AFTER racing out of the blocks with possibly the fastest try of the season, Bolton RUFC outclassed Liverpool Collegiate in a whitewash victory.

Centre Will Bate pounced on a loose ball after Bolton’s Alex Waddicar’s high, hanging kick off had been palmed back towards the try line by a Liverpool player, touching down with just 15 seconds played.

And in a scintillating first 20 minutes Bolton ran in three more tries to secure their ninth bonus point of the season with a quarter of the game gone.

In his second straight man-of-the-match performance Bate had a hand in the next try, making the break through and, via Josh Holmes, he sent Waddicar in.

With Liverpool unable to cope with the Cherry and Whites’ pace and passing accuracy, Rhys Pritchard was next to cross the line, with Waddicar scoring his second try soon after.

Gaz Pritchard then intercepted a pass and sprinted 50 metres to touch down, Mike Mills completing the first-half scoring with his third conversion to make the score 31-0 at the break.

And, although Bolton did not reach the heights of their first-half showing after the break – and sin-binnings meant they played the last 20 minutes with 14 men – they managed the only score of the second period, centres Bate and Andrew Wood combining to send Harry Stocks over for a converted try to complete a 38-0 victory.

And, although they keep pace with the top two in Lancs/Cheshire Division One who face each other this weekend, director of rugby Dave Crouch came away somewhat disappointed they had not chalked up a far more emphatic scoreline.

“We should have won by a lot more,” he said. “We played some mercurial stuff in the first 20 minutes, we really pummelled them, and then went to sleep in the second half, I was expecting us to put up 50 or 60 points with the momentum we had, and they agreed afterwards we should have scored much more.

“I set high standards because I believe in them and I believe this group can go a long way. We scored some fantastic tries and on our day no one can touch us.

“We go to Hoylake this week which is difficult but if we perform like we did in the first half last week we’ll have a good chance of making up ground on the teams above us.”