Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham has named six uncapped players in the squad for this season’s Women’s Six Nations and described as “outstanding” his captain Hannah Jones, who has retained the armband. Cunningham has included centres Catherine Richards and Jenna De Vera, prop Abbey Constable, lock Charlie Mundy, plus flankers Bryonie King and Kate Williams in the 36-strong group. Swansea-born Williams, who was raised in Auckland, trained with Wales during last year’s World Cup in New Zealand.

Rhys Webb is set to make his first Test start for three years as part of another big shake-up by Wales coach Warren Gatland. The Ospreys scrum-half – who has not been selected to begin a Test since 2020 – is poised to come in to face Italy in the Six Nations at Stadio Olimpico on Saturday. Gatland is expected to make changes to the starting lineup, with as many as seven potential alterations from the team that faced England.

Wales star Taulupe Faletau says it is “hard to give your all” against the crushing contractual and financial backdrop that has engulfed Welsh regional rugby. All four Welsh professional regions – Cardiff, Dragons, Ospreys and Scarlets – face major funding cuts, leading to vastly-reduced contract offers for many players whose deals expire at the end of this season, and a player exodus appears inevitable.

Wales Women’s senior team have appointed Shaun Connor as their new full-time attack and kicking coach ahead of the forthcoming TikTok Six Nations campaign. The former Dragons and Russia coach has moved from his role with the Dragons Rugby Academy and Wales U20s to join Ioan Cunningham’s coaching team. A former Dragons and Ospreys fly-half, Connor brings a wealth of experience as a professional player and coach to his new role and will continue with the Wales U20s until the end of their current Six Nations campaign.

Tom Shanklin has got the Six Nations set with Wales – two Grand Slam titles, two Triple Crowns and the one that few people mention, a single Wooden Spoon. That last unwanted award was earned 20 years ago, the last time Wales were whitewashed in the 23-year history of the expanded tournament and, in fact, the only time. The 2003 campaign included a loss for Shanklin and Wales against Italy in Rome, where two decades on, Warren Gatland’s team will try and avoid a similar fate on Saturday.

Mason Grady had played with George North and Dan Biggar years before the youngster made his Wales debut against England. It was more than a decade ago when North and Biggar were youngsters in Warren Gatland’s first spell as head coach and Grady was an eight-year-old moving his heroes around on his X-Box. Now, he is preparing in a squad with both players, to try and prevent a Six Nations wooden spoon by beating Italy in Rome on Saturday.

Ben Carter has revealed the Dragons failed to give Gerwyn Price a run for his money – but they still aim to check out on a high in front of their own fans on Saturday night. Carter and his Dragons teammates put up their own champion – youngster Joe Westwood – to face Price when the former darts world champion visited Rodney Parade earlier this week. The inevitable mis-match ended with a predictable away win for one-time Cross Keys hooker Price, but the Dragons will arrow in on a successful home victory in their final game at Rodney Parade this season, a clash with Connacht that is live on S4C.

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has doubled the number of the players who have earned full-time contracts with the Wales Women’s senior team in 2023. The WRU had 12 players named on full-time contracts in 2022 and a further 17 on six-month deals for the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, making them the first female players to represent Wales professionally. The investment means Ioan Cunningham, Wales Women’s Senior Head Coach, will now have 25 players on full-time contracts as he prepares his side for the forthcoming Women’s Six Nations Championship.

Welsh rugby officials have acknowledged that top players will need to find opportunities abroad if the national game is to survive amidst a climate of financial turmoil. Although Warren Gatland’s Wales team have lost all three of their Six Nations matches, off-field issues have been even more concerning. Out-of-contract Welsh players are currently unable to sign new deals, and even if they could, the proposals on the table are unimpressive considering the severe budget cuts that the country’s four regions are set to face next season.

Former England international Shaunagh Brown has hailed the possibility of a British and Irish Lions women’s tour joining a sport where the potential is “limitless”. Brown believes that findings of a Lions feasibility study have provided “a massive green light” for women’s rugby to keep growing on the world stage. A 13-strong steering group, chaired by former Lions and Wales wing Ieuan Evans, included the likes of Brown, Rugby Football Union chief operating and financial officer Sue Day, Irish Rugby Union performance director David Nucifora, plus World Rugby’s high performance manager Nicky Ponsford.

