Under 14's impressive in draw with Sedgley Tigers

Bolton were full of worried anticipation travelling to a historically strong side Sedgley Park who knocked Bolton out in the semi final of the cup competition last season.
Any nerves soon seemed to disappear in the pre match warm up as the side began to focus on the game of rugby and not Candy crush levels, Grand Theft Auto 5 and FIFA 2014.
The team was somewhat depleted with injuries to Zak Grundy, James Preston, Paddy Hunter and Tom Knights-Rigler who were all sidelined but fortunately this season with a large squad and numerous players able to’ step up to the mark’ the coaching staff were more than happy with the 20 strong squad it was able to take to the Tigers.
Both teams were evenly matched right from the kick off and were able to negate each others attacks with fabulous tackling. Bolton appeared to have the upper hand in the rucks with Morgan Skeels-Caldwell ever looking for the ball to turn over and strong driving by Dan Southworth driving any straying Sedgley players back.
The backs were handed plenty of ball and used it well however they weren’t allowed to penetrate the Tigers defence. Ben Turner playing at 10 with Josh Grundy and Kier Kernick outside him used the ball well out to the wing but were unable to convert pressure into points. Alex Greenhalgh was the first casualty of the day who had to leave with an ankle injury. He was replaced with Thomas Duckworth on the wing. The game excited the spectators as each team made inroads into each other’s halves but you could predict this was going to be a low scoring game with the excellent tackling on display. This was displayed by none other than James Evans at full back who to date hasn’t missed a tackle yet. (No pressure James).
Half time arrived and unusually the score was 0 v 0. A great first half performance by the away team.
Coaches talked of more of the same in the 2nd half but not to let their guard slip or ease of the pressure just one score could win this game.
Bolton started strongly in the second half and began to turn the screw on the home side. In one spell of pressure Bolton were camped on the Tigers line as the home team were infringing and giving penalties away. Excellent forward play by Matthew Moore, Cameron Richardson, Tom Crook, Adam Critchlow and Alfie Kay made sure Bolton re-cycled well but Bolton were unable to convert all this pressure into points. This inability to turn pressure into points in such a good position will be focused on by the coaches at training.
Adam Critchlow playing at hooker had to leave the field to be replaced by Owen Patel with the ever versatile Alex Ramwell going into the front row. Adam was later joined off the field by Cameron Barker-Alan with an ankle injury. He was replaced by Luis Jones.
Crushingly Sedgley began to make inroads down the pitch towards the Bolton try line and after good recycling work they scored the first points of the match. The match had been that tight judging by their celebrations at scoring a try you would have thought the final whistle had gone.
The atmosphere behind the Bolton posts as the conversion was missed was gloomy, defeated and sounded negative. Was the team going to go to pieces at this point? A few words from the coaching staff in an attempt to change attitude must have done the trick. Bolton heads could have dropped but they didn’t and they got back to the task in hand.
Alfie Kay had to be replaced by Harry Dawber in the front row after injuring his leg.
5 minutes later Ben Turner spotted a space behind the Tigers back line and kicked into it with Josh Grundy following the ball at speed. The ball bounced perfectly and Josh ‘Lightening’ Grundy caught it and sprinted towards the posts with Tigers players in his wake. The game now all square at 5 v 5.
With Bolton’s regular kicker Zak off injured Milo Holmes stepped up to take the kick which was unfortunately missed. With three minutes to go both teams tried to win the game but it wasn’t to be and the game finished in a 5 v 5 draw.
Bolton used 4 of their 5 substitutes on the day and apologies to James McDowell who had made the long trip to Sedgley Park but wasn’t able to get on the field of play.
Player of the match award went to Ben Turner who turned around his ‘misery’ of a game the previous week to an outstanding performance.
Dan Southworth won the tacklers award for his large tackle count.
Kier Kernick won the ‘Most contribution’ award for being all over the pitch sometimes amongst the forwards as well.