BOLTON Under-17s shared the honours in a hard-fought 19-19 draw with league leaders Blackburn at Avenue Street.

The visitors drew first blood, capitalising on careless errors which resulted in them getting two penalties and taking a 6-0 lead.

From a line-out on the five-metre line Owen Patel passed to Kier Kernick and the support from the pack drove him over.

An excellent conversion by Anthony Hart nudged Bolton 7-6 ahead.

Blackburn tried to hit back immediately but excellent tackling by Ben Turner, James Evans and Billy Aspinall kept them at bay.

Bolton extended their lead just before the interval when good play by Alex Greenhalgh and Morgan Skeels-Caldwell got the ball to Matty Moore who was too strong for Blackburn as he charged over. Another successful conversion put the local lads 14-6 in front.

Blackburn took the initiative in the second half, starving Bolton of possession and they made the score 14-9 with another carelessly-conceded penalty.

They levelled with a try in the corner, despite some excellent defence by Milo Holmes and Areeb Mughal, and the visitors' momentum saw them score a try to take a 19-14 lead with 15 minutes to go.

It acted as a wake-up call to Bolton. Cameron Richardson, Jack Byrne, Sam Burgess and Josh Grundy gained important ground as Bolton piled on the pressure, and with the final play of the match Kier Kernick scored his second try of the match to earn a deserved share of the points.

Bolton U13s dominated Dukinfield in a 65-10 away win which saw six players score tries, including Oliver Keogh who kept up his record of scoring in every game this season.

He finished with five tries and top scorer Leon Hodson got a hat-trick.

Sam Atherton powered over twice and Sam McDowell, Ben Price and Ed Perris each scored one.

The u12s suffered a 5-2 defeat at home to Tyldesley despite a fine performance against a side who beat them easily at the start of the season.

It showed how far the team has come this term with many players who are new to rugby.

Patrick Markey, Euan James and Joe Jackson produced strong runs and when possession was conceded there was strong rucking from Tom Padmore and his fellow forwards.

James and Jackson scored two tries in quick succession and brave, solid tackling from Aran Pomian and Kaiden Unsworth stopped Tyldesley in their tracks and saw the opposition struggle to string passes together in the first half.

Tyldesley scored against the run of play before half time and Bolton lost their shape a little after the break.

Finlay Harper and Markey continued to make strong breaks only for the Avenue Street side to run out of steam and concede possession.

This allowed Tyldesley to get into the game and they capitalised by equalising and going on to score three late tries.

Bolton U9s will go into the new year unbeaten after beating Tyldesley 11-4.

Two quick tries by Rueben Quayle and Corey Morgan put Bolton in control and they went into the break 5-2 ahead.

Impressive tries by Oliver Brennad and Tom Green kept the momentum going and Morgan put the seal on the victory with a superb try five minutes from time when the home side won the ball five yards from their own line, passed it through all seven players' hands and the scrum-half stepped and weaved 40 yards to the try-line.