He’s the Dragons highest try-scorer in Europe and only seven off Aled Brew’s regional record of 43, but Ashton Hewitt won’t be able to add to his tally of 36 tries in 125 games this season. Instead, the fleet-footed wing will have to wait for up to nine months before resuming his quest to become the first player at his region to score 50 tries.

Meet Jack Walsh: The rugby wanderer who is loving life in Wales and the BKT URC. From New South Wales to South Wales, via days in Devon, it’s been some rugby journey for the American-born Jack Walsh.

Home is still very much where the heart is when it comes to the regional derbies in the BKT United Rugby Championship. After nine of the 12 games played already this season, only three have ended up in away victories. At the start of last month the Scarlets won 29-23 at the Arms Park, while last weekend saw the Dragons pip Scarlets by a point at Rodney Parade and the Ospreys came from behind to beat Cardiff Rugby.

Toby Booth praised his “old school” Ospreys players after they beat Cardiff in a match that looked as if it was straight out of the 1980s. The Ospreys coach was full of praise for the character shown by his players as they marked New Year’s Day 2024 with a game-plan that could have come from 40 years ago.

New Year but same old pecking order for the Welsh regions? Coach and rugby analyst Tomas Marks examines the evidence from the Boxing Day derbies and looks for clues as to what might happen on New Year’s Day when the Ospreys host Cardiff and the Dragons welcome the Scarlets. Cardiff and the Ospreys were the resounding winners of the Boxing Day derbies with Cardiff blowing the Dragons away with ease within 40 minutes. The Ospreys survived a tough first half against the Scarlets but managed to score 25 points in the second half to win at Parc y Scarlets for the first time since 2015.

With only two wins in the BKT United Rugby Championship in the first half of the 2023-24 season, Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel is hoping for a better start to 2024 when he takes his side to Rodney Parade for a New Year’s Day derby clash with fellow strugglers, the Dragons. The Dragons are currently propping up the table with only one win, at home against the Ospreys, to their credit.

Cardiff Rugby have gained local authority permission to increase the capacity of the Arms Park to around 12,000 for their URC Boxing Day derby against the Dragons. The demand for tickets has seen 10,000 sold already.

Shane Williams says the Scarlets will want to produce a big performance for their discontented fans in the west Wales Boxing Day derby – but he’s predicting an Ospreys victory. The Scarlets went down to a 23-7 defeat at home to Black Lion of Georgia in the EPCR Challenge Cup last weekend, leaving them with just two wins from their nine matches in all competitions this season.

Jac Morgan is set to miss the Six Nations because of knee injury that requires surgery. The Wales World Cup captain is poised to undergo an operation within days and may struggle to be fit before the end of the season.

The Ospreys completed a miserable weekend for the Welsh regions in Europe as they conceded six tries in a 38-5 defeat to Montpellier in the EPCR Challenge Cup. All four Welsh regions lost in Europe, leaving them with a collective record of two victories from their opening eight matches. Last season Toby Booth’s Ospreys side completed a notable double over the then French champions in the Champions Cup, but they were no match for the home side in Round 2 of this season’s second tier tournament against the bottom placed side in the Top 14.

Cardiff will have the benefit of home comforts when they host Bath at the Arms Park on Saturday in the European Champions Cup, but head coach Matt Sherratt has urged supporters to bring patience and realism along with their backing. The Welsh regions are facing financial struggles with the budgets of the four professional sides reduced to £5.2m for the 2023-24 season, which is much less than the top French, Irish and English sides.

Dewi Lake scored a record equaling four tries in a European match for the Ospreys as he guided his side to a bonus-point 43-34 win in Pool 2 in the EPCR Challenge Cup. The Wales hooker converted three driving line-outs and also drove over for another from close range as home forwards just managed to outgun the superb Benetton threequarters.