Three games into the Six Nations and three defeats for Warren Gatland in his second spell as Wales coach. Is this really the same man who left on such a high and with such credit in the bank three years ago? Daniel Parker says the figure in the big red WRU coat looks strangely unfamiliar. How do Wales fans begin to process that absolutely dismal defeat to the Old Enemy? While there have been more depressing final scores in the history of the fixture – those of us old enough to remember the dark days of the 1990s and early 2000s can unhappily attest to that – there can hardly have been a more abject performance from the men in red.

Wales international Willis Halaholo is one of a dozen Cardiff players facing massive wage cuts of almost 80 per cent if they decide to stay around next season. Some players have reportedly been offered just £30,000 to re-sign, highlighting the financial pressure facing rugby players in Wales, despite the recent strike being avoided before last Saturday’s game against England. Although Cardiff have not yet made formal offers to players whose contracts are up, those players have been informed of the potential salaries on offer, forcing them to make crucial decisions about their careers.

Louis Rees-Zammit is backing Wales to get their attack together by the end of the Six Nations. The Gloucester flyer raced half the length of the pitch for a try that edged Wales head of England at the start of the second half at the weekend, but then saw his side slip to a third successive defeat. But the biggest attacking threat in the Welsh back line believes things will progress as the youngsters being introduced into Warren Gatland’s new look squad get a chance to gel.

Warren Gatland admits there is a wooden spoon heading in his direction unless Wales can stop the rot in their Six Nations campaign by winning in Italy. The 20-10 defeat to England at the Principality Stadium offered little evidence of reasons for Wales fans to be optimistic about the trip to Rome in round four. Gatland’s team were obdurate and determined, but not much more than that, whilst Italy have been showing signs of clear all-round improvement despite their three defeats.

After the strike that never was, the shock result that could be. Coach and rugby analyst Tomas Marks looks at the painful lessons from Murrayfield and believes Wales can benefit from the shake-up that followed. After a turbulent week off the pitch it’s all systems go for Wales against England. The performance against Scotland will have been dissected thoroughly and the main learnings from the match were the failure of the attack, inferior tackle success, and continuing ill discipline.

Warren Gatland used to play mind games in the week of a Wales-England Six Nations game, but he’s probably felt there was enough to be done working on his own head space in the past seven days. Is the game going to be on? Or are my players about to go on strike? What kind of mental stage is my captain in after spending a week of brinkmanship with our employers? Or even, why did I sign up again for this mess?

Gareth Thomas insists Wales will go at England with “all guns blazing” on Saturday despite shooting themselves in the foot in an extraordinary build-up to their Six nations clash. The Ospreys prop admits he has never been involved in preparation as badly focused as the lead in to what is always the biggest game in the Welsh calendar. There was only one topic of conversation in the team room, at meal times and with roommates in the hotel and it was not how England’s pack was set-up for a defensive line-out near their own 22.

Ryan Woodman will have a small army of fans cheering him against England on Friday night – most of whom are English. The Wales U20s captain is from purest red rose stock, with his parents and grandparents hailing from the other side of the border. In fact, his father Kirk used to sit and watch Six Nations matches on TV, wearing a white shirt and urging the sweet chariot onwards.

Wales boss Warren Gatland believes England might have preferred a closed Principality Stadium roof for Saturday’s Guinness Six Nations encounter had they “done their homework”. England want the roof open, and while Wales have normally preferred it closed to help keep crowd noise in, Six Nations rules dictate both teams must agree on a closed roof for that to happen. Wales exclusively make the roof call for autumn international fixtures and other games, but not in the Six Nations, so it will be open this weekend.

He tried, but Wales captain Ken Owens could barely conceal his anger, frustration and no little contempt for the Welsh Rugby Union as he co-hosted the peace conference outside the Vale Hotel. With a voice that sounded painfully hoarse from too much painful negotiating, Owens joined acting WRU chief executive Nigel Walker in announcing that a deal with the players had been struck so that Saturday’s Six Nations match against England in Cardiff could go ahead.