Meirion Evans finished seventh on Round 3 of the Peugeot 208 Rally Cup – having got to the finish of Rallye Vosges in France, despite suffering problems on all 12 stages. Yet perseverance saw the 22-year old Lampeter driver, co-driven by Jonathan Jackson from St Asaph, record a points-scoring result in his Chazel Technologie Course team prepared 208 R2. “It’s been a really difficult weekend for us with some kind of problem on every single stage,” said Evans. “We lost over two minutes on stage two when my door wouldn’t close, meaning I had to hold it shut myself for twenty-eight kilometres. Today we lost over three minutes with a puncture when we hit a big rock on the line. Some bad noises from the car on the last stage meant that we backed right off and accepted that it wasn’t our weekend. All things considered, it was nice to get the car home unmarked and with a decent result. Hopefully some better luck is just around the corner.”

Warren Gatland wants a clean sweep of victories on Wales’ summer tour after watching his young side seal a hugely impressive 23-10 win over Argentina in San Juan. At the Estadio del Bicenternario, first-half tries from man of the match James Davies and George North laid the platform for Wales’ success as fly-half Rhys Patchell kicked 10 points. Against an experienced Argentina side – whose match day squad was entirely made up of players from Super Rugby outfit Jaguares – Wales’ young pack stood up impressively.

Elfyn Evans impressively fought back from 43rd to finish 14th on the Rally Italia Sardegna in his M-Sport run Ford Fiesta WRC. You might have thought that the 13 minutes lost by replacing a broken steering arm mid-stage yesterday had been enough of a penalty, but the 29-year old Dolgellau driver then had to run first on the road today – a hazardous position on the worst of the loose gravel, with a battle back up the leaderboard on your hands. Co-driven by Daniel Barritt, Evans did all that was asked of him on the last day of the event – gaining experience of the new Sardinia stages and bringing the car home to the finish.

Josh Adams has confessed his initial ejection from the Wales squad this summer brought on the mother of all hangovers. The Worcester Warriors wing was at last month’s Aviva Premiership Awards evening when he learnt that the clubs he plays against each week had decided to boot him off the trip to North America to play South Africa. It was hardly an unpredictable move. Premiership Rugby Limited – the body that represents the English clubs – have long held a collective agreement that they will only release players for international games that fall within the proper Test calendar.

Geraint Thomas took the overall lead at the Criterium Du Dauphine after Ireland’s Dan Martin won stage five. Thomas finished just four seconds behind Martin, but it was the Welshman who took the yellow jersey for Team Sky in France to further underline his current strong form. Martin finished the stage with a time of three hours, 21 minutes and 19 seconds. He fought off a spirited fight from the Cardiff rider in the final kilometre after a thrilling summit duel.

Last weekend’s clash with the Springboks in Washington was new to the Welsh players and their opening Test against the Pumas in San Juan on Saturday will also see them take a step into the unknown. Estadio San Juan del Bicentenario (8.40pm kick-off on C4) is the stadium at which England triumphed 38-34 last summer and will be the sixth venue at which Wales have met the Pumas in Argentina. The 1968 pioneers played two games at Estadio GEBA, a multi-use stadium in the Palermo neighbourhood in Buenos Aires owned by Club Gimnasia y Esgrima.

Having lost 13 minutes replacing a broken steering arm this morning, Elfyn Evans has been left in the unenviable position of pushing hard to salvage as many FIA World Rally Championship Manufacturer points as he can for Ford, in the knowledge that there is no chance of him achieving what he really arrived in Sardinia to do – and that’s win the Rally Italia Sardegna. Evans clipped a bank and broke the steering arm on his M-Sport built Fiesta WRC on today’s very wet and slippery opening stage. He was carrying a spare, and his car mechanic skills saw him replace the offending item in just 13 minutes. An extraordinary fast time to make such repairs, but a lifetime in the cut and thrust, timed to the tenth of a second, world of rallying. The delay dropped him and co-driver Daniel Barritt from fourth to 43rd. But by the end of day one, Evans had climbed back and was just outside the top 20 – with his sights set on trying to gain points in the close race for the Manufacturers’ title.

Usman Khawaja is set to make his Glamorgan debut on Saturday as the county bid to recover from their awful Royal London One Day Cup campaign. The Australian Test batsman – who has been drafted as cover for compatriot Shaun Marsh – is poised to make his first appearance in the return to the Specsavers County Championship. Khawaji has been included in a 12-man squad for the division two match against Warwickshire at Edgbaston, where Glamorgan will hope to get their season back on track.

There will be many reasons for Wales Hockey stalwart Dave Kettle to be cheerful this weekend as he becomes the latest sporting centurion in Poland. Hot on the heels of their heroics at the Commonwealth Games, the Welsh men’s team are facing the Poles in a three Test series. In the opening match, Kettle will become the third Wales goalkeeper to reach three figures and, by Sunday, he should have taken over from Chris Ashcroft as the most capped goalie with 102 caps. Austin Savage was the first Welsh goalkeeper to reach three figures and then Ashcroft surpassed him. Now Kettle, who made his debut in 2009, will go past them both.

