Scarlets speedster Tomi Lewis has been tipped as a Wales star of the future by former Dragons coach Paul Turner. The 21-year-old Wales under 20s full-back signed a new contract with the Scarlets last week and impressed under the guidance of Turner while on loan at Ampthill in the Green King IPA Championship last season. […]

“He must have taken a knock to the head, mate,” was the blunt assessment made by John Mulvihill of the rugby writer who suggested Cardiff Blues were now the weakest of Wales’ four regions. That was 48 hours before the re-start of the Guinness Pro 14, but having conceded five tries in a one-sided defeat to a Scarlets team that rarely needed to get out of third gear, the Sunday morning headache probably belongs to the Blues’ head coach. The Scarlets are the strongest of Wales’ four teams and have been for some time, but if the Blues have not slipped behind the Dragons and the Ospreys they did little to disprove that theory in their first game back.

Welsh rugby finally returns next weekend when the four regions resume action in the Guinness Pro 14. The Scarlets face the Cardiff Blues and the Ospreys host the Dragons, with some familiar faces on show. But for Scarlets’ new scrum coach Ben Franks, this will be a new experience with fresh objectives, as the former All Blacks star tells Steffan Thomas. Former All Blacks World Cup winning prop Ben Franks plans to resurrect the career of Wales’ “once in a generation prop” Samson Lee. Scarlets prop Lee took over the Wales No.3 shirt from the legendary Adam Jones and quickly made a name for himself on the international stage.

New Scarlets coach Glenn Delaney believes Mark Jones’ stint coaching in New Zealand with the Crusaders could be the making of him. Former Wales wing Jones moved to Christchurch in January to become defence coach with the all-conquering Super Rugby outfit. Crusaders are a set-up Delaney knows plenty about. The province of Canterbury is where he developed as a player before moving into a tracksuit role in England, then back in New Zealand, and then as successor to Brad Mooar this summer at Parc Y Scarlets.

Aled Thomas has called on the Welsh Rugby Union to invest more in their sevens programme – rather than go for the money saving option of amalgamating with England and Scotland. All three Unions are looking at ways of cutting costs at the moment and one of the latest ideas is to combine the three sevens teams into one GB team to play on the World Sevens Series circuit. Team GB already plays at the Olympic Games every four years. But Thomas, who famously helped Wales to win the 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens title in Dubai, believes reducing the opportunities for young players to develop on the circuit could be counter-productive.

Welsh rugby’s regional players will return from furlough next week as they prepare to re-start their Guinness Pro 14 season. Players from Cardiff Blues, Ospreys, Scarlets and the Dragons will return to organised training for the first time, although in small groups, with strict social distancing and following a Covid-19 testing regime. The routines will be basic, with no close contact, with the hope the sessions can be normalised as the squads head towards the planned resumption of matches on August 22.

Ieuan Evans still remembers the rallying cry of Ray Gravell in the dressing room before Llanelli beat Australia. It was 1992 and the world champions were on tour in Wales.Evans had already seen Swansea beat the Wallabies, but the tourists had recovered to beat Wales B and Neath before they arrived at Stradey Park. The match – which is being re-shown by S4C on Saturday evening – proved to be another red letter day in the Scarlets’ rich history as Evans recalls: “There’s so much history against international opponents at Stradey. I remember the first match I played against Australia in 1984, when we beat them.

Wales’ leading rugby players are facing more massive pay cuts with plans for funding from the Welsh Rugby Union to the regions to be slashed by £23m. Stars of the Ospreys, Scarlets, Cardiff Blues and Dragons have already seen their wages reduced by 25 per cent for the past three months. Now, they are facing more cuts – some will see reductions of £100,000-a-year – as well as redundancies following a devastating update from the WRU on how the current sporting shutdown is going to affect its income in the year ahead.

Cash-starved football clubs beneath the Premier League hoping for some financial help from the top flight have been told: Don’t hold your breath. The bleak warning not to expect much help from the moneyed clubs at the top of the food chain has come from Premier League chief executive Richard Masters. Newport County and other clubs in League Two have been running on empty since the lockdown in March, while even Championship clubs such as Cardiff City and Swansea City have been left contemplating very tough times ahead.

Tyler Morgan has insisted he will flourish at the Scarlets because of their playing style. The Welsh international centre has been confirmed as a new recruit for the region, just days after the Dragons announced he was leaving Rodney Parade. Morgan will be seen as a likely replacement for Hadleigh Parkes, who is leaving to play in Japan at the end of the currently suspended season.

Former All Black Ben Franks believes he is starting from the right place after he was confirmed as part of the Scarlets’ new coaching set-up. The New Zealander has been appointed scrum coach at the region and will work alongside head coach Glenn Delaney’s backroom team, with Richard Kelly promoted to forwards coach from the academy. Franks, 36 – a double World Cup winner – is in his final season at Northampton and had already chosen to retire at the end of this campaign before the sport went into lockdown.

Head coach Brad Mooar and eight players – including Wales centre Hadleigh Parkes – are to leave the Scarlets before training resumes. Forwards coach Ioan Cunningham will also not return to Parc y Scarlets with the club moving forward with coaches and players for the 2