Deep in the mud at Colne...

Bolton under 12's started out at Colne and Nelson with the aim of trying out all players before the end of season tournament run in.

Three sessions and the rare luxury of a mere 4 subs allowed Lawson Bates a long awaited run out at number eight, Ben Harrop in the centre, and the two new boys Ellis McNally and Joel Matthews on the wing.

From the outset Bolton played expansive handling rugby, and Joel Matthews finished off a great move to score on his second game of rugby, Shaun Carragher scored the first of his eventual four try tally from a typical 30 yard charge through half the opposition. More tries followed with Myles Garth finishing off another great handling move started by Jaime Lambert. Next was a brace of tries from Josh Padmore, ripping the ball from the arms of the opposition and gently hopping over the line to score. Sean followed suit with another try and George Whitehead scoring a simple drive over the line to close the first session down before retiring injured. The only blot on the scoresheet was a long range try from Colne after a flat ball from Jake Rimmer was picked up in mid field and the Colne player gladly capitalised on a rare mistake in midfield.

The second session started well with Jaime Lambert, Lawson Bates and Tom McNulty increasing the lead way beyond recovery for the opposition. Part way through the second session the opposition tactics changed to flat alignment in attack as well as defence and 10 man mauling to try and win some ball back from the Bolton boys. This certainly contained the Bolton boys, who were looking to move the ball and work a 13 man game.

Colne's approach eventually paid dividends and after Ethan Greenwood gave a close range penalty for some vigorous clear out play, Colne dove over to the delight of their home supporters and referee. This galvanised the boys into beating the opposition at their own game and Sean forced his way over twice more after long driving mauls against the Colne masses.

Final score 77-10, not pretty but a win nevertheless. Man of hte match went to Ben Harrop, a great catch from the restart strong running and a much improved tackling performance.

The picture below was of the final mauling drives, fortunately there were only 9 Colne players in that one, although they still managed three players in from an offside position without the referee managing to spot it.

Happy days.