The 1st XV game was won 38-7 by the School in a contest closer than the scoreline suggests, while the 5th XV were defeated by the Gower side 31-22, the first win for the old boys since 2021.

You have to go back 21 years for the last Gower Club victory over the 1st XV and the only unknown in this fixture has tended to be the scale of the School win. Facing an unbeaten side there were fears among many that this could be a woefully one-sided affair.

The first ten minutes did nothing to dispel that as the boys battered the Gower line, although the defence held firm once they had woken up. The intensity of some of the hits from both sides showed the game was being taken seriously. Despite dominating possession the School only managed two tries in the first half with their tactic of trying to force their way through rather than throw the ball around proving largely unsuccessful.

A third try early in the second threatened to open the floodgates, but while the Gower can usually be expected to tire as the game progressed, this time was different. Not only did they stay in the contest but they took it to the School and for large periods of the second half play was inside the boys’ defensive third as they had to dig deep defensively.

A try was a just reward (only their seventh in the last ten meetings) although the School came back strongly at the end with four tries, the eventual scoreline rather flattered them.

The 5th XV match was, as is so often the case, far more evenly matched. The Gower utterly controlled the first 25 minutes – it took that long for the School to get into the Gower 22 – and ran in three tries to take a 17-0 lead. When the boys stopped giving away silly penalties they got back into the game, cutting the margin with a well-worked try on galf-time.

The School started where they left off with strong attacking play and a tiring Gower side had to defend desperately. The game was decided by two breakaway tries which gave the School too much ground to make up.