Nose to the grind stone

After a few weeks of bad weather, the under 12’s managed a session of rugby against Sale Scorpions. As they took the field, it was a novel experience to encounter a team who were actually bigger than our boys. Size wasn’t everything though, and the Bolton half backs showed great speed of thought to release the Bolton backline in space to produce two tries in quick succession - Myles Garth slicing through the opposition unopposed and scoring with great style. After the third try followed with Josh Padmore going over from close range, the coaches brought off Myles and rotated the back line to ensure a fairer competition.

The second half started well for Sale, and they made some strong inroads into the Bolton half. The makeshift backline defended well, with Lewis Picton on the wing and Tom McNulty at stand off dealing manfully with everything thrown at them. Unfortunately for Sale they decided to kick downfield, obviously forgetting that we had put Myles out of the way at full back. Myles scored another full length try, and then started to offload to Lewis Picton, Joseph Cropper and James Harris in a great show of team spirit. Obviously that didn’t really help Sale, and the whole team started to run riot in a great show of running and passing rugby.

The final session allowed Bolton to regroup and work out a final lineup. Lawson Bates and Joe Cropper were finally rested, the former immediately wanting to get back on, the latter shrugging his shoulders and practising his kicking on the side lines, Captain Tom Platt finally got his wish to play with his handbag in the back line, and Jaime Lambert was given a chance to stretch his legs at full back.

With Tom Simpson and Josh Padmore in the engine room, and Lewis Picton back at number 8, the forwards decided to stop the backs scoring again. James Harris carried the ball well down the middle at centre, with Josh Padmore, Sean Carragher and Lewis Picton mauling and offloading the ball at will to put Sean over for two further tries. It all looked to be over until Tom Simpson decided to join the party at the death, stealing the ball from under the noses of the opposition and crashing over from 2 yards to close the game.

Try of the day was from Ethan Greenwood, who picked up loose ball on the ground and started off down the wing. As he was looking wildly for an off-load, no-one was near him, so he had to put a great shift in to score in the corner, with the Sale second rows hot on his heels.

Man of the match Lewis Picton, many great offloads and so much ball ripped from the grasp of the opposition.

Well done Boys.