powerful runs by their two dominant players were getting through the Bolton defence. Two more tries by the combined team in the last 5 minutes of the game was too much for the tired Bolton team and the final score was 12-24 to Chester.
Captains choice for the second game was Amelia Crook for the forwards and for the backs was Sofia Reis-Coop. The parents choice for player of the two games was Betty Weall. The coaches award for best player went to Erin Shaw.

Two of the Bolton U12s Amazons headed to the development day at Preston Grasshoppers. Eve Barrow and Maddie Iredale. Although missing some of their team mates they were taken under the wing of Rochdale and Burnley coaches and participated in 7 a side games with teams from Southport, Rochdale, Preston, Burnley. Eve and Maddie both played well with both carrying out some good tackles including Maddie having to take on Eve when placed on opposite teams. Eve succeeded in scoring two tries with Maddie scoring her first ever try. Well done Maddie! Both girls had to leave the field during the matches to deal with injuries but showed their Amazon spirit and determination by coming back to continue to play.

Pictured: Jasmine Cox backed up by Holly Turner, Tope Oyeside and Eilidh Burns