Shaun Edwards has told the Wales team to be prepared to top the 200 tackle count if they want to win in Dublin against unbeaten Ireland this weekend. Wales made 117 tackles in their comfortable 34-7 win over Scotland in Round 1 and then stepped up their defensive effort with 200 in the 12-6 defeat to England at Twickenham in Round 2. They missed 19 tackles against the Scots, but only 18 against the English.

Last weekend Olivia Breen was battling with Britain’s best able-bodied long jumpers at the UK Indoor Championships in Birmingham. On Sunday it will be Glasgow and a shoot-out with two other British World Para Athletics champions in one of the feature races at the Müller Indoor Grand Prix as the Welsh superstar continues her build up to the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

As Wales prepare to face Ireland in Dublin on Saturday, Dragons coach Bernard Jackman has a confession to make to Alex Bywater. The former Ireland hooker cost his country their chance of victory in the same fixture 10 years ago. Bernard Jackman has one particular memory of games between Ireland and Wales. It isn’t a good one. In 2008, Jackman rose from the bench against Warren Gatland’s side at Croke Park to replace Rory Best in the 71st minute. 

If KFC could deliver their chicken as reliably as Carlos Carvalhal delivers his analogies, then half the meat-eating population of the UK wouldn’t be going hungry this weekend. The Swansea City manager has served up fish, lobsters, caviar and now poultry at his press conferences as well as Portuguese pastries. Carvalhal tucked into more culinary comparisons on Thursday when he was asked how many points he felt would be required this season in order to avoid relegation from the Premier League.

Finnish goalkeeper Hugo Keto has joined Cardiff City on trial. The Helsinki-born stopper played for the Bluebirds in their Professional Development League Cup match against Blackburn Rovers. Manchester United’s teenage keeper Max Johnstone played for Cardiff in a 1-0 win against Southampton and a 1-0 defeat at Bristol City. Keto, who celebrated his 20th birthday […]

Luke Rowe admits he feels like a kid at Christmas being back racing at the Abu Dhabi Tour. The Team Sky rider has come through his first two days of his comeback after shattering his right leg last August.

Days after the disappointment of disqualification at the national indoor championships at Birmingham Arena, Welsh 400m runner Owen Smith experienced the dizzying high of selection for the World Indoor Athletics Championships to be held at the same venue next month.

Neil Warnock’s Bluebirds are ready to welcome Bristol City to Cardiff City Stadium for a Severnside derby this Sunday (Noon kick-off). Manager Warnock and his team are unbeaten in seven Championship fixtures, winning five and drawing two, in their chase for promotion to the Premier League. Goalkeeper Neil Etheridge has kept three successive clean sheets […]

Neil Warnock has backed Craig Bellamy’s bid to start his managerial career at Oxford United. Cardiff City boss Warnock would be losing one of his own management team should Bellamy decide to leave his current role as player development manager at his former club. But Warnock- whose team extended the gap between themselves in second spot and the chasing clubs in the Championship play-off places to four points on Wednesday night with a 1-0 win at Ipswich – thinks the time is right for Bellamy to fly the nest.

Sheffield Steelers coach Paul Thompson blasted his teams ‘pathetic’ performance and has conceded: “Devils will be League champions.” Second-placed Manchester Storm, who have earned nine successive wins, and Belfast Giants are likely to argue with Thompson’s view as they try to chase down the Elite League leaders. Coach Andrew Lord and his Cardiff Devils team […]

One of Wales’ top cyclists has been diagnosed with chronic fatigue and won’t be able to start the season with her new Dutch team. Amy Roberts, 23, who rode for Wales at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as a teenager, has been given an indefinite leave of absence by Parkhotel Valkenburg at exactly the time she was hoping to make her debut for them in the saddle after five years at Wiggle High5. As a junior in 2012, Carmarthen-born Roberts claimed World Championship bronze in both the points race and team pursuit with fellow Welsh riders Elinor Barker and Hayley Jones. The trio struck gold at the European Junior Championships and she went on to join Barker and Laura Trott in winning the opening round of the World Cup in South America in 2014.

Dan Biggar says he recognises a kindred fighting spirit in Johnny Sexton but is determined to be the last man standing when Wales face Ireland on Saturday. The Six Nations clash in Dublin will mean a confrontation between two of the game’s most expressive and openly competitive characters. It’s a battle where the arm-waving gestures and head-shakes could be at least double the penalty count. Biggar – who returns at No.10 for Wales after missing the first two rounds of the tournament with a shoulder injury – had to play second fiddle to Sexton for most of last summer’s Lions tour.

Warren Gatland reaches a milestone in Dublin on Saturday, where he was run out of town as a national coach in 2001. Robin Davey says there could be no more satisfying place to celebrate a century of Tests with Wales and believes there are good reasons to anticipate success. Ton-up Warren Gatland takes charge of his 100th game for Wales on Saturday, and there’s probably nothing he would like more than to celebrate by putting one across his former employers, the IRFU. There’s been no love lost between Gatland and Ireland since he left there 17 years ago – a bungled episode by a trigger-happy Irish Rugby Football Union, who should have stuck with a coach who clearly had far more to offer.

Neil Warnock took a major gamble at Ipswich Town and it paid off. The Bluebirds manager had said Gary Madine would not be fit, but he asked the striker to get involved despite his broken nose. Madden responded to the call and Warnock said: “Gary Madine was probably not fit to play, but I couldn’t […]

Ben Bowns became the first goaltender to shut-out Sheffield Steelers on their home ice this season and Cardiff Devils eased into a 10 points lead at the top. Joey Martin, Matt Pope and Andrew Hotham fired Devils to a 3-0 victory in front of more than 5,700 spectators. Steelers had to win if they were […]

Sheffield Steelers are still chasing hard in their hunt for Elite League title glory. Head coach Paul Thompson and his Steelers insist they have not given up on hopes of catching leaders Cardiff Devils. Thompson’s team are at home against Devils this evening (Wednesday) and he says: “Cardiff are in a great position. “They are […]

Wales under 23 coach Shane Eccles has put his side through their paces today (Wednesday) as the team go into a rest day on Thursday before their competition starts on Friday.

Warren Gatland believes TMO verdicts have to be accurate – even if it means long delays for supporters and armchair viewers. The Wales coach was on the wrong end of a disputed call from television match official Glenn Newman during his team’s Six Nations defeat to England at Twickenham where a Gareth Anscombe try-scoring effort was denied. World Rugby later declared that Newman had made an error and the New Zealander was criticised by some for not taking longer in reaching his decision by examining all available replays.

Penarth Hockey Club’s two most senior sides clinched vital victories by a single goal at the weekend, strengthening their position in their respective GoCrea8 League divisions.

Former Wales Students international Ian Williams, a cornerstone in three of Oxford University’s record run of six Varsity Match wins, has died at the age of 27 after collapsing in training. The ex-Swansea University history graduate, who played in the Welsh Varsity Match against Cardiff before heading to Oxford, collapsed while training with English Championship side Doncaster Knights on Tuesday. He could not be resuscitated. “It is with great sadness that Doncaster RFC announces the passing of prop forward Ian Williams. Ian collapsed at training at Castle Park this morning and, despite the best efforts of the emergency response team, could not be resuscitated,” said a Doncaster Knights club statement.