Bolton 9 Trafford MV 11

RUGBY UNION: Bolton narrowly failed in their bid to avange their defeat at Trafford earlier in the season.

After falling behind to two penalty kicks inside the first 15 minutes, Bolton regrouped and dominated the rest of the game.

Danny Joseph was particularly impressive with excellent running in attack and crunching tackles in defence.

The pack were awesome and on three occasions mauled the larger Trafford pack 50 yards down the pitch.

But the pressure was not converted into points and Bolton would curse their luck later in the game.

Trafford got a lucky break and bounce of the ball when they scored an unconverted try.

Bolton attempted to claw their way back into the game when Lovgreen kicked a drop goal and two penalties to put the game on a knife-edge before having a last-gasp drop goal, which would have won them the game, charged down from 30 yards out.

Meanwhile, in the clash between Bolton Thirds and Seconds, it was the second string who grabbed the bragging rights with a 38-0 win.

It did not take long for the stronger Seconds to cross the line with Rees scoring, before Catterall ran in an easy second try.

Although the Thirds battled valiantly, the Seconds extended their lead with scores from Ormes and Rees.

Rees completed his hat-trick with two more scores after the interval and captain Chris Turner scored the try of the game, dancing between two defenders with a shimmy, at the death.

Bolton Fourths lost 21-5 to hosts Colne and Nelson Seconds.

Bolton started the game well, but paid the price for kicking the ball to the Colne full back who scored the first of the home side’s three tries.

On the stroke of half time, veteran prop Ventress stole the ball from an unsuspecting Colne player and flopped over the line to even the scores.

When Bolton lost the services of Mann and Bridges, Colne used their two-man advantage to add two further tries.