Wayne Pivac has been given the green light to drive straight through Wales 60-cap regulation and bring in Wasps’ Thomas Young for the autumn series. The Wales coach is set to include the Wasps back row star in his squad that will be announced on Wednesday afternoon for matches against New Zealand, South Africa, Fiji and Australia. Young only has three caps, leaving him way short of the 60-cap threshold for players based outside of Wales to gain selection.

By Paul Jones Wales legend Ieuan Evans will lead a new group tasked with the aim of looking into the feasibility of a Women’s British & Irish Lions team. The creation of a Women’s Lions team could provide a big opportunity for Wales players such as ‘try machine’ Jasmine Joyce, who represented Great Britain in rugby sevens at the recent Tokyo Olympics.  The 13-person group will be chaired by Evans, and is made up of experienced administrators from across professional rugby, business executives, as well as former international standard athletes from the world of sport.

When he was Wales U20 coach, Jason Strange seemed to be a man in hot demand after leading his age-group team to a Grand Slam in 2020. He was also at Cardiff Blues, but lasted just one season under former coach John Mulvihill. Now, a Grand Final winner with St. Helens, he tells Steffan Thomas he feels glad to have left Welsh rugby behind. Jason Strange has revealed how he turned down offers to return to rugby union to stay in league and insists the codes are poles apart. Strange left his role as Cardiff attack coach in 2019, just one year after taking the job, but admits it was a relief to depart Welsh rugby.

By Rob Carbon Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel has told his players not to dwell on their six-try, 43-13 defeat to Munster, but focus on putting things right ahead of Friday night’s trip to face reigning champions Leinster in the United Rugby Championship. A Munster side showing 11 changes to the team that had comprehensively […]

Dragons’ man of the match Taine Basham admitted the frustration of losing to Leinster at Rodney Parade the previous weekend spurred his side on to notch their first win in Ireland since 2015. The 35-22 bonus-point victory over Connacht in Galway was not only the Dragons’ first competitive victory of the season, but also their first over Irish opposition since they beat Connacht 21-8 on 15 September, 2017. There had been 21 defeats and a single draw since then, but now the long wait is over after they triumphed at the Sportsground for the first time in 17 years.

Siwan Lillicrap and her Wales Women’s team have not won a rugby match for two years. But the captain is “open-minded” about the future and believes her team can move beyond their recent turmoil, as she tells Lucy Rees. As she looks ahead to the autumn campaign to kick start their Rugby World Cup countdown, […]

Cardiff host the Bulls on Saturday night and for Neil Jenkins that means a throwback to a quarter of a century ago when the South Africans first came to Wales for tournament matches. Nowadays, though, the Wales assistant coach has his thoughts on the present as he tells Graham Thomas. Neil Jenkins believes the competitive addition of the top South African teams will raise standards in Wales as he sizes up the candidates for his old Wales No.10 jersey. The Wales assistant coach was in Swansea last weekend to see the Ospreys’ Gareth Anscombe go head-to-head with Rhys Priestland as Cardiff were edged out, 18-14.

By Tom Prosser Ospreys forward Adam Beard tested himself against South Africa whilst on British & Irish Lions duty this summer, but he is now looking forward to taking on The Sharks for his region this evening (Friday). The Ospreys are unbeaten so far this season after claiming wins against The Dragons and Cardiff Rugby, but The Sharks are still searching for their first victory in United Rugby Championship. “The South Africans come with a good set piece, but they also have some dangerous backs who like to have a go and play from anywhere,” explained Beard.

By Rob Carbon Nigel Walker insists he can make a difference and believes there is “a sense of change in the air on a number of fronts” as he begins his role as performance director of the Welsh Rugby Union. As a flying wing for both his club, Cardiff, and country, he won 17 Welsh caps in a five year rugby sojourn that was bolted onto an earlier athletics career in which he attend all the major global championships as one of Britain’s finest 110 metre hurdlers. Having been one of many black British athletics’ internationals during his time on the track, his was more or less a lone black face in the Welsh rugby teams between 1993-1998. Twice he played with the Maori-born Hemi Taylor and once with Colin Charvis.

Gareth Anscombe admitted he still has some way to go before he is back to his best as the countdown begins to Wales’ autumn internationals. Anscombe kicked all of the Ospreys’ points – as they beat Cardiff 18-14 – in only his second competitive game back from a two-year injury lay-off. It made two wins from two in this season’s United Rugby Championship for the Ospreys and more encouraging progress from their Wales No.10.

