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.

The four Welsh regions should all be given equal slices of the cake, argues Robin Davey – regardless of history, success on the field, or anything else that has gone before. The only exception to this, he says, is when it comes to keeping the Wales captain, Alun Wyn Jones, in Wales. Money is at the root of all the murky goings on as the countdown to the new rugby season gets under way. It’s about cold, hard, coin  . . . whether it involves funding the salary of Alun Wyn Jones to try to keep him in Wales or the thorny issue of regional payments.

The Ospreys will have to plunge straight into a pool of death next season as they re-enter the Heineken Champions Cup. The Swansea region – who are back in the top tier tournament – have been drawn in pool that appears about as tough as it can get as they must play holders Saracens, last season’s semi-finals Munster, and top French club Racing 92. Ospreys head coach Allen Clarke said: “Everyone knows we are up against some serious contenders there.

What price the Ospreys or Dragons reaching the play-offs of the Guinness Pro 14 next season after a shake up in the formatting of the two conferences? The Ospreys may have been the best of a bad bunch of Welsh regional performers in the Pro 14 last season, but their reward has been to find themselves in the same conference as the two finalists from 2019, Leinster and Glasgow, and semi-finalists Ulster. The ranking is based on the two conferences being put together and ranked in terms of points. It means that Leinster, despite the fact that they are Pro 14 champions, are ranked as the second Irish team behind Munster who edged them out by a point last year.

The Guinness Pro 14 has been re-shuffled with the two conferences re-drawn – theoretically to keep them evenly-balanced. Robin Davey believes it makes life tough for the Ospreys and Dragons next season, but that all the Welsh regions will need to hope their youngsters come of age. The World Cup will obviously dominate the start of the next rugby season, but all the top leagues will carry on regardless – meaning for the Welsh regions it will be very much a test of their strength in depth. And that is where they have often come up short as they compete against the Irish provinces with bigger budgets and the Scots who have just two regions to fund compared with Wales’ four.

Dewi Lake has insisted the Wales U20 victory over New Zealand will count for nothing if they don’t go on to beat England. Skipper Lake joined a small and elite band of Welsh captains who have led a national side to victory over New Zealand as his youngsters won a dramatic contest, 8-7 at the World Rugby Under 20 Championship in Argentina. The victory in Rosario takes Wales into a fifth-placed play-off where they will meet England on Saturday.