Last week, Connah’s Quay Nomads were crowned new Welsh champions thanks to their performances on the field. Now, argues Matthew Burgess, they are quickly starting to behave like champions, off the field, too. If ever Andy Morrison’s Connah’s Quay side wanted to make a statement of intent following their first ever league title, the signing of Aeron Edwards direct from rivals The New Saints certainly did the trick. Just a week after being awarded the Cymru Premier title, the Nomads declared the off-season open – bolstering their already strong squad whilst simultaneously depleting their closest rivals in the process.

Ryan Giggs has said he wants Wales to try and play in a similar style to runaway Premier League leaders Liverpool when international football resumes. The Wales manager has been forced to revise all his plans for 2020 with the postponement of the European Championship finals and the scrapping of all his team’s warm-up fixtures for the tournament. But with football due to return behind closed doors on June 17, Giggs is turning his attention to the lead-in to next summer and the evolving playing style he would like his young team to develop.

It’s seven years since Wales inflicted their record winning margin over England – the 30-3 hammering that moved Andy Farrell to declare the visitors’ dressing room was the quietest he had ever known. Richard Hibbard was in the noisiest, as he recalls to Graham Thomas ahead of tonight’s re-showing on S4C. Richard Hibbard recalls looking up at the clock at what he thought was the midway point of the first half of Wales v England, the Six Nations title decider in 2013. It said 12 minutes had gone.

Footballers delivering pizza, netballers doing the rounds with medical supplies and rugby stars working for the NHS – the last 10 weeks have seen sports folk pitching in during the lockdown. But few will have travelled as far in recent weeks as Matt Bush, the West Wales milkman of the martial arts, who spoke to […]

New Dragons recruit Jonah Holmes knows better than most the risks that rugby players will face when they are permitted to go back to training after lockdown. The Wales international can’t wait to meet up with his new team mates at Rodney Parade after securing a move from Leicester, but returning to a safe environment is the key after seeing what happened to his brother is critical. A doctor working on the front line of the NHS in the intensive care unit at Royal Bolton Hospital, Raphael Holmes was struck down with pneumonia and forced to self-isolate for two weeks. That forced his brother, Jonah, to also go into lockdown.

The Celtic Dragons have encouraged their fans to donate their ticket money to the club, rather than seek refunds following the cancellation of the Vitality Netball Superleague season. The club state the cash would go towards attempting to secure the continuation of top level netball in Wales. In a statement on their website following the decision by England Netball – the Superleague owners – to end the 2020 competition, the Cardiff-based Dragons say supporters can either claim refunds or make a donation to the franchise by not claiming.

Vicky Thornley has vowed to keep fit on her static bike at home after the road crash in which she suffered a broken elbow. The Welsh rower was hurt in an accident while out cycling last week and needed surgery on her right arm. Thornley, who is preparing for her third Olympic Games appearance in next year’s postponed event, was out on her bike near Reading with training partner Richard Egington when she hit the tarmac.

Aled Davies can take his rugby to new heights according to his new boss at Saracens, Mark McCall. The Wales scrum-half has left the Ospreys to join the London club, even though they have just been relegated from the Gallagher Premiership. The move will mean a halt to Davies’s Wales career as he was won 20 caps – 40 less than the 60 required to be eligible for national selection if a player is based outside of the four Welsh regions.

Fans in both football and rugby should be helping run their sports, according to a report from a leading think tank. Both sports should seek the influence of supporters groups in plotting the way ahead for a sustainable and responsible future, according to Onward and their new publication. The report, called A Sporting Chance, focuses on how professional football below Premier League level, cricket and the two codes of rugby are coping during the coronavirus pandemic.

New research suggests that lockdown has worsened the gap between active and inactive people in Wales, with those from more deprived backgrounds suffering the most. A survey carried out by Savanta ComRes on behalf of Sport Wales has found that although the overall levels of physical activity have not shifted significantly – 34% of Welsh adults say that they are doing more at this time than before the COVID-19 restrictions, while 33% say that they are doing less – there are noticeable variations within certain demographic groups. Among adults from higher socio-economic backgrounds, 39% say they are doing more activity and 32% are doing less, meaning that there has been a +7 percentage point increase in activity. However, for adults from lower socio-economic backgrounds, 29% are doing more and 33% are doing less, meaning that there has been a -4 percentage point decrease among this group.

