BOLTON RUFC travelled to top of the league high fliers Didsbury and nearly pulled off the result of the season losing 19-15.
Title favourites Didsbury are averaging 32 points for and only five against per game, but their plans were upset by a Bolton side armed with a game plan of disruption, aggressive tackling and full commitment.
Spaniard Santiago Castro made an immediate impact on his debut and from one of his evasive runs the home side went offside at the ruck and Guy Lovgreen kicked the penalty.
Didsbury hit back with a well worked try, followed up with two penalties to give them an 11-3 lead. Bolton would have been happy with this at half time as the home side were playing with the wind, but they struck again.
Peter Hackin tore through the normally tight home defence to score from a penalty before Peter Marriot ran in from the half way line. Lovgreen added a conversion to give Bolton a 15-11 lead at half time.
The try that won the game for the home side had two elements of good fortune for them. Firstly Bolton knocked on under little pressure and from the resulting scrum, with no other option but to kick, the Didsbury winger got a lucky deflection and the ball bounced up into his hands for him to dive over in the corner. Bolton went offside at a ruck and Didsbury converted the penalty to win by four points.
With all the home games cancelled at Avenue Street the only other team to play was the third team who travelled up to Vale of Lune for a difficult fixture. The home side controlled the first half and led 15- 0 at half time. Bolton came back strong but could only score one try as their dominance was not reflected in the score. Prop Bill Croughan celebrated with his first try for the club.
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