Bolton Amazon girls rugby teams travelled to Trafford Metrovicks Rugby Club to take part in the 1st rounds of the Northern Girls Network Cup.
The first game for the u16's, who had clustered with some of the Trafford girls, was against a strong Eccles Rugby club team. Turnovers were their downfall in this match but the girls put up a brave fight with Raid Hodgkinson-Bostock and Amelia Crook the standout players. Eccles scored a couple of tries later when Bolton failed to secure the ball. Bolton later scored from a scrum on the 22m line, a blindside move, involving Lizzie Barrow, Jasmine Cox and Tope Oyeside led to Jasmine scoring which was later converted. Final score 7-33 to Eccles.
Their second game was against the NW Roses team, a team combination with girls from Fylde, Preston, Burnley and Southport making up the team. This game was well balanced, but Bolton opened the scoring with a fine try from Sophie Rose who ran from just inside her own half the length of the pitch to score. The Roses just couldn't get back into the game and Jasmine Cox got the scoresheet after cutting through the defence a short while later. Bolton scored their final try by one of the Trafford girls to make this score 19-0 to Bolton.
Their final game was against a strong Littleborough team, who had joined Rochdale. Bolton unfortunately lost this 0-24.
The u14's had three cup games, the first against Trafford MV combined with Glossop. Bolton u14's were joined by 5 Eccles girls, Freya, Niamh, Ruby, Millie and Annie. The first game was a close encounter with only one try scored but unfortunately it was by the opposition. The final score was 0-5 to the home team. Hard work by Betty Weall, Holly Turner, Erin Shaw and Iona Barnes kept the Trafford MV attack at bay keeping the score to 1 try only.
The second game was against a strong Littleborough team. Bolton's u14's are a new group of girls still finding their feet, some of which have come up from the u12's and it will take a few games for the girls to settle in. This game was hard fought but Littleborough finished on top with two tries and one conversion. A very competitive game which could have gone either way.
The u14's final game was against the NW Roses u14's team. Bolton took control of the game early on and a great run from Iona Barnes after she stole the ball from an opposition player and ran the length of the pitch to score under the posts. She converted her own try. The next try came from Freya from Eccles who saw a gap in the defence and again ran half the pitch to score under the posts which Iona converted.
Two more tries from Bolton, with Eve Barrow at scrum half seeing a gap 5m from the opposition line going over first and then a final try from Holly Turner who collected a ball from the back of a ruck and ran over the line to score the final try. Final score 24-0 to combined Bolton/Eccles.