Back to rain again as we headed down to sunny cheadle for a final regular sunday run out for the lads. Opponents today Manchester on a huge pitch. Faced with the unusual luxury of a stand, the parents headed under cover to watch the match unfold.

Manchester were due to start with 14 players, but Joel Matthews was pressed into a run out at full back to make it a full session. Despite Joel's best efforts he couldn't stop the dancing feet of Lewis Picton, who crashed over to score the first try from the start.

Ethan Greenwood started to smash and grab from the excellent loose ball secured by Piers Skeels-Caldwell and James Harris, making large inroads into the opposition defence. Unselfishly (with a little coaxing from the coaches), the forwards started to release the ball to the eager backline where Jake Rimmer scored in the corner to seal a great passage of play, closely supported by Oliver McKeown in case Rimmer junior missed his first try in ages.

Despite pressure at the scrums on the Bolton front row, Tom Platt and Owen Lewis were able to force a few turnovers to take the ball close to the Manchester line. Sean Carragher intercepted a short ball to the front to sneak over for his first of the day.

Joel was looking a bit shell shocked at being out of position, so we rescued him back to the fold and let the remaining sub slip into the Manchester back line. The manchester boys looked at the new boy at the back, and off he went, And boy did he go. The Garth beast was finally unleashed against his peers (not piers ....). Sure enough, he took the ball and screamed over in the corner leaving Mr Donnelly with a scowl on his face as he almost caught the runaway train.

Sure enough it was time for a tit for tat move, Josh Padmore and Lewis Picton combining well to set up Seb ten yards from the line. Seb took up the challenge and threw a great dummy to the Garth to make it all square between the two Bolton centres.

Looking on at this as a persona challenge was none other than Mr Sean Carragher. Due to the fact he had been sleeping in the scrums with his bedtime buddies Ethan and Oliver, he had enough energy to hammer down the line to score his hat trick before half time. To close down the first half the backs once again had a chance to show their paces and Tom Platt, Jaime Lambert, Tom McNulty and Jake unselfishly put Owen Lewis in space to score under the sticks for another try.

Half time now, and one of the Manchester Lads was suffering with a bloody nose (probably an altitude thing due to lifting Sean out of the scrums in the first half) so that meant all the boys were on the pitch, with two supporting the Manchester lads (Piers and Myles agin took the opportunity to give their mates some more stick at every opportunity). Poor Piers, he finally felt why it was like to take a short ball in front of Lewis Picton. After the hit, Piers was now looking about 5 inches shorter, but still went in at the breakdown like a man possessed.

The opposition were starting to tire from containing the constant drive and attack from the red tide, allowing James Harris to pirouette over for his second try of the year, and Sean to grab his fourth. Another tactical substitution brought Piers back and loaned out the bouffant Lewis Picton to face up to all new back row of Jake, Oliver Carbery and Piers, average height of 4 foot 11 and about 6 stone each. Oliver and Jake were straight in with the front five and no discernible drop in tempo or skill. The only change on tactic was the introduction of the pyramid option at the line out, with Oliver standing on the shoulders of Jake and Piers to make the height of the Manchester back jumper.

The combo of Lewis and Myles in open play soon told and both linked well with the manchester back line to pull two tries back. Manchester were starting to make ground and looked to have Bolton on the back foot until Myles offloaded a pass to the Manchester winger who dropped it in surprise as Myles hadn't launched himself over the line. In went Seb, fired up and gunning for the ball instead of his usual laid back style, not only did he recover the ball, he also recovered his new rucking buddy, who couldn't believe his luck as he was hoisted into the air and carried down the pitch at pace by the grumpy Mr Donnelly.

Bundled into touch, but Ethan managed to offload the ball in the tackle to his opponent as the ball was going out, and Bolton had the throw. Sean again managed to break away, and selflessly passed to Josh who scored under the sticks to give Tom Platt another success with the boot.

It was pretty much game over now and in the closing minutes Seb and Joel made two great tries to finish off a strange match. 12 tries to 3 seems like a one way match, but the bizarre thing was that Manchester played well and it was great to see a single bunch of lads trundle off at the end instead of two teams from opposite end of the county.

Bolton R.U.F.C.

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