Gareth Bale appears to have had the slate wiped clean in his stand-off with manager Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid. The Wales star was omitted from Zidane’s squad for a pre-season friendly with RB Salzburg, having also previously missed the club’s trip to Germany for the Audi Cup. That came after the collapse of Bale’s proposed transfer to Chinese club Jiangsu Suning amid widespread speculation his six-year stay in Spain was about to end.

Warren Gatland has admitted he can occasionally come a cropper when he tries to mess with the minds of Englishmen. The Wales coach has a history of pinpointing individual players who wear the red rose in an effort to undermine them or their teammates. It worked well six months ago on the way to the Six Nations Grand Slam, but was less successful before the same fixture eight years ago.

Merthyr Town are hopeful former Cardiff City striker Gethyn Hill will return to action when they play Gosport Borough at the MetCoaches Stadium on Saturday (3pm). The Martyrs have found goals hard to come by in their opening two BetVictor Southern League Premier South fixtures, suffering a 1-0 defeat at Harrow Borough and drawing 1-1 […]

The lashing Lancashire rain held no fears for many of the Welsh athletes competing at the Manchester International on Wednesday night. The Welsh throwers appeared to be particularly at home in the wet, bringing home a clutch of medals in difficult conditions which saw the action suspended for a short time after one particularly heavy downpour. In-form Liverpool Harrier Osian Jones, who has been habitually breaking his Welsh record recently, took another win in the hammer for the combined men’s and women’s British League team with another long throw of 73.09.

TWELVE months of waiting, and hurting, can end for the South Wales Warriors on Sunday but to achieve redemption they must overcome a team in the exact same position. Wales’ only representatives in the British American Football Association National Leagues face the London Blitz B in the Division Two Southern Conference semi-final and both sides know simply reaching the final will ensure promotion to Division One. The game takes place, at Llanharan Rugby Club (2.30pm), just one day short of a year since the Warriors’ last defeat, also at the Dairy Field, at the hands of the Portsmouth Dreadnoughts at the semi-final stage. 

The British Rally Championship resumes on Saturday when the Today’s Ulster Rally hosts the penultimate round of the closely fought series. The narrow, bumpy lanes of Northern Ireland have always played a crucial part in the BRC title race and 2019 will be no different, as Matt Edwards and Tom Cave head to Newry, tied at the top of the standings on 68 points apiece. Last year’s Ulster Rally winner and reigning British Champion Edwards will travel across the Irish Sea in high hopes after his recent BRC win on the Ypres Rally in Belgium. Along with Aberystwyth co-driver Patrick Walsh, the Colwyn Bay pilot will be looking to put his M-Sport Ford Fiesta R5 on the top step to back up their two wins to date so far this season. Like Edwards, Cave is equally at home rallying on asphalt and gravel, and scored maximum BRC points on the lanes of West Cork earlier in the season. Together with Hirwaun navigator Dale Bowen, the Aberdyfi driver contests the Ulster Rally in his PCRS team prepared Hyundai i20 R5.

Wales’ first defeat for almost 18 months last Sunday was accompanied by another rare event – lock Adam Beard losing a Test match. The Six Nations champions’ four-Test World Cup warm-up schedule began with a 33-19 reversal against England at Twickenham. It was also the first time in 14 games for his country that Ospreys forward Beard had finished on the losing side since being handed a Wales debut against Samoa in Apia more than two years ago.

You know it’s been a good summer for Welsh Cymru Premier League teams when a league fixture is forced to be rescheduled to accommodate European commitments. It might be some time yet before the league’s fixture computer is working away to identify free fixture dates in late October, but for the opening weekend of the […]

Mountain Ash golfers won the Welsh Team Championships for the first time in their history, battling the elements as well as opponents in St Pierre. The Cynon Valley club had not got past Round Two in more than a decade, but turned round a semi-final deficit at the halfway stage against hosts St Pierre and then claimed a tight final against Wrexham with former Welsh amateur champion Luke Thomas clinching the crucial point.

