Cardiff’s interim head coach Gruff Rees praised the resolve and determination shown by his side of misfits – thrown together after a whopping 42 squad members were unavailable for selection – even though their European campaign began with a heavy defeat. Any match under the circumstances of so many of their squad in isolation would have been tough going, but they were tasked with facing a fully loaded Toulouse outfit stacked with quality. Most notably, and significantly, they had to face recently crowned world player of year, Antoine Dupont.

By Graham Thomas The Dragons will embark on an incredible 2,000-mile day-trip to start their European campaign – but Adam Warren insists it might just jolt them into form. Centre Warren and his teammates face Perpignan on Saturday, but the region has opted to fly to the southern-most city in France, play the game, and […]

By Tom Prosser Ospreys head coach Toby Booth pledges “continuous” support to Ifan Phillips but insists “the show must go on” after an emotional week for everyone at the region.   Phillips suffered “life changing” injuries after being involved in a motorcycle accident on Sunday and Booth says it’s important that everyone at the club is professional in the aftermath of this tragic injury. “It would be artificial for us to pretend that this has been a normal week because it hasn’t,” says Booth.

The Indigo Welsh Premiership finally returns on Thursday night, when Aberavon host the first game of the campaign at home to regional rivals Swansea. It’s been a much debated and much tweaked structure and even now the Welsh Rugby Union have revealed plans to increase the numbers from 12 clubs to 14. Whatever happens, Aled Thomas insists the league has a big role to play as he tells Tom Prosser. World Cup winner Aled Thomas has demanded more respect for Welsh Premiership rugby and insists the league plays a crucial role in developing the stars of the future. Thomas took Wales to the global summit in 2009 when he scored a dramatic late winning try in the Rugby Sevens World Cup final.

Ospreys and aspiring Wales hooker Ifan Phillips has suffered “life-changing injuries” after being involved in a serious road traffic accident in Swansea on Sunday. Phillips is in a stable condition and is being treated at Morriston Hospital following a collision between two motorcycles. The 25-year-old, who is the son of Neath rugby legend Kevin Phillips, is being supported by his family and friends as well as his Ospreys team-mates.

S4C chiefs believe their new Six Nations deal has reinforced their position as the primary TV broadcaster of Welsh rugby from the grass roots to the international game. The Welsh language broadcaster has secured the rights to every Wales men’s Six Nations match for the next four years. It will be the only broadcaster to show every Wales game, after successful negotiations with the primary rights holders, the BBC and ITV.

Wales star Josh Adams wants Cardiff to show “no fear” in an odds-defying mission against European champions Toulouse on Saturday. The Heineken Champions Cup clash will take place amid a back-drop of 42 Cardiff players and staff being in isolation at a hotel just outside London until next week. The likes of Adams and his Cardiff and Wales team-mates Tomos Williams, Dillon Lewis, Seb Davies and Ellis Jenkins did not travel to South Africa, which became a UK Government red-listed country last month as fresh travel restrictions were imposed following the discovery of a new coronavirus variant.

With the return of the Indigo Welsh Premiership this week, debate has begun again over what are the best routes to develop the regional and international stars of the future. Former Wales head analyst Alun Carter, now working at Cardiff Met, reckons the university’s system of developing talent like Wales’ Aaron Wainwright and England’s Alex Dombrandt proves a formidable pathway is already here under the noses of the Welsh Rugby Union.

The Scarlets have had the door slammed in their faces by European rugby bosses who will not permit any escape route from this weekend’s opening Heineken Champions Cup fixture. The Llanelli region had pleaded for a postponement of their Pool B clash at Bristol on Saturday because of the chaotic fall-out from their South Africa trip. Their coaches and players are still locked down in a Belfast hotel serving out their quarantine, which will not finish until Friday – just 24 hours before the match.

By Steffan Thomas   The walls inside Whitchurch High School are already lined with pictures of famous Welsh internationals but they need to find room for another.  Alongside the photographs of the school’s most famous sons – Gareth Bale, Geraint Thomas and Sam Warburton – some space must be found for Christ Tshiunza following his Wales breakthrough in October and the prospect of more Test caps to come in the Six Nations in a couple of months’ time. 

