Ospreys head coach Allen Clarke admitted his injury-ravaged side were taught a lesson during their 44-3 hammering by Saracens at Allianz Park. The result leaves the region already needing a miracle if they are to qualify for the knockout stages of the Heineken Champions Cup following back-to-back defeats in the opening two rounds. The team that once dominated the Guinness Pro 14 and regularly reached the knockout stages in Europe have now won just once in eight matches so far this season.

They once boasted one of the strongest playing rosters in European rugby and were famously labelled the ‘Galacticos’ of Welsh rugby. But the Ospreys’ opening Heineken Champions Cup 32-13 defeat to Munster this weekend – a loss so predictable to many there was some relief that it could have been worse – only underlined the gap they now have to make up. The start of Europe at the Liberty Stadium on Saturday came at the worst possible time for the Ospreys with 18 players unavailable due to a combination of a World Cup rest period and injuries.

Dan Lydiate insists the demands of a European pool of death can shock the Ospreys into life as they start their Heineken Champions campaign at home to Munster on Saturday. Lydiate’s region have made a shocking start to their season – losing five of their opening six Guinness PRO14 fixtures. Head coach Allen Clarke admitted they were “at the bottom of the pit” after their embarrassing home defeat to lowly South African outfit the Southern Kings last weekend. But former Wales and British & Irish Lions flanker Lydiate, who will captain the side at the Liberty Stadium, insists they will get their act together for the visit of the two-time European champions in a pool that also includes Saracens and Racing 92.

Blade Thomson will make his first Scarlets appearance of the season as Brad Mooar’s side face Benetton in Llanelli on Saturday night. Thomson was one of Scotland’s better players at the World Cup and he will start at No 8 with Ed Kennedy and Josh Macleod either side of him in the back-row. Elsewhere in the pack, Taylor Davies comes in for Marc Jones at hooker. Davies packs down in a front row that includes Phil Price and Wales international Samson Lee. Lewis Rawlins and Steve Cummins again get the nod in the second row.

Scott Williams will guide the Ospreys back into Guinness Pro 14 action tonight – just a month after Wales decided he was too much of a fitness risk to take to the World Cup. The centre – who played at the 2011 and 2015 tournaments – was left at home by Warren Gatland, who concluded that a back injury suffered by the 28-year-old last season had taken too heavy a toll for him to make the squad for Japan. Instead, Williams has a chance to relive his frustrations by lining up for the Ospreys away to Ulster in Belfast in the first Pro14 fixture of the season.

The Sporting Memories Foundation – a charity that uses sport to help people overcome loneliness and other issues – is coming to Wales. This weekend, as the Rugby World Cup gets into full swing, they’re launching a Welsh Memories Weekend, aimed at sparking a Wales-wide conversation about great sporting moments – the big and the not so big – as Graham Thomas discovers. Ever heard a rugby club bar fall silent after someone suggested their best-ever all-time Wales XV? Or a hush descend in your office following a colleague’s claim that last week’s Cardiff City performance was the most exciting she had ever seen?

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.

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.

Regan Grace is fast proving to be ‘the one that got away’ as far as the Ospreys and Wales are concerned. The 22-year-old flying wing from Port Talbot is described as one of the most deadly finishers in Super League and already has 46 tries to his credit for leaders St. Helens, 17 of which have come in 24 games this season. Now, he can start planning for a trip to Wembley for the Challenge Cup final on 24 August after helping Saints beat Halifax at the weekend to set-up a shoot-out with Warrington Wolves for the most prestigious piece of silverware in rugby league.

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.

Alun Wyn Jones’ decision to stay with the Ospreys has been welcomed as a chance to continue the Wales captain’s legacy, according to his regional coach Allen Clarke. The likely World Cup skipper has ended uncertainty over his future by agreeing a new two-year deal to stay at the Liberty Stadium. Even though the Welsh Rugby Union have scrapped dual contracts, they have made an exception with Jones in a deal that ties him to both. It also means that at the age of 33, the second row is now likely to see out his playing career with his home-town region.