The opening warm-up game for Wales, ahead of the World Cup, could hardly have gone much worse. Now, comes the second and Robin Davey says much can be done to swerve avoidable injuries as well as avoidable defeat. No panic yet, but slip up again on Saturday and the alarm bells may start ringing in the background as Wales head towards the World Cup. Wales were surprisingly lethargic first time up against England at Twickenham last Sunday in their initial warm-up game, making more mistakes in one outing than they would normally make in half-a-dozen.

American ice hockey professional Evan Mosey stood in front of his Great Britain teammates at their hotel in Bratislava and gave a rousing rendition of ‘God Save The Queen’. It was Mosey’s player initiation to the GB group – and that was the start of a magical World Cup week which ended in top flight […]

Newport County have done it again. First, it was Regan Poole and now they have produced another talented defender who has climbed the leagues. Poole went to Manchester United as a 17-year-old for a fee of £100,000 in 2015 and four years on Fulham have paid the Exiles an undisclosed fee to snap-up 16-year-old defender Jay Williams.

Merthyr Town 1, Weston-super-Mare 1 Manager Scott Bartlett was adamant his Weston-super-Mare team should have beaten Merthyr Town at the MetCoaches Stadium. The former Salisbury City and Forest Green Rovers defender, aged 40, insisted Weston should have been awarded a first half penalty when the score was 0-0. Isaac Pearce was fouled and referee Daniel […]

Cardiff Met Women ended their European adventure on a high by beating FC Nike of Georgia in their Champions League tie. The 5-1 victory – in Slovenia – means the Archers completed their Group 3 campaign with two victories and a defeat from their three games, all played in the Slovenian city of Murska Sobota. That record left them second in the group and makes them the most successful Welsh club to appear in the group stages of a European competition, although they were denied top spot by Hibernian Ladies.

Wrexham 1, Halifax 0 ’Sparky’ is on fire – and Dragons fans are simply adoring how their young Bluebird is leading their Vanarama National League charge. Welshman Mark Harris, who signed for Wrexham on loan from Cardiff City this summer, has scored three goals for his new team already. The Wales under-21 international, nicknamed ‘Sparky’, […]

Newport County have drawn against Premier League West Ham United in the Carabao Cup second round. The Exiles won a penalty shootout 4-1 at Gillingham’s Priestfield Stadium after a 2-2 draw  Josh Sheehan, Padraig Amond, Micky Demetriou and Tristan Abrahams scored penalties for County. They will now focus on Saturday’s League Two home clash with […]

Daniel James can prove to be an “unplayable nightmare” for Premier League defender this season, according to former Wales and Manchester United star Clayton Blackmore. James scored within six minutes of his league debut on Sunday as United began their campaign with a convincing 4-0 thrashing of Chelsea at Old Trafford. But it was his pace and ability to unsettle defenders even when he doesn’t have the ball that impressed Blackmore.

Wales pair Taulupe Faletau and Gareth Anscombe have been sent a message of sympathy from Ireland’s Peter O’Mahony – but the Lions star warned: There’s more injury misery to come. Anscombe has followed Faletau in being ruled out of the World Cup, the fly-half suffering a knee injury at Twickenham just a week after the No.8 broke his collarbone in training. O’Mahony knows what it’s like to miss out on big games at a World Cup.

Halifax, who visit Wrexham for a Vanarama National League fixture this evening, are in seventh heaven over their start to the new season. They have earned three victories and boast a 100 per cent record, while they have scored a seven goals different scorers. The Yorkshire club stand top of the table after wins against […]

Welsh Athletics have encouraged anyone with concerns about the behaviour of Phil Banning to come forward following the jailing of the former national coach. Banning has been sent to prison for seven-and-a-half years for what a judge described as a “regime of sexual abuse” against teenage girls at the English athletics club where he first coached. The once highly respected middle distance coach, who ran internationally for England and represented Great Britain at the 1975 European Indoor Championships, pleaded guilty at Winchester Crown Court to 18 charges of indecent assault against four girls dating back to the late 1970s and early 1980s.