Gethin Jenkins will dip his toe into the coaching pool next month when the Ospreys face the Scarlets in the Celtic Cup – the new shadow tournament for the Guinness Pro 14 designed primarily for under 23 players. The Cardiff Blues prop – Wales’ most capped player – will be the defence coach for the Blues’ youngsters. It’s a first venture into coaching for the Lions forward, who will be 38 in November, but still remains committed to at least one more season as a Blues player.

The Guinness Pro14 fixtures are out and with an August start date Robin Davey is already considering how the first weekend might shape up for the four regions after a long, hot summer. It’s been a blisteringly hot summer and the nation’s top rugby players have needed hosing down as they step up training for the new season which actually starts this month. The pre-season friendlies are about to get under way and pretty soon the heat will be turned on the regions and their leading players in what is the last season before the World Cup.

Most of Welsh rugby’s 2018-19 fixture list is out and dates in the diary have been ringed. What hasn’t happened, argues Geraint Powell, is any real attempt to fit the various tiers together so that it all makes sense. Nothing illustrates the disjointed nature of the regional tier of Welsh professional rugby more than the annual release of the Pro14 fixtures. Regional rugby is a complete package, always has been and always will be if you want to obtain most of the resource concentration synergies in relation to increased earning and more efficient expenditure. Tying everything together at the end is where the biggest benefits accrue.

There will be an explosive start to the Guinness PRO14 season when the reigning European Rugby Challenge Cup champions Cardiff Blues host the Champions Cup and PRO14 winners Leinster. The Friday night shoot-out at the Arms Park on 31 August will give new Blues coach John Mulvihill the toughest of starts, but with Leinster unlikely to have their leading Irish internationals available so early in the season it might be a slightly easier task than later in the campaign.

If you think Gareth Southgate has had to work under intense pressure at the football World Cup, just imagine how Gareth Baber has been feeling of late as he counts down to the days to the Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco later this month (20-22 July).

Experienced Wales Rugby League Students player Dafydd Hellard has been forced to withdraw from from next week’s Home International tournament at Sardis Road in Pontypridd as he’s receiving chemotherapy for testicular cancer. The 33-year old mature student from Treharris, represented Wales Students in last year’s World Cup.

Cardiff Blues coach John Mulvihill is planning to use Samu Manoa and Nick Williams as a 40-stones twin-turbo power boost next season. Having signed 20-stone USA No.8 Manoa from Toulon for the new season, the new Blues coach intends to rotate his physical threat with that of fellow bruising No.8 Nick Williams. They may have a combined age of 67 – Manoa is 33 and Williams turns 35 in December – but Mulvihill believes the threat they can carry between them for 80 minutes will prove a fearful proposition for opponents in the Guinness Pro14 and European Champions Cup next season.

Paul John is a Welsh coach with World Cup glory on his rugby curriculum vitae. The former scrum-half won 10 Test caps for his country and became a Pontypridd legend for his exploits at Sardis Road during a phenomenal playing career. John has since gone on to become a fine coach, working with Pontypridd, Cardiff Blues and having a long stint in charge of Wales Sevens before moving on to his current role with Hong Kong Sevens.

Cardiff Blues have made their second signing in a week by recruiting Jason Harries from Edinburgh. The former Wales Under-18s, 20s and Sevens international follows the switch of tight-head prop Dmitri Arhip from the Ospreys. Harries was signed by Richard Cockerill last summer on a one-year contract, having scored 22 tries in 45 appearances for London Scottish.

While the WRU are urging players to come home to Wales to maintain their international careers, the same policy is not being followed when it comes to coaches. Robin Davey, in his latest column for Dai Sport, questions why home-grown coaching talent is being frozen out. The Welsh Rugby Union and the Wales management are doing everything they can to encourage exiled players like George North to return to Wales, yet they appear to be scouring the earth for the next national coach.

Ellis Jenkins believes Warren Gatland’s World Cup selection has become a lot more complicated thanks to the impact he and others made in North and South America. The co-captain for the three-Test trip that brought a victory over South Africa and back-to-back successes against Argentina was one of a number of players to make their mark. Now, as the tour party arrive home, the Cardiff Blues flanker is confident his youthful squad has delivered on their mission to improve strength in depth as the countdown to the tournament in Japan approaches the 12-month mark.

Dillon Lewis is fast becoming a lucky talisman for Wales on tour in Argentina. The Cardiff Blues tight-head prop has won all four caps to date overseas and he has yet to be on the losing side. Lewis has started in three of those wins and has an eye on another run out in the No.3 shirt in Buenos Aires this weekend.