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.

Scarlets have added to their squad with the signing of Welsh-qualified back Blair Murray from New Zealand provincial side Canterbury. The 22-year-old speedster, who can operate on the wing, full-back or at fly-half, scored seven tries in seven appearances during last year’s Bunnings NPC campaign.

Flanker Dan Thomas has ended his seven-year spell at Bristol by joining Cardiff. Thomas, 30, made 144 appearances for the Bears but now follows fellow Welshman Callum Sheedy in moving from Ashton Gate to Cardiff Arms Park ahead of the 2024-25 season.

A strong Welsh input means Gloucester-Hartpury will defend their Allianz Women’s Premiership title against Bristol Bears on Saturday 22 June after the two west country rivals emerged triumphant at the semi-final stage last weekend. The reigning champions had four tries from their Welsh stars to thank for their 50-19 victory over Exeter Chief, while the Bears made history by becoming the first team to win away from home in the semi-finals to reach their first final thanks to a 29-21 triumph at Saracens – the team that had beaten them in the Allianz Premiership Cup final earlier in the season.

Dwayne Peel believes new signing Henry Thomas can help give the Scarlets the hard edge that has gone missing. The Wales prop, who has been named in Warren Gatland’s squad for this month’s Test against South Africa and the tour of Australia, will link up with the Scarlets ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Former Wales rugby captain Ken Owens has joined the board of Cardiff Dragons. Owens – who retired in April of this year after a celebrated 18-year professional career – has become a non-executive director at the club.

South Africa captain Siya Kolisi is one 12 players from the matchday 23 who won the World Cup last year who will not be considered for the one-off Test against Wales at Twickenham on June 22. Just 11 of the side that edged New Zealand 12-11 at the Stade de France in October will be available after injuries, club commitments and retirement ruled out the other 12.

Justin Tipuric admitted the Ospreys were “ground down” by Munster after the only Welsh team to make the knockout stages of the United Rugby Championship fell to a 23-7 defeat in Limerick. The former Wales star captained an Ospreys team who put up an admirable showing against the champions, without ever looking likely to make it into the last four.

Toby Booth looks the kind of bloke who is not easily intimidated, and he will need all that defiance, and more, at Thomond Park in Limerick on Friday night. The Ospreys coach has also shown he knows how to defy the odds, which is why it is his team who are opponents for Munster in the first of the United Rugby Championship quarter-finals.

“Change” is the mantra of Keir Starmer and the Labour Party and it might equally be the slogan adopted by Warren Gatland this summer. Only, it’s not 14 years of Conservative government the Wales coach is trying to overhaul, but 14 Tests over the past 10 months.

Warren Gatland is relishing seeing uncapped Gloucester back Josh Hathaway’s potential at first hand after naming him in the Wales squad for summer Tests against South Africa and Australia. Aberystwyth-born Hathaway, who has represented Wales and England at under-20 level, offers options at full-back and wing for head coach Gatland.

Warren Gatland has promised to nurse his latest group of youngsters through their four-match summer series and to give some of his more experienced players a “kick up the arse”. Wales head to Twickenham on 22 June to face the world champion Springboks before travelling to Australia for a two-Test series against the Wallabies and a final fixture with Queensland Reds.

Toby Booth says his Ospreys will be taking on the best team in the URC when they face Munster at Limerick’s Thomond Park in Friday’s opening quarter-final. Booth’s side defied the odds to secure the final spot in the play-offs with a 33-29 bonus point victory over Cardiff on Judgement Day, after a succession of other results had gone their way over the weekend.