THE u15s' first away trip of the year took them to one of the strongholds of Lancashire rugby, Preston Grasshoppers, where a depleted squad returned beaten 64-14 but far from disgraced.

While Bolton were keen to build on the momentum built up in recent weeks it was Preston who opened the scoring in the first phase of play, a spilled pass pounced on by the big left winger who sprinted clear for the opening try, quickly followed by a second.

Bolton were struggling to contain the forwards' size and the backs' pace but were determined to make a game of it and strong defending kept the Hoppers at bay.

Despite an obvious size advantage for the home team, the Bolton scrum was getting on top with Max Hodson in particular, playing as an emergency hooker, giving the Hoppers something to think about.

Harry Moxham and Jack Phillips were covering every blade of grass and along with Kynan Smith tackling everything that moved but the pressure told as another Preston try was scored.

Bolton started to get some possession and from a quality lineout on the halfway line, Sam Howie sent a long pass out to his half-back partner Robert Harris who fed Lewis Warburton. His perfectly-timed his pass allowed full-back Josh Parry to cut a great line through the centres and round the Hoppers full-back for a fantastic score, converted by Howie.

Unfortunately for the Cherry and Whites, this stung Preston back into action and they touched down once again.

For the remainder of the half, Bolton competed well and attacked with real intent, Tom Didlock and Shingi Chirimuta causing Preston a host of problems but failing to find another score. Preston did go over again to make the half-time score 33-7.

The second half also started with a quick score for the hosts but from the kick off, a knock-on gave Bolton a scrum in good field position.

Number eight and captain Marcus Crompton picked up from the base and beat two defenders before feeding scrum-half Howie who delayed his pass perfectly for Parry to once again slice through the defence for his and Bolton’s second try, Howie kicking the conversion.

Bolton continued to press but the longer the game went on the more difficult it became for the small squad to deal with the inevitable knocks and injuries in such a hard physical game and Preston were able to run in a further four scores.

This was a tremendous performance by the Bolton lads, who gave absolutely everything, and showed a huge amount of character, beaten by a better team but nowhere near as one sided as the final scoreline would suggest.