The Dragons will need to overturn recent history and defy the odds if they are to take down Leinster when the champions visit Rodney Parade on Sunday. But full-back Josh Lewis belives a mix of new faces and old heads can combine for a shock result, as he tells Graham Thomas. Josh Lewis believes the Jamie Roberts factor can lift the Dragons to a shock victory over champions Leinster at Rodney Parade on Sunday. The biggest task of the weekend falls to Dean Ryan’s men who become the first of the Welsh regions to attempt to put a spoke in the Leinster machine in the new United Rugby Championship.

By David Williams Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel is looking forward to the challenge of taking on a new opponent when his team face the Emirates Lions on Friday night. South African outfit Lions are the first of the four United Rugby Championship sides from the Rainbow Nation to arrive in Wales this season. They […]

By Rob Carbon Scott Williams is hopeful of putting three years of injury hell behind him by firing the Scarlets to success this season.  The 30-year-old has been capped 58 times by Wales and prior to injury, he was considered one of the best centres in European rugby.  His move to the Ospreys in 2018 was plagued by injuries, but now he’s back at the Scarlets and keen to prove he still has what it takes to perform at the highest level. 

By Rob Carbon Rugby will return with a resounding bang at the Welsh universities this week when the BUCS Super Rugby competition kicks off after an 18 month enforced break. There are three Welsh teams in the top-flight and Cardiff Met have the honour of welcoming the reigning champions, Durham, to Cyncoed for their opening game on Wednesday night (6.30pm). Cardiff University host Northumbria and Swansea University welcome Exeter, who were champions in 2018 and finished runners-up in 2019. They will arrive in Wales having warmed-up with a 103-0 win over Sidmouth.

Wales Women have turned again to Geraint Lewis to get them out of a fix after announcing he would jointly lead their team into a three-Test autumn series. Former Wales flanker Lewis will take charge of the national team, alongside Ioan Cunningham, for their matches against Japan, South Africa and Canada It is the second time the Welsh Rugby Union have called Lewis in an emergency. He was first summoned to step in after the mysterious departure of Rowland Phillips in 2019 and now he has been asked to steer the ship again following the bizarre resignation of Warren Abrahams this summer after just nine months in the job.

By Steffan Thomas Willis Halaholo is desperate to represent Wales at the 2023 Rugby World Cup and believes Cardiff’s no excuse culture can help him achieve his goals. After excelling at regional level for the past four seasons Halaholo finally made his Wales debut in February’s Six Nations win against Scotland and having played an […]

Scott Williams has been tipped to recapture the form which originally made him a star on the international stage now he has rejoined the Scarlets. The 58-times capped Wales centre left the Scarlets three years ago to join the Ospreys, but his time at the Liberty Stadium was plagued by injuries. But he’s now returned home to Llanelli, and new Scarlets head coach Dwayne Peel is confident he can get the best out of the 30-year-old.

Gareth Anscombe has come through the mental and well as the physical tests and is ready for his competitive comeback, according to Ospreys coach Toby Booth. The Wales fly-half will line up at No.10 for the Ospreys in their opening United Rugby Championship clash when they make a derby trip to Rodney Parade to face the Dragons on Sunday. Anscombe, Tomas Francis and promising young flanker Jac Morgan will all make their competitive Ospreys debuts.

When Dwayne Peel helped the Scarlets win the Celtic League title in 2004, Kieran Hardy was just a small face in the ground. Now, Peel is at the helm for their URC opener at Edinburgh on Saturday and scrum-half Hardy is hoping to absorb plenty of his coach’s know-how as he tells Graham Thomas. Kieran Hardy believes his boyhood hero Dwayne Peel can be the guiding light that enables him to hold onto the Wales No.9 shirt this season. Scarlets scrum-half Hardy was just eight-years-old when his father took him to Stradey Park to see Peel in his pomp clinch the old Celtic League title back in 2004.

By Rob Carbon Newly appointed Cardiff Rugby captain Josh Turnbull is set to realising a teenage ambition of playing in one of the world’s most exciting rugby tournaments when he leads his side into the United Rugby Championship. The Wales back-row man believes the expanded, 16-team competition, which will include the top South African franchises […]