Former Dragons boss Bernard Jackman has urged the WRU to follow the IRFU’s lead by pumping more money into the four Welsh regions or see them slip further into the abyss. Three of the four professional sides in Wales are privately owned with the WRU normally providing them with payment for the services of their players.

The dates for the regional festive derbies in the Guinness Pro 14 have been confirmed with the Dragons hosting the Cardiff Blues on Boxing Day afternoon and the Ospreys taking on the Scarlets in the evening. The Rodney Parade match will be live on S4C and Premier Sports, while Premier Sports have sole rights to the clash at the Liberty Stadium. On New Year’s Day, S4C will show live coverage of the Scarlets against the Dragons, along with Premier Sports, with the subscription broadcaster then showing Cardiff Blues v the Ospreys from the Arms Park.

Australia could be on their way back as a rugby force following last week’s victory over New Zealand. Next week they take on Argentina, who themselves have shaken up the order by beating the All Blacks for the first time. At the centre of things for the Wallabies, but behind the scenes, is Welshman Craig Whelan, who spoke to Steffan Thomas. Growing up as a huge rugby fan in Port Talbot, Craig Whelan could never have imagined himself working in the sport on the other side of the world. But the man at the centre of a new era for Australian rugby says he wouldn’t swap his journey for anything now he counts Dave Rennie and Scott Wisemantel as Wallaby colleagues.

By Rob Cole Nicky Smith has eaten his way back into the Welsh squad by piling on the pounds in a bid to make it back onto the international stage by being bigger, better and stronger. Dropped by new Wales coach Wayne Pivac after winning his 35thcap in the World Cup Bronze Final last year, […]

It says something about how things have changed at the Ospreys that after winning their first away game since the 2018/19 season skipper Justin Tipuric was still disappointed. “When he came off he told me he was disappointed that we didn’t get a bonus point. That shows the attitude of the group – they’re hungry to work hard and to keep improving,” said a beaming head coach, Toby Booth. Not many would have given the Welsh region much of a chance of breaking their duck this season at Murrayfield.

As the new Guinness Pro14 season kicks off, many rugby fans be will looking forward to great tries, flowing moves and wondrous skills. Others, well, their tastes are more . . . fundamental. They love big hits, snarling confrontations and perhaps a bit of sneaky retribution (within the laws, of course). Author Luke Upton loves a hard […]

A new season of Guinness PRO14 rugby begins on Friday with a sense of the unknown hanging over the competition. The Covid-19 pandemic means the competition will begin behind closed doors with the tournament set to introduce further South African sides. Steffan Thomas looks at the strengths of the PRO14 and why it should be […]

It’s been through many guises – the Welsh-Scottish League, the Celtic League, the Pro12 and now the Pro14 – but the coming season is surely the most testing yet for the tournament which houses the four Welsh regions. For Alex Bywater, it’s a league that needs help and yet it doesn’t help itself. The 2020/21 Guinness Pro14 season will kick-off on Friday night when Cardiff Blues travel to Zebre. With a new campaign starting just 20 days after the previous one ended these are uncharted waters for the division, but the uncomfortable truth is it is struggling to find its place in today’s rugby world.

Jonathan Davies admits it will take some time for him to return to his world class best after he made his long-awaited comeback. The Wales centre returned to action for the first time in nearly a year as his Scarlets side were beaten 25-15 by the Ospreys in Llanelli. Both regions were warming up for the start of the new Guinness PRO14 season with a pre-season friendly and Davies was the headline act.

Exclusive By Steffan Thomas The Ospreys have blocked rugby fans from watching today’s Welsh derby against the Scarlets. The rugby -starved Welsh public could have seen the two bitter rivals go head to head live on S4C, just a week before the start of the new Guinness Pro 14 season. But the decision to broadcast […]

Stephen Myler is a new face to many Ospreys fans as he prepares to begin his first full season with the region. But anyone familiar with rugby – union and league – over the border in England will know the Myler back story goes back a long, long way as Peter Jackson reports. As from next month, Stephen Myler will have outlasted every single one of his fly-half contemporaries in Europe and beyond – the veterans’ veteran. At 36, the unsung Merseysider will soon find himself out on his own in the ultimate endurance race, a feat so difficult to overestimate that it’s akin to a long-distance club runner superseding the holiest of Olympian trinities, Emil Zatopek, Abebe Bikila and Haile Gebrsalassie, in one fell swoop.

During a hugely prosperous playing career with Clermont Auvergne in the Top 14 Brock James learnt all there is to know about the intricacies of back play. Known as a master tactician James was the brains behind a decade of success for the French rugby giants. Now he has undertaken the unenviable task of getting […]