By Tom Prosser Russell Martin says the Swansea City fans have played a key part in Jamie Paterson’s success so far this season and he hopes his fine form continues as the Swans look to get back on track away to Middlesbrough on Saturday. The manager cites the “instant connection” between Paterson and the Swansea faithful as a big factor in him hitting the ground running for his new team. Paterson, 29, was a free agent up until a few days before the 2021-22 campaign after leaving Bristol City and having a trial with Middlesbrough.

The Scarlets have urged European rugby bosses to re-think their strategy of punishing teams with automatic defeats when they struggle to fulfil fixtures. Officials at European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) are coming under pressure to reassess their policy on forfeiting games with Covid-19 set to cause chaos to the first round of Champions Cup fixtures. Currently, any side which pulls out of a game due to the virus automatically loses the fixture 28-0 with the justification being there is no room in the calendar for rearranged matches.

By Owen Morgan Olympic 400m runner Joe Brier has been included in the Welsh Athletics funding list announced for the 2021-22 season. The coming year is particularly important for Welsh athletes with the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on the horizon next summer. The athletes named will receive a variety of backing from direct financial […]

The Dragons’ campaign in Europe this season will be shown live on S4C. The Welsh broadcaster has struck a deal to show live European rugby matches from both the Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup this season, including matches involving both Cardiff and the Scarlets. In all, they will screen two matches from the Champions Cup group stages, in addition to all four of the Dragons’ matches from the Challenge Cup.

Welsh boxing star Sean McGoldrick is a two-time medal winner at the Commonwealth Games and as the countdown starts to Birmingham 2022 he offers a simple recipe for success, as he tells Tom Prosser. The next edition of the Commonwealth Games is just eight months away and every Welsh hopeful is searching for the right approach towards peaking next July. Bantamweight, McGoldrick, won gold in 2010 in Delhi and backed that up with a bronze in Glasgow four years later. 

Gemma Grainger has praised her Wales players for delivering one of the best displays since she took charge, despite their 2-0 defeat to France on Tuesday night. It was a first loss of the Women’s World Cup qualifying campaign for Wales and it leaves them unlikely to finish top of Group I to gain automatic entry to the tournament finals. Even if Wales were to reverse the result when France visit Llanelli next year, Grainger’s side would still be relying on the group leaders to drop points elsewhere if Wales were to end up topping the group.

By Owen Morgan Four Welsh athletes have been named to the Great Britain team for next months European Cross Country Championships. Charlotte Arter and Cari Hughes have joined Jenny Nesbitt and Osian Perrin, who gained automatic selection thanks to their performances at the British Athletics Cross Challenge fixture at Liverpool on Saturday. Nesbitt finished second […]

European rugby bosses are coming under increasing pressure to shift from their hardline stance over fulfilling scheduled fixtures in this season’s tournaments. Much arm-twisting is going on behind the scenes following the chaotic preparations for the Heineken Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup being experienced by Cardiff, the Scarlets, Munster and Zebre. Most of Cardiff’s stranded group in South Africa are hoping to fly back to the UK on Thursday, where they will undergo 10 days of quarantine in a hotel near Heathrow.

By Paul Evans Llywelyn Williams and Isaac Heaher will represent the Wales Para Surfing Team at the ISA Para Surfing World Championships in Pismo, California (6-11 December) which is the sport’s biggest and most prestigious tournament attracting the world’s best para surfers to compete and display their talents in a Paralympic-style competition. Both Williams and […]

By Tom Prosser Cardiff City legend and record appearance holder Phil Dwyer has sadly passed away at the age of 68. Legend is an often overused word in sport but Dwyer well and truly goes down as a Bluebirds great and is one of the most popular players of all-time amongst the Cardiff City faithful. Dwyer was born just a stone’s throw away from Ninian Park in Grangetown and joined the club at the age of 16.

