Having spent a World Cup campaign of highs and lows vying with Elliot Dee and Ryan Elias for the Wales hooking berth, Dewi Lake is now ready to resume battle with his rivals on the URC stage. This Saturday, he travels to Rodney Parade with the Ospreys for a derby clash against Dee’s Dragons and then, eight days later, it will be a home encounter with Elias’ Scarlets.

The great debate about who should be in at No 10 for Wales is raging once again following the retirement of Dan Biggar. Not only that, Gareth Anscombe is unavailable to Warren Gatland for the Six Nations because of his club commitments in Japan, Sam Costelow and Owen Williams are both currently injured and Jarrod Evans is ineligible following his switch to Harlequins.

It was a weekend to forget for the Welsh regions, with all four teams losing at home in the United Rugby Championship – but it could have been such a different story. Both the Scarlets and Ospreys were leading with less than five minutes to go against the Emirates Lions and Glasgow Warriors respectively, only to concede late scores.

Steve Phillips was given a near £500,000 pay off when he quit the Welsh Rugby Union earlier this year. But that was only a quarter of the £1.9m shelled out to former employees who left over a chaotic 12-month period, including former Wales coach Wayne Pivac and his assistants.

Wales fly-half Sam Costelow is expected to be sidelined until January after suffering shoulder and hamstring injuries. Scarlets playmaker Costelow was hurt during Wales’ 49-26 victory over the Barbarians on Saturday and went off at half-time.

Gareth Davies believes the Scarlets can continue the repair job on their URC season after their victory over Cardiff. The Wales scrum-half is likely to be a key figure again for his region when they host South African side, the Lions on Saturday.

Leigh Halfpenny looks set to continue his rugby career in the southern hemisphere after he makes a final Wales appearance on Saturday. The Wales full-back, who has won 101 caps, will bow out of international rugby following the Barbarians’ Principality Stadium visit.

Taking on a Swansea-based team will bring back fond memories for Hollywoodbets Sharks boss John Plumtree as he heads into this weekend’s ground-breaking BKT URC clash with the Ospreys. The Kiwi spent almost five years as coach of Swansea RFC through until late 2001, winning two league titles and the Welsh Cup. Since then, he’s worked in his homeland of New Zealand with the Hurricanes and the All Blacks, as well as in South Africa, Ireland and Japan.

Cardiff coach Matt Sherratt has paid tribute to his region’s Wales World Cup contingent for returning to action sooner than expected. Tomos Williams, Corey Dowachowski and Mason Grady all offered their services and proceeded to play their part in Cardiff’s 16-9 victory over the Dragons at a wet and windy Rodney Parade last weekend.

Dwayne Peel insists there is no need to press the panic button as his Scarlets head into another testing United Rugby Championship assignment out in South Africa. Peel’s team conceded nine tries as they went down to a thumping 63-21 defeat at the hands of the Vodacom Bulls at Pretoria’s Loftus Versfeld last Sunday.

If the four Welsh regions need reminding of the need to get their Wales World Cup players back in action as soon as possible, it was provided by Glasgow Warriors at the weekend. Glasgow coach Franco Smith spoke of his pride in the Scotland World Cup stars who helped secure a 43-25 victory over Leinster on the opening weekend of the URC season.

Dwayne Peel admitted the Scarlets got what they deserved from their United Rugby Championship opener in South Africa – precisely nothing. The Scarlets coach watched his team get trampled over by the Bulls as they lost 63-21 in South Africa to complete a conspicuous weekend whitewash of four defeats for the Welsh regions.