Bolton Rugby Club’s Under-12s and U14s Amazon girls enjoyed a cluster event at Winnington Park, in Northwich, last Sunday.

The event allows girls from North West clubs who may only have small numbers to join others so that they get the opportunity to play matches.

Bolton U14s girls were fortunate to have a full squad for the event and their first match was against a combined team from Trafford Metrovicks and Eccles RUFC.

It is said good defence wins matches, which proved to be true on the day.

After the previous week’s loss againsty Littleborough at home, and after video analysis of the match, the girls’ midweek training session concentrated solely on their defence.

While this game was evenly matched, Bolton retained possession of the ball better than their opposition and after several minutes into the game Erin Shaw put in a powerful and confident run before opening the scoring an unconverted try.

Bolton’s defence was holding strong until a lapse in concentration let the opposition through a gap and they raced away to score under the posts.

But the Amazons rallied and took control of the game with powerful carries from Raid Hodgkinson-Bostock and Felicity Redford before Iona Barnes broke through and dotted down under the posts and converted her own try to make it 12-7.

Bolton continued to stop the opposition attacks with stout defence, with the combined efforts of Holly Turner, Amelia Crook and Sophie Rose stemming any opposition attacks.

Sammie Makin, playing on the wing, was unlucky not to score along with Jasmine Cox, who was stopped by a try-saving tackle. Tope Oyeside, on the opposite wing, had a good all-round performance, while Eilidh Burns at scrum-half scored her first try of the day after some great forward pressure close to the opposition’s line.

A late try from Trafford made the final score 17-12 to Bolton.

The second game of the afternoon for the U14s was against a combined team from Chester RUFC and Rochdale RUFC.

In this game the tries were more plentiful from the two evenly-matched teams, however again the work on Bolton’s defence paid dividends as they outscored the opposition by four tries to three.

Two tries by Amelia, and one each for Eilidh and Jasmine, with three converted made the final score 26-19 to Bolton Amazons.

Betty Weall, playing at full-back, was awarded the captain’s choice of player-of-the-matches for her communication, while Jasmine and Iona Barnes were the parents’ choices and the coaches award this week went to the whole team.

Three Bolton U12s players teamed up with girls from Winnington Park as they had done at previous cluster events - Maddie Iredale, Aisha Abdi and Eve Barrow all representing Bolton.

Their first game was against a combined Chester and Rochdale and they ran out easy winners seven tries to one with their support play exceptional.

In the second game, the girls were mixed around and faced a stronger team but their tackling was immense to keep the score just to two against four. Aisha got on the scoresheet to score one of their two tries.

In the third match, the Bolton girls were split up with Aisha and Eve being tackled by their own team-mate Maddie after she had switched to the opposition.

Eve scored two tries in this final match in which her and Aisha won by six tries to one.

The U12s are looking for new players to join them from Year 6 and Year 7 to increase their playing numbers and anyone interested can email girls@boltonrugby.co.uk for more details.