Shane Lewis-Hughes plans to follow in the footsteps of Sam Warburton in 2020 – and continue to come under his influence. Cardiff Blues back row forward Lewis-Hughes grew up watching Warburton star for the region, Wales, and the British and Irish Lions and has already begun learning from the legendary former Wales captain, who is now part of the national coaching set-up under Wayne Pivac. The latest forward tyro to come through the ranks at the Blues, 22-year-old Lewis-Hughes has set his sights on reaching the top of the game – just as Warburton did in a stunning career.

Jarrod Evans is aiming to floor the Dragons on Boxing Day to prove his title of Wales’ current fly-half champion is one he deserves. The 23-year-old has only won three caps but will move into 2020 as the current holder of the red No.10 shirt after playing in the national side’s most recent match against the Barbarians last month. Evans will hope to continue his recent form against the resurgent Dragons when the teams meet at the Arms Park on Thursday in the Guinness Pro14 derby.

How do rugby players spend Christmas Day? For Wales forward Jake Ball, it’s pretty much every other dad, except for large helpings of  self-discipline and denial – at least until the Scarlets have played the Ospreys on Boxing Day, as he tells Graham Thomas. Giant Jake Ball will limit himself to one tiny helping of Christmas pudding the night before – to ensure he’s lean and mean on Boxing Day when he tries to make mincemeat of the Ospreys. The Wales forward – who requires plenty of forkfuls of the right food to fuel his 19-stones body – admits he has a bit of a weakness for festive cake and pudding.

Justin Tipuric has admitted the Ospreys have reached rock bottom by losing for the 11th time in 12 matches and for the first time at home to Cardiff Blues for 14 years. The Wales star – who captained his team while they await the return of Alun Wyn Jones – confessed that the region are currently a team devoid of confidence after they lost 19-16. Swansea has been has been a nightmare venue for the men from the capital for more than a decade, but their luck changed at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday night – despite Filo Paulo, Tomos Williams and Josh Adams all spending spells in the sin bin.

As Cardiff Blues host Leicester Tigers tonight in the European Challenge Cup, former Blues and Tigers centre Jack Roberts is hoping to put his injury nightmare behind him as he aims to make his return to action in the coming weeks. After two injury ravaged seasons at the Arms Park, 27-year-old Roberts joined English Championship […]

The Scarlets’ home fixture against London Irish will be live on free-to-air TV as part of a deal reached by S4C to show live coverage of the Welsh regions’ matches in the European Rugby Challenge Cup this season. With three of the regions in this season’s competition, supporters will be able to watch one live match per round during the group stages, after an agreement was made with rights-holders BT Sport and European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR). The first two fixtures have been confirmed. Round one will see the Scarlets’ home match against Pool Two opponents London Irish being broadcast live on S4C, on Saturday 16 November. The second match to be televised will be the Pool Five clash between Cardiff Blues and Leicester Tigers on Saturday 23 November.

The Scarlets have given their Welsh international trio of Rob Evans, Samson Lee and Steff Evans a chance to get over the disappointment of not being picked for the World Cup by starting them against the Dragons at Rodney Parade this weekend (Saturday, 4.00pm). They have all been back in full training with their regional team mates this week and have earned fulsome praise from new head coach Brad Mooar ahead of his final warm-up match before the Guinness PRO14 opener against Connacht at Parc y Scarlets on 28 September. “Their engagement, their connection with the team and their desire to be involved has been outstanding. They’ve been fully involved and couldn’t have done any more,” said Mooar.

Rhys Carre is the phantom cheese monster of the Wales squad who intends to give other props a right grilling at the World Cup. Phantom, because as the 21-year-old is quick to point out, the legend of his cheddar gorging crumbles a bit under the harsh spotlight of truth. Carre dropped a massive 10kg in weight this summer while training with Wales for the first time before his debut against Ireland in the third of the four pre-tournament warm-up Tests.

Hayley Parsons has followed in the footsteps of Debra Williams in joining a Welsh regional rugby board as a non-executive director. Williams became the first woman to get involved at boardroom level with one of the four Welsh regions back in 2012 and came from a similar commercial background to Parsons, who has been announced as the latest recruit to the Cardiff Blues board. Williams, who was managing director of insurance company Confused.com, helped in a major financial turn-around at the Ospreys before standing down early in 2015. The Ospreys had posted an annual loss of £1.9m in 2012, but had reduced that to a mere £6,000 two years later.

Gareth Anscombe has revealed he left the Cardiff Blues to join the Ospreys because he wanted to be back at No.10. The Wales fly-half moved from the Arms Park to the Liberty Stadium at the end of last season after a protracted stand-off over a new contract following five years in the capital. Anscombe appealed against the new banding system for Wales players’ salaries brought in by the Welsh Rugby Union – arguing he should have been in the top tier – but after that was rejected on the basis he had yet to make a Lions squad he opted to leave the Blues and join the Ospreys.

As players go back into regional pre-season training this month, they will be hearing plenty of different accents – Aussie, Kiwi, Ulsterman, English . . . but just not Welsh. Robin Davey wonders why it’s so deeply unfashionable to have learned your coaching trade in the nation that has just won the Grand Slam. It is one of the great ironies of Welsh rugby that while players who have left the country are being encouraged to return home, native coaches can’t get a look-in. The dismissal of Jason Strange from Cardiff Blues proves yet again that when it comes to coaching, anything stamped “import version” is best in the eyes of the WRU and the regions.

The future of Cardiff Blues is at severe risk after the Welsh side was issued with a statutory demand for non-payment of more than £200,000 in rent for their Cardiff Arms Park home.  The Guinness PRO14 side haven’t paid rent to landlords Cardiff Athletic Club for 12 months and, despite regular promises of clearing their debt, missed another deadline this week. They now have 21 days to pay in full or risk being wound up.