Under 9's Match Report 3rd April 2011

Bolton turned up with a team of nine which was good as that was how many Ashton had. Captain Marcus won the toss and off we went playing uphill for the first half. Ball to Will, Will scores continuing his fine form from last week. Ashton then got the ball and returned the favour, 1-1. Bolton then realised that they were in a game and put their heads down and got proper stuck in. The tackling was ferocious, the support play was excellent and the forward play was a joy to behold. It soon became apparent that we had the upper hand and that showed with another try by Will followed by a couple from Tobi. Ashton were still in the game, courtesy of some good runners in their team, but it was obvious they were putting in a lot of energy trying to stop our forward pressure. Half time came with Bolton 5-3 ahead.

Second half was even better than the first with Bolton playing downhill dominating from the off and Tobi popped in with a couple more tries. Marcus was ruling the rough stuff and all was going well. The support play was still there, the running was direct and the tackling was superb all round. We even won a few rucks today. Will bagged a couple more, and Marcus scored a superb solo effort, stealing the ball and getting over the line carrying the Ashton team on his back. Perhaps most pleasing were the tries Robert scored. Perhaps the fastest on the team, and encouraged to run round players on a good sized pitch, he put his ears back and showed us exactly what he can do. Great stuff. Will finished the game off with another of his jink, spin, leg-it runs the length of the pitch leaving the Ashton players in his wake. Nice one son. Final score 11-4 and thoroughly well deserved. It would be disrespectful not to mention all the players today as this was a team performance of note and one to be proud of.

Guy goes from strength to strength combining a good turn of speed with direct running and tackling as hard as anyone else on the pitch. Lucas as always gave his all, and shone in some fine work in the maul/ruck. He handled the ball very well and offloaded some fine passes. Aidan worked tirelessly as our scrum half, and despite being the smallest on the pitch by a long way did not hold back and tackled like a demon. Kynan tackled anything which was not Bolton and made sure it stayed tackled. He ran hard and supported well. Jacob was a proper live wire, never gave up ran hard with the ball, and was unlucky not to score himself a couple of times unfortunately dropping the ball over the line once. Chin up matey you did your bit and did it superbly. Robert discovered his wings and showed how tricky to stop he can be with the ball. Will cannot be stopped at the moment, his handling was top, his tackling was grand and has showed us all what he can do over the past two weeks. Tobi justs gets better and better, fast as you like, tackles hard and always in or around the play. Another first class performance. Finally Marcus. Our skipper and powerhouse up front. Still to find a team who can properly handle his strength, skill and passion when playing the game. A continual thorn in the Ashton side instrumenting turn overs allowing all our other players to show their skills to the max. A thoroughbred performance, quite rightly deserving of the man of match accolade. Well played once more.

Thanks must also be passed to Ashton and their referee. They never gave up and played good hard rugby, and caused many problems for Bolton. Fortunately, today Bolton had all the answers.

Summing up, I can’t tell you all how proud you have made me feel. It’s all starting to come into place and gets better and better each week. Such a shame we are running out of games. Let’s keep on with the good work at Rossendale. Very well done all. Just a mention that we met Ashton early on when we were still learning and lost that game at home by 8 tries to 4. This was an excellent reversal and shows just how far these young men have developed.

By the way……

WHO ARE WE……..BOLTON RUGBY