Bolton 10 Garstang 7

North Lancs League One

SECOND-half tries from flankers Alex Youngman and Paul Sutcliffe gave Bolton a hard-earned victory against in-form Garstang.

The game was played in atrocious condition at Avenue Street, giving Bolton's three quarters no chance of playing their running game.

As a result, the game was a series of scrums and mauls, both of which were dominated by the home side's powerful pack.

Bolton gained a psychological edge in the first half after they prevented Garstang from scoring, despite being camped on their own line for the majority of the period.

James Brodie and Kev McGill epitomised Bolton's heroic defence with a series of bone-crunching tackles, preventing the away side from converting their territory into points.

Despite being under the kosh, Bolton went in at half time level at 0-0.

The weather conditions got even worse in the second period, with the pitch beginning to resemble a lake.

The Cherry and Whites began to get the upper hand, and converted their dominance into points after Alex Youngman slid in at the corner. The conversion was missed, so Bolton led 5-0 with an hour played.

Bolton were then reduced to 14 men after JP Singleton was sent off for abusive language. However, the incident seemed to galvanise the side, and Bolton were rarely stretched.

Garstang did eventually capitalise on their numerical advantage when their fly half picked his way through a number of despairing Bolton tacklers to score, the conversion was made to give the away side a slender 7-5 lead.

With less than 10 minutes left, Bolton put in a huge effort to re-gain the lead, and duly did so after Paul Sutcliffe powered his way over for a well-deserved try which capped an awesome individual performance.

The second team carried on the good form of the senior side by dispatching BAE Warton 10-0.

Brogan started the scoring with a first-half try, before Hardman completed a fine team move to go over and complete the scoring.

Despite losing Hill to his recurring knee injury and being down to 14 men for the last 10 minutes the result was never in doubt and Bolton completed a fine victory.

Bolton Thirds were 10-0 up against Preston Grasshoppers when the referee abandoned the game because of the dangerous conditions.

However, the fourth team got their game on against the same opponents and ran out 5-3 victors.

l There is a tournament for three new U15s girls teams being held at Bolton RUFC, from 1.30pm to 3.30pm on Sunday at Avenue Street.

The tournament, sponsored by IDN Supplies, features three teams comprising Bolton and Tyldesley, Manchester and Furness and Eccles.

Any girls aged 12 to 15 years old who want to watch girls' rugby being played would be welcome to come along and see how the three new teams get on.

Alternatively email rugbygirls@boltonrugby.co.uk Bolton U13s will play Blackburn this weekend in the final of the Lancashire Plate.

6:01am Wednesday 2nd April 2008

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