Meet Jack Walsh: The rugby wanderer who is loving life in Wales and the BKT URC. From New South Wales to South Wales, via days in Devon, it’s been some rugby journey for the American-born Jack Walsh.

Aaron Wainwright can put his feet up this weekend – a well deserved break for a player who has just played his 100th match for the Dragons. The Wales back row forward gets a rare weekend off as all four of the Welsh regions have a free pass following a busy festive period that culminated with the Welsh derby games on New Year’s Day.

Match-winner Morgan Morse has been patted on the back by Ospreys coach Toby Booth – and also told to work on his rough edges. The shrewd verdict was delivered after Morse became the talk of Welsh rugby following the 18-year-old’s sensational try in his region’s New Year’s Day victory over Cardiff.

Home is still very much where the heart is when it comes to the regional derbies in the BKT United Rugby Championship. After nine of the 12 games played already this season, only three have ended up in away victories. At the start of last month the Scarlets won 29-23 at the Arms Park, while last weekend saw the Dragons pip Scarlets by a point at Rodney Parade and the Ospreys came from behind to beat Cardiff Rugby.

Wales and England Six Nations option Immanuel Feyi-Waboso will be free to choose the three feathers or the red rose, his club Exeter have insisted. Exeter rugby director Rob Baxter says there will be no pressure from the Chiefs about where Cardiff-born Feyi-Waboso’s potential international career should lie.

Gwalia Lightning secured an impressive 20-5 victory over rivals Brython Thunder in the historic first Welsh derby in the new expanded Celtic Challenge tournament at a rain sodden Rodney Parade in Newport on New Year’s Day. The first game of a unique Welsh derby double-header at the home of Dragons Rugby saw both sides go toe-to-toe in a physical and uncompromising contest in torrential rain to mark an exciting new chapter in women’s rugby in Wales.

Dai Flanagan has told his Dragons players their victory over the Scarlets must become the baseline standard and not a high-point one-off. The Rodney Parade coach – under pressure after his team’s embarrassing capitulation to Cardiff on Boxing Day – praised his team for their 13-12 home win over Dwayne Peel’s men.

Toby Booth praised his “old school” Ospreys players after they beat Cardiff in a match that looked as if it was straight out of the 1980s. The Ospreys coach was full of praise for the character shown by his players as they marked New Year’s Day 2024 with a game-plan that could have come from 40 years ago.

New Year but same old pecking order for the Welsh regions? Coach and rugby analyst Tomas Marks examines the evidence from the Boxing Day derbies and looks for clues as to what might happen on New Year’s Day when the Ospreys host Cardiff and the Dragons welcome the Scarlets. Cardiff and the Ospreys were the resounding winners of the Boxing Day derbies with Cardiff blowing the Dragons away with ease within 40 minutes. The Ospreys survived a tough first half against the Scarlets but managed to score 25 points in the second half to win at Parc y Scarlets for the first time since 2015.

With only two wins in the BKT United Rugby Championship in the first half of the 2023-24 season, Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel is hoping for a better start to 2024 when he takes his side to Rodney Parade for a New Year’s Day derby clash with fellow strugglers, the Dragons. The Dragons are currently propping up the table with only one win, at home against the Ospreys, to their credit.

Former Pontypridd wing Owen Robins is bowing out. Having been one of the most strident and passionate voices within Welsh rugby on social media for years – as well as one of the most regularly abused – this article, he claims, is his final contribution to the ongoing debate about how the sport should be organised in Wales.. After this, no more.

Ian Evans has stepped up to become the new joint head coach at Merthyr RFC until the end of the season. The former Wales and Lions second row – who was a regular alongside Alun Wyn Jones during the early part of Jones’ international career – has replaced Rowland Phillips, together with Gareth Davies..

Toby Booth declared it a case of “job done” after his Ospreys team earned a routine 25-11 derby victory over the Scarlets. The Boxing Day clash was the first time the Ospreys had won at Llanelli since 2015, but the over-riding feeling was, why had it taken them so long?

Dai Flanagan has admitted he is in a fight to save his job at the Dragons after their latest humiliating capitulation. The Dragons head coach saw his team crumble in the Boxing Day derby against their biggest rivals, Cardiff – conceding nine tries at the Arms Park in a hugely embarrassing 55-21 defeat.

Cardiff Rugby have gained local authority permission to increase the capacity of the Arms Park to around 12,000 for their URC Boxing Day derby against the Dragons. The demand for tickets has seen 10,000 sold already.

Shane Williams says the Scarlets will want to produce a big performance for their discontented fans in the west Wales Boxing Day derby – but he’s predicting an Ospreys victory. The Scarlets went down to a 23-7 defeat at home to Black Lion of Georgia in the EPCR Challenge Cup last weekend, leaving them with just two wins from their nine matches in all competitions this season.

Jac Morgan is set to miss the Six Nations because of knee injury that requires surgery. The Wales World Cup captain is poised to undergo an operation within days and may struggle to be fit before the end of the season.

There will be plenty of ‘Festive Fun’ on offer over the Christmas and New Year period with four Welsh derbies on offer in the BKT United Rugby Championship. Among the scores to be settled between Welsh rugby’s nearest and dearest will be the quest by the Dragons to finally pick up a win against Cardiff Rugby. When the two teams met at Rodney Parade earlier this season, the Blue & Blacks won 16-9.

Ask Aaron Wainwright what he does when he isn’t playing rugby and his answer points to a man with an unstinting passion for the game. “I coach down at my local club,” replies the Dragons RFC and Wales back row star.

Tributes have been paid throughout Welsh rugby to former Wales and Newport captain Brian Price who has died at the age of 86. Second-row forward Price captained Wales to a Five Nations Triple Crown in 1969, six years after leading Newport to victory over New Zealand.