BOLTON Rugby Club’s players are readying themselves for an action-packed end to the season.

Saturday saw their game at home to Aspatria postponed and, with the Cherry and Whites likely to be inactive again this weekend, the matches are piling up.

The Aspatria game, itself rearranged from December, fell foul of the weather at the weekend, with club officials and the match referee making an early call.

“It really was unplayable,” head coach Dave Crouch told The Bolton News. “The referee signed it off and said, even if we were to have bright sunshine, there’s no way it would have thawed enough.

“So we let the away team know in plenty of time to avoid having them set off. We had a lot of players on our tour to Ireland but we had a team ready to go but it wasn’t playable.

“We’ve now been told we’ll try again on Easter weekend.”

Crouch’s side have seven North Lancs/Cumbria league games remaining and the coach admits he is not confident they will play their game at Eccles. Which is a shame, as Bolton would be out to avenge their 12-3 home defeat to their local rivals, who now sit third-bottom in the table.

“Even on an artificial pitch it wasn’t fit to train on Tuesday and we’ll probably not be able to do anything on Thursday evening either,” added Crouch. “We will have an almost full-strength squad available but we don’t think it will be on this Saturday. so that’s another one to squeeze in, probably on March 17.

“We’d like to play Eccles again this weekend, and we wouldn’t be expecting another defeat, we feel we’re far more confident in how we’re playing now.

“We’ve got good power in the forwards, particularly with Gaz Pritchard and Ryan McClusky at flanker and Ben Cottam at number eight. Ben has played really well in the last few weeks so he deserves the chance to stay at eight, even with Gaz back.

“We have some good backs too, with James Singleton, Louis Lockett, Chris Brownlow, Will Bate, Jonny Stanfield and Danny Joseph, and our captain Rhys Pritchard at full-back. We’re quite confident we can put out a side that can cause the other team problems, we just need to play our game and dictate play.”

While the first XV looks to improve on their fifth place before the season comes to a close, there is success being enjoyed in the second and third teams.

Although Rory Biggins’ second XV have lost three of their last four games, they did start the campaign with seven straight victories, and they are fifth in North West League Division Two North.

With Liam Hargreaves at the helm, the thirds are sitting pretty at the top of Division Five North, having lost just twice all season.

“It can be difficult for Rory and Liam,” said Crouch. “The seconds are not having it as well as they did at the start of the season, they had a bad spell at the same time as the first team, but they’re still performing very well. The thirds are top and have won their last six, they’re a settled, tightly-knit unit and playing well.”