All Whites Win

Swansea 43 RGC 28
Saturday 12th April 2025

On the last game on the grass pitch before the refurbishment at St Helens, the All Whites grabbed the win. RGC led up to halftime, but failed to kick on in the 2nd half with Swansea scoring 4 tries after the break

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It was the visitors who struck first when the centre partners combined – Danny Cross grubber kick for Afon Bagshaw to collect and score. Billy McBryde converted.
Swansea answered back, after McBryde hit a Crossfield kick, but it bounced up into the hands of Harri Houston and the All Whites winger ran from halfway to touch down.

The tries kept coming, and when RGC went back up field, Pedr Jones powered over from close range to get it, McBryde again hit the extras.

The pace of the game didn’t stop, as both sides looked to shift the ball.  Swansea moved the ball left and hooker Jamie Cox found space to run at pace to run down in the corner. 
Superb defensive chase from McBryde saved a try, after Swansea’s Matthew Aubrey kicked ahead, but the boot of McBryde cleared on the line.

They went close again a minute later from Callum Dodd and the pressure built on the Gogs defence.
The game was open and when Rhys Tudor put his head down and carried he opened the pitch, but couldn’t didn’t have the support runners.

When the penalties arrived for RGC they opted to kick to touch, and they were rewarded when Ethan Fackrell went in at the corner and McBryde fired over the conversion from the touchline.
Swansea’s attacking threat again came from a kick ahead, which caused RGC to scramble back to get hands on it but the All Whites recycled the ball, before Callum Carson grabbed the try.  The conversion made it a positive score of 17-21 at the break.

Swansea came out of the traps on the front-foot, but a couple of big tackles from Ethan Fackrell stopped them in their tracks.
They continued to go through the phases, making inroads to the Gogs defence before Josh Phillips put them in the lead for the try for the first time, and they stayed on that lead for the remaining 38 minutes.

RGC were getting hands on the ball, but the All Whites were chasing down at all times not giving the Gogs any opportunity to find space and stifling the backline.
When the options weren’t there, then RGC forced it and it didn’t lead to anything.  Kicks were being gathered, and attacks were being  easily contained.

Territory-wise wise it was in the homesides favour, and they were finding space with the runners.
It looked like they were in again before a try saving tackle from Ethan Fackrell yards from the whitewash.
That try did arrive when the driving maul powered on before hooker Jamie Cox claimed his second score of the day. Conversion from Phillips.

This season RGC seem to concede in bursts, and it was repeated when a minute later and the lead was extended when Callum Dodd kicked ahead before getting his hands back on the ball to score in the corner. Phillips added the extras.

RGC finally got some possession in the Swansea half and worked well to the line.  After a couple of attempts to break the white wall, Sam Williams carried hard and broke the tackles to score the BP try.  McBryde’s boot was on point again.

As the Gogs looked for that next score, they were turned over and Swansea broke the line but when Tal Taylor was shown a yellow card you felt the game shifted into the home sides hands for the last 5 minutes.
Harri Houston was a danger all game, and with every kick collected, he managed to create space and panic in the RGC defence.

It wasn’t space that was needed for the final try as Jamie Cox got his hatrick from another powerful driving maul and Phillips ended the game with the conversion.

Director of Rugby Josh Leach “It is another similar story, 1st half we had good dominance – set piece, defending the maul and our driving maul giving us a good platform. We struggled to back up scores, and again we let them back in after we put points on the board.  
They challenged us out wide, which led to a couple of tries, but when they upped their game in the second half, we didn’t. We need to dig a bit deeper when that happens.  
After the game we spoke about the next 2 games, and we have nothing to lose, and we just need to give it a go and look forward to them”