Andy Morrison is hoping Alan Shearer and Chris Sutton get sent to cover his European adventure with Welsh champions Connah’s Quay Nomads – as pay back for 26 years ago. Morrison – whose team were crowned winners when the Welsh domestic season was halted last week – was a team-mate of the BBC’s punditry pair when they were together at Blackburn Rovers. The former defender – who will turn 50 in July, two weeks before Shearer does – was at Blackburn when they crashed out of the UEFA Cup in 1994 to Trelleborg, a bunch of Swedish part-timers.

It was meant to be a celebratory match, a feel-good occasion. And for 80 minutes it was. But when Barry John came off the pitch in 1972, he had decided something. He wouldn’t be going back on. Now, S4C have unearthed rare footage from that match which may offer some clues and pointers as Graham Thomas reports. Barry John’s shock decision to walk away from rugby at the age of just 27 left a nation stunned – but not his one-time young rival, Phil Bennett. Forty eight years on from one of the biggest sports stories of the 1970s, the dazzling genius of John – the player they called The King – remains accessible through YouTube clips or in the memories of those fortunate enough to see him play.

Elynor Backstedt – Wales’ most promising young cyclist – has suffered a huge setback after breaking her leg in a training accident on Sunday. The world championship junior bronze medallist, who has been in her debut World Tour season, suffered a spiral fracture of the tibia – her shinbone – in a crash. The injury is likely to require surgery, although her team – Trek-Segafredo – have not yet confirmed when that will take place.

Which Welsh sportsman has made the biggest impression overseas? John Charles in Turin? Ian Woosnam at Augusta? Colin Jackson in Stuttgart and Seville? Gareth Edwards on the rugby fields of New Zealand and South Africa? Or was it Jack Evans in the ice hockey stadia across North America? Owen Morgan has dug around and states the case for the man they called “Tex”. If I had been asked a month ago who I believed was the most influential sports person to hail from my native Amman Valley, three names would have sprung to mind. Global rugby superstars Gareth Edwards and Shane Williams would probably have vied for the title with former Wrexham, Everton, Swansea City and Wales goalkeeper Dai Davies putting in a valiant, but unsuccessful, bid on behalf of the round ball game.

Seven years ago this summer, Wales had the player voted the best youngster in the world in 2013. Sam Davies almost made it a double triumph at the world’s summit that year – but it wasn’t quite to be, as he tells Graham Thomas. Sam Davies admits he cried tears of frustration when the chance to crown Wales as world champions slipped through his fingers. The Wales and Dragons star – who broke back into the national squad earlier this year – welled up when he stepped forward to receive the 2013 Junior World Player of the Year award.

Dean Saunders was good enough for Wales, Liverpool, Aston Villa and Galatasaray. But 35 years ago this week, the striker who eventually scored 255 club career goals was dumped by Cardiff City after just four matches. Terry Phillips counts the cost of a missed opportunity. Dean Saunders failed to impress with Cardiff City under Alan Durban and left the Bluebirds after only four appearances. The Swansea-born hitman was on his way out at his home town club at the age of just 20. It was 1985 and Cardiff manager Durban could have had signed the striker for a very small fee.

Gavin Williams is planning to lead Merthyr Town on a Southern League promotion mission during 2020-21. Merthyr-born former Wales International Williams, a lifelong Cardiff City supporter, will again be working with one of the lowest squad budgets in the Southern Premier, but he believes the Martyrs can challenge near the top. The 2019-20 season was halted early because of the coronavirus pandemic and Williams said: “That was the strangest season I have experienced since I arrived at Merthyr Town six years ago.

Brett Morse seemed to have it all – a world class ranking as an athlete, a successful modelling career, two doting daughters . . . but then came mental health problems that, as he tells Owen Morgan, turned his world upside down with days spent on his sofa instead of launching the discus. There have […]

Martyn Phillips has described the deal with CVC Capital Partners and the Guinness Pro 14 as a “sea change” for the tournament. The Welsh Rugby Union chief executive believes the agreement – confirmed on Friday – will secure the ability of the league to dveleop further, although he warned that the current shutdown of rugby would affect the sport for a long time to come. The Pro 4 will receive a major cash boost by selling a 28 per cent stake in the league to CVC. The deal, reported to be worth around £120m, will lead to significant investment and is likely to increase the private equity firm’s influence in discussions to remodel the global rugby calendar.

The GOAT is back with Cardiff Devils for the 2020-21 Elite League ice hockey season. Team captain Joey Martin – nicknamed ‘Greatest Of All Time’ by Devils fans – has committed to a seventh season in Devils colours and head coach Andrew Lord says: “He has proven to be one of the top players in Britain during every single season. “As the league grew better and better, so did Joey. His dedication and work ethic keeps him improving every year and he is a great role model on and off the ice.”