Goaltenders Ben Bowns and Thomas Murdy have committed their futures with the Cardiff Devils after agreeing new deals to remain with the Elite League champions. The pair successfully backstopped the Devils to back to back league titles as well as last season’s Play-Off Championship. Team GB starter Bowns has been voted the league’s Netminder Of […]

Non Stanford was able to add a World Mixed Relay Triathlon series silver medal to her collection in Nottingham after helping the British quartet come home second to the USA. Hot on the heels of her bronze medal in Yokohama in the women’s elite event last month, the Team Wales captain joined housemate Vicky Holland, Tom Bishop and Jon Brownlee in coming home 29 seconds behind the Americans on Thursday. The USA, who were world champions in 2016 and runners-up in 2017, powered to victory, while Stanford was able to add her second place to the two gold medals she won at the World Championships in 2012 and 2014.

Welsh teenage 1500m sensation Jake Heyward ran a new personal best at the historic Bislett Games Diamond League  meeting in Oslo on Thursday night. The 19-year-old from Cardiff slashed over two seconds off his previous best time of 3:42.12 as he finished ninth in a high class race. His time of 3:39.84 moves him from 14th to third, ahead of former world record holder Steve Cram in the all-time British U20 list.

Elfyn Evans’ hopes of winning this weekend’s Rally Italia Sardegna look over, after the 29-year old was forced to stop and replace a broken steering arm in today’s opening stage. Co-driven by Daniel Barritt, Evans had been a flying fourth after last night’s short stage around an old motocross track, but it all went wrong during this morning’s wet and muddy opening test. Luckily the M-Sport crew carry a spare steering arm in their Ford Fiesta WRC and Evans used all his engineering skills to replace the part in super quick time. He’s still very much in the rally and there is a long way to go until the finish on Sunday afternoon, but he completed SS2 having lost 13 minutes. “We couldn’t get the car stopped for a right-hander,” said Evans. “I just got it sideways and touched the bank, which broke the steering arm. We had one in the car and got it fixed, but lost a lot of time.”

Wales captain Tommy Reffell admitted his team were given a real scare by Japan at the U20 World Cup as they failed to make the tournament semi-finals. Reffell’s side held on to beat Japan 18-17 at the World Rugby Under 20 Championships to finish as runner-up to New Zealand in their pool. It means they missed out on the last four and will play in the knockout phase for places between 5-8 with Italy, Argentina and Australia. Their next game will be against the young Pumas on 12 June.

You wouldn’t have thought Wales’ top goalscorer Helen Ward would have missed a penalty she had just earned for her team at the Liberty Stadium in a vital World Cup qualifier. With 42 international goals already to her credit, it seemed odds-on that she would calmly thread the ball past the giant Melisa Envera in the Bosnian goal. But she went for power rather than placement, and the two strides forward taken by Envera enabled her to make a vital 56th minute save to keep her side in the game.

Osian Pryce will contest the Red Kite Stages on Sunday 24 June in an Escort Mk2 – the first time the Machynlleth-born rally ace will have competed in the Vale of Neath forests since making his FIA World Rally Championship debut on Wales Rally GB in 2010. The late decision to contest the 45 stage mile event in Rheola, Resolven and Margam Park came about when Pryce discovered that the same BDA-engined Escort Mk2 that he drove on the 2WD Rally North Wales was available. The chance to contest another event in an iconic 1978 Escort was too much of a temptation, so he’ll reappear in the immaculate car run by Suffolk-based specialists RallyXtreme. On his local 2WD Rally North Wales back in March, the 25-year old driver made an impressive historic rally debut – setting equal fastest time on his first ever stage in a rear-wheel drive car and finishing fourth after a rear puncture cost him a minute and a shot of victory.

South Wales FA will go into their second match in the UEFA Regions Cup Preliminary Round mini-tournament full of confidence after their 5-0 victory over Region of Gothenburg at Jenner Park. Next up (Thursday, 7 June, 7.00pm) for the Welsh regional champions, whose opening round victory was the highest score by a Welsh team in the tournament’s history, will be a clash with the Macedonian side, Amateurs FYR, back in Barry. Star of the show in the 5-0 win was Penydarren Boys and Girls FC striker Chris Colvin-Owens, who netted twice to add to his mounting reputation. The bearded striker scored more than 50 goals for the South Wales Alliance League Premier Division side as they went through their 30 matches unbeaten to win the title by 20 clear points.

Helen Ward believes Wales have wised-up on the mean streets of international football. The Watford striker is set to earn her 71st cap against Bosnia-Herzegovina at Swansea City’s Liberty Stadium on Thursday night, where Jayne Ludlow’s side can take another big stride towards World Cup qualification. Wales currently sit second in Group One, with two further games remaining – both at home – against Russia and England.

Andrew Hotham’s confirmed departure from the Cardiff Devils this week will be a bitter pill to swallow for the team and its fans. The end of the season. The time of year in the sporting calendar where teams chop, change and rebuild. Players come and go. Sometimes involving eye-watering figures, sometimes high profile, sometimes loved. […]

Welsh marathon runner Andrew Davies has proved himself king of the mountains in Slovenia. The Stockport Harrier won the individual Master 35 gold at the 18th WMRA World Masters Mountain Running Championship at the weekend. Davies – who finished 11th in the marathon at the Commonwealth Games in Australia last month – won his age 35 and over category on the Ratitovec Mountain within the Julian Alps Mountain Range near Lake Bled in Slovenia.