Ioan Cunningham is hoping training with the world champions will help inspire his Wales team to victory over Australia on Friday night. Wales Women host the Aussies at Rodney Parde in a warm-up clash for the WXV2 tournament in South Africa later this month.

As Cardiff kick-off their new season on Friday night, head coach Matt Sherratt insists he will be calling the shots at the Arms Park – not Warren Gatland. With a host of youngsters having been fast-tracked into the Wales squad over the past 12 months, it might be tempting to believe Sherratt is under pressure to accommodate all requests.

The Welsh regions emerge, bleary-eyed, back into the autumn sunshine this weekend but it would be wrong to think they have been in hibernation. According to Dragons head coach Dai Flanagan, it was far more dramatic than that.

For Matt Sherratt, there’s the sense of a new beginning as he embarks on his second season as Cardiff’s head coach. It’s been a summer of major change at the Arms Park both on and off the field and he is hoping that will now extend to his team’s results as they look to turn those narrow defeats into victories – starting with Friday night’s BKT URC opener at home to Zebre Parma.

Leighton Jones has stood down as head coach at Super Rygbi Cymru club Pontypool after just one game of the new season. Tom Hancock has been installed as the interim head coach for this weekend’s game against Bridgend at the Brewery Field. Pooler lost on the opening night of the season when they were beaten at home by reigning Premiership champions Llandovery, 21-18.

Former Scarlets coach and captain Simon Easterby will take over as interim Ireland head coach during Andy Farrell’s time in charge of the British and Irish Lions. Farrell is set to oversee autumn Tests against New Zealand, Argentina, Fiji and Australia in Dublin before temporarily departing his role to lead next year’s Lions tour against the Wallabies.

Owen Watkin is relishing his new found responsibility for club and country as he sets his sights on a major career milestone. The Ospreys centre started both Tests on Wales’ summer tour of Australia to take his tally of caps up to 41 as he took on a key role for Warren Gatland’s team.

New faces Alaw Pyrs, Maisie Davies and Rosie Carr have all held their places in Ioan Cunningham’s Wales squad for the WXV2 tournament in South Africa. The trio made their senior debut appearances in the recent defeat to Scotland, but have stayed in a new-look squad to compete in South Africa at the end of September.

It’s a feature of Tongan rugby players that they all claim to be related to someone better known and Carwyn Tuipulotu was never going to buck that trend. The South Sea Islanders have been an integral part of the Welsh rugby scene for over 30 years and it appears they all belong to one huge extended family.

Newport Rugby Club have seen plenty of changes in Welsh rugby through their long and distinguished history, so it might be fitting that their 150th anniversary season brings a new direction. On Saturday, Newport host Bridgend on the first weekend of the inaugural Super Rygbi Cymru tournament.

Taulupe Faletau is not ready to give up on his dream of once again playing for Wales and is targeting a return to action in the United Rugby Championship with Cardiff at the end of October. That would give him an outside shot of convincing Warren Gatland he is ready to return to the Test arena and add to his 104 Welsh caps in the Autumn Nations Series.

Ioan Cunningam is choosing to look on the bright side even though his Wales women’s team have dropped to 10th in the latest World Rugby rankings after losing 40-14 to Scotland last weekend. That makes Wales the lowest ranked team in the Six Nations, with both Ireland and Italy having moved above them.

Toby Booth has insisted the Ospreys’ shock announcement that he is to stand down at the end of the 2024-25 season is the right decision. The Swansea-based region have said that former Bath and London Irish coach Booth, who masterminded progression to the United Rugby Championship play-offs and EPCR Challenge Cup quarter-finals last term, will be succeeded by former Wales wing Mark Jones. Jones will step up from his current position as Ospreys defence coach, with Justin Tipuric replacing Jones in that job.

Welsh rugby is back. It may not be a big fanfare opening as the regions and also the clubs involved in the new Super Rygbi Cymru are still in their summer slumber, but the third tier of the sport awakens this weekend.

Wales Women head coach Ioan Cunningham is poised to hand debuts to three uncapped players from the bench after naming his team to face Scotland at the Hive Stadium, Murrayfield on Friday. Prop Maisie Davies, hooker Rosie Carr and lock Alaw Pyrs are all set to win first senior caps from the replacements’ bench.

All four Welsh regions will be in action this weekend (Saturday, 31 August) as the big build-up to the new season gathers pace. The Ospreys will welcome Aberavon, Bridgend and Swansea to the Swansea.Com Stadium for their innovative ‘Origin Series’, which will include three 30 minute matches against the new Super Rygbi Cymru teams in their reg

Josh Adams is fit, fresh and raring to go again after a much-needed summer off. The Cardiff Rugby and Wales wing was left out of the Wales tour to Australia in July to enable him to get a knee and groin injury sorted – and to give him a break from the game.

Former Wales star Louis Rees-Zammit is expected to miss out when the Kansas City Chiefs name their 53-man roster for the 2024 NFL season on Tuesday. The 23-year-old – who switched sports on the eve of last season’s Six Nations – appears likely to be assigned to the Chiefs’ practice squad to continue his development after crossing the Atlantic at the start of the year.

S4C will show every Wales senior men’s match in the Autumn Nations Series for the next two years. The games will be available on television, as well as on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer.

Newport have kicked-off their 150th anniversary season in fine style with big pre-season wins over Usk, Brecon and Blackheath. The Black & Ambers are hoping to go one better than the runners-up spot they finished in during last season’s Indigo Premiership campaign. The previous season they were runners-up in the WRU Premiership Cup.