Ryan Woodman returns to captain Wales in their opening match at the U20 World Championship against New Zealand on Saturday. Having missed the Six Nations through injury, the Dragons back row star has been selected by coach Richard Whiffin, to lead a side with two uncapped players named on the bench, Cardiff centre Steffan Emanuel and Scarlets scrum half Lucca Setaro.

A headline strategy for the entirety of Welsh rugby – long on ambition, but short on detail – has been unveiled by the Welsh Rugby Union with stark warnings about the financial obstacles that must be overcome. The Union have outlined five key targets for the next five years: ensuring the men’s and women’s national teams consistently rank in the top five globally, having the regions contend in play-offs, increasing the number of active participants, achieving financial sustainability at all levels, and enhancing the percentage of the Welsh public with a positive view of Welsh rugby.

You don’t have to tell Carys Phillips how difficult Saturday’s opponents Spain are going to be for Wales when the two teams clash at Cardiff Arms Park (kick-off 2.00pm) in a massive WXV play-off match. The Harlequins and Wales hooker was captain the last time the two teams met in a friendly at Madrid University in 2019. It ended with a crushing 22-5 victory for the home side.

Ellis Bevan has become the latest Welsh scrum-half to have been produced by Cardiff Met, following in the footsteps of some of the very best No 9s in the business. Where Clive Rowlands, Gareth Edwards, Clive Shell, Brynmor Williams and Gareth Cooper went before him, three of them going on to become British & Irish Lions, Cardiff scrum-half Bevan took his first tentative steps on the international stage in Wales’ defeat to South Africa at Twickenham.

Former rugby league star Regan Grace has been named in Wales’ 34-strong squad to tour Australia. Grace, who has only played two senior games of union for his club Bath, recently linked up with Wales’ training group after Ospreys wing Keelan Giles suffered a groin injury and was ruled out of the three-match trip. Grace, who scored 89 tries for St Helens during a league career that saw him feature in three Grand Final-winning teams, is under contract with Bath until the end of next season.

Wales’ under pressure coach Warren Gatland could offer a tour spot to Australia to former rugby league star Regan Grace, despite the wing having played only two senior games of union. Grace was called into Wales’ training following Keelan Giles’ injury, and the Bath player immediately impressed, with Wales assistant coach Jonathan Humphreys describing him as an “X-factor” player.

Coach Tom Brindle hailed his players as Wales women created history by qualifying for their first Rugby League World Cup 2026.

Aaron Wainwright believes that Wales’ Twickenham appointment with South Africa is an important staging post on the road to the 2027 World Cup. Wales’ resources have been severely tested for Saturday’s encounter with several players either unavailable because the game falls outside World Rugby’s summer Test window so England-based players cannot be considered, injured or rested.

Taine Plumtree will be bidding for a family London double this weekend – but it will require a massive upset by Wales for him to achieve it. Last month, Plumtree’s father, John, coached the Sharks to a memorable 36-22 triumph against Gloucester in the Challenge Cup final at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Regan Grace has been described as an “X-factor” player following his shock call-up to Wales’ summer training squad. Former rugby league star Grace, who has only played two senior games of union, could now travel to Australia for a tour highlighted by Tests against the Wallabies on July 6 and 13.

Mike Phillips admits his time as a racehorse owner was “disastrous” but that will not prevent the former Wales and Lions rugby hero from helping Ffos Las Racecourse celebrate their 15th birthday this weekend. Phillips will deliver the wisdom and wit derived from a 12-year, 94-cap career with Wales – plus five more with the Lions – when he performs in a Q and A session at the course on Sunday.

If patience is a virtue, then Warren Gatland must think Wales supporters are the most virtuous people in the world. How else do we explain the head coach’s continual reference to building a team ready for the next World Cup?

Wales winger Jasmine Joyce is set to become the first British rugby player to appear at three Olympic Games after being included in Team GB’s sevens squad for Paris 2024. Joyce, 28, who helped Britain finish fourth at Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, and Scotland centre Lisa Thomson are the only non-English players selected in a 14-strong squad.

Warren Gatland’s Wales team will get the first chance to challenge the reigning world champions South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday in a game that will at least have a silver lining for his side. Both teams have been brought in to add weight and appeal to the existing fixture between Fiji and the Barbarians that takes place afterwards.

Senior men’s head coach Warren Gatland has named the Wales XV to face South Africa away at Twickenham Stadium in the Qatar Airways Cup on Saturday 22 June (KO 2pm live on Sky Sports and S4C).

Head coach, Tom Brindle, has named a 19-player squad to face the Netherlands in Purmerend on Saturday (kick-off 4pm local time/3pm Welsh time), as Wales look to make history and qualify for a first-ever Women’s World Cup.

Cardiff flanker James Botham has been added to Wales’ training squad ahead of Saturday’s clash with South Africa at Twickenham. Botham, who has 10 caps, provides cover across the back row and lifts the number of players in Warren Gatland’s squad to 38.

Former Wales fly-half Sam Davies says he has experienced a “rollercoaster” season before Grenoble’s French Top 14 promotion play-off having left the “mess” of Welsh rugby. The second-tier ProD2 club have been hit with two points deductions for financial problems and director of rugby Aubin Hueber has been put on gardening leave in Davies’ first campaign.

In their first match since their embarrassing Six Nations campaign, Warren Gatland’s Wales side will take on South Africa next week in what will mark the anniversary of the first game at what was then called the Millennium Stadium. Strangely enough, even though this game falls on the 25th anniversary of the 1999 clash in Cardiff, the match will be held at the home of English rugby, Twickenham.

Courtenay Meredith, one of the world’s greatest tight head props in the Fifties and the last surviving player from the Wales team that beat New Zealand in 1953, has died at the age of 97. The former Neath prop was a renowned scrummager in his playing days, a precursor to Graham Price and Adam Jones in later generations of Welsh packs, and was the cornerstone of the British & Irish Lions pack that drew the Test series with South Africa in 1955.