By Rob Carbon New Wales Women U18 coach Liza Burgess is set to step down as vice-chair of the Welsh Rugby Union. It has long been an established rule that if you are employed by the WRU, you cannot sit on the board so Burgess will step down as vice-chair after accepting a full-time coaching […]

New Wales cap Bradley Roberts has admitted he has to move to Wales to continue his international career and the Dragons are working to offer him a deal. They face stiff competition from Cardiff, however, in trying to sign the Ulster hooker. Roberts’ contract with the Irish province runs out at the end of the season and the Welsh Rugby Union’s 60 cap selection policy means he will have to join a Welsh side if he is to extend his Test career into a second season.

Georgia Evans is hoping to gain bragging rights over three of her Welsh international back row rivals when Saracens welcome table-topping Bristol Bears to the StoneX Stadium for the game of the season in the Allianz Premier 15s on Saturday. They won’t come any bigger than the top two unbeaten teams going head-to-head in a match that will hold much appeal for Wales coach Ioan Cunningham. Both teams have won their six league games and only one try bonus-point separates them.

By Rob Carbon The Ospreys have asked European rugby bosses to confirm their players will not be Cup-tied before they lend some of them to the Scarlets. The Swansea-based region are willing to help out their rivals following the Scarlets’ enforced quarantine which has wrecked planning for their opening match of their Heineken Champions Cup […]

The Scarlets have urged European rugby bosses to re-think their strategy of punishing teams with automatic defeats when they struggle to fulfil fixtures. Officials at European Professional Club Rugby (EPCR) are coming under pressure to reassess their policy on forfeiting games with Covid-19 set to cause chaos to the first round of Champions Cup fixtures. Currently, any side which pulls out of a game due to the virus automatically loses the fixture 28-0 with the justification being there is no room in the calendar for rearranged matches.

The Dragons’ campaign in Europe this season will be shown live on S4C. The Welsh broadcaster has struck a deal to show live European rugby matches from both the Heineken Champions Cup and EPCR Challenge Cup this season, including matches involving both Cardiff and the Scarlets. In all, they will screen two matches from the Champions Cup group stages, in addition to all four of the Dragons’ matches from the Challenge Cup.

European rugby bosses are coming under increasing pressure to shift from their hardline stance over fulfilling scheduled fixtures in this season’s tournaments. Much arm-twisting is going on behind the scenes following the chaotic preparations for the Heineken Champions Cup and European Challenge Cup being experienced by Cardiff, the Scarlets, Munster and Zebre. Most of Cardiff’s stranded group in South Africa are hoping to fly back to the UK on Thursday, where they will undergo 10 days of quarantine in a hotel near Heathrow.

By James Skeldon Dean Ryan has urged his Dragons players to “challenge themselves” ahead of their trip to Glasgow on Saturday. The Dragons have lost five of their six matches so far in the United Rugby Championship and were swatted aside by Edinburgh at the weekend. After an error-ridden first quarter where nothing went right for the home team and an ineffective second half performance, Ryan could only congratulate Edinburgh after the match.

Cardiff and the Scarlets are facing a massive joint hotel bill of £250,000 as well as major disruption to their European campaigns if they are forced to self-isolate in hotel quarantine for 10 days following their troubled trip to South Africa. The Scarlets have made it back as far as Belfast – via Durban, Cape Town and Dublin – but their whole party is now in a UK government-approved isolation hotel as they await further news. Cardiff, however, are still in South Africa, with two of their group having tested positive for Covid-19 at the weekend, with one of those cases suspected to be the Omicron variant that sparked travel restrictions on flights from South Africa to the UK.

With the autumn internationals over, two of the Welsh regions are back in action this weekend. The Dragons host Edinburgh on Saturday, while on Friday night it’s the Ospreys who kick things off away in Connacht. The Scarlets and Cardiff are both attempting to return from South Africa after the postponement of their fixtures due […]