The future of Bangor City has been thrown into doubt after the club failed to meet an FAW disciplinary deadline over unpaid salaries worth almost £53,000 – but what now for one of Welsh football’s biggest club’s? The Cymru North club were given 31 days to fulfil outstanding salary obligations to former players and coaches […]

By James Skeldon Dean Ryan has urged his Dragons players to “challenge themselves” ahead of their trip to Glasgow on Saturday. The Dragons have lost five of their six matches so far in the United Rugby Championship and were swatted aside by Edinburgh at the weekend. After an error-ridden first quarter where nothing went right for the home team and an ineffective second half performance, Ryan could only congratulate Edinburgh after the match.

By Carl Field Swansea’s Holly Jones regains British senior vault title at 2021 Women’s Artistic British Championships. A dozen medals, including a clean sweep in the juniors and seven won by four Commonwealth Games contenders, capped a brilliant 2021 Women’s Artistic British Championships for Welsh gymnasts in Guildford over the weekend.

“A beautiful, hostile atmosphere,” is how Roberto Martinez described the cauldron of passion at the Cardiff City Stadium as his Belgium team drew 1-1 with Wales earlier this month. With Rob Page’s team having been drawn to meet Austria in the World Cup play-offs next March, the Red Wall must replicate and amplify that remarkable atmosphere. You rarely see the words beautiful and hostile sitting next to each other in a sentence.

Sophie Ingle has admitted Wales are unlikely to top their World Cup group – but the captain still insists they can get a positive result in France on Tuesday night. The Wales skipper leads her unbeaten team into the second of their two-game qualification period, following an impressive and highly professional 5-0 thrashing at home to Greece last Friday. But France in Brittany – who top Group I with maximum points and are ranked the fifth best team in the world – will prove by far the toughest test of the campaign so far for the Chelsea star and her improving team.

With Jason Pritchard in a healthy lead and Osian Pryce rapidly closing in on second place, it looked like there might be a magnificent Welsh one-two finish in Carmarthen come the end of the five-day Roger Albert Clark Rally. They had survived Storm Arwen – which had caused wild blizzards in Kielder Forest and the entire Scottish middle leg to be cancelled – and had reached home turf for a final push to glory. The duo had started as joint favourites for victory, but it was Pritchard who made the better start.

By Tom Prosser Welsh boxer Gavin Gwynne made a successful first defence of his Commonwealth title on Saturday but he is now calling for “bigger” fights and wants to get his hands on the British title. The 31-year-old beat Birmingham’s Jack O’Keefe by a wide points margin on all three of the scorecards. “It was maximum violence,” laughs Gwynne, who is nicknamed The Merthyr Mexican.

By Tom Prosser Paralympic boccia star David Smith is “ecstatic” to add yet another gold medal to his collection at the European Championships in Seville. Smith, who is based in Swansea, has won everything there is to be won in the sport and has an impressive five Paralympic medals to his name. The 32-year-old faced his old Russian rival Mikhail Gutnik and fought to a 5-2 victory after dismissing Andre Ramos of Portugal 8-1 in the semi-final. 

Cardiff and the Scarlets are facing a massive joint hotel bill of £250,000 as well as major disruption to their European campaigns if they are forced to self-isolate in hotel quarantine for 10 days following their troubled trip to South Africa. The Scarlets have made it back as far as Belfast – via Durban, Cape Town and Dublin – but their whole party is now in a UK government-approved isolation hotel as they await further news. Cardiff, however, are still in South Africa, with two of their group having tested positive for Covid-19 at the weekend, with one of those cases suspected to be the Omicron variant that sparked travel restrictions on flights from South Africa to the UK.

Ruben Colwill has praised the impact of manager Steve Morison, claiming his methods are behind Cardiff City’s upturn in form that is pulling them away from the Championship relegation zone. Colwill scored one of Cardiff’s goals in their 2-1 win at Luton Town at the weekend, which made it three wins from four matches under Morison. That sequence has enabled the club to extend the gap between themselves and Peterborough United – who are two places below them in 22nd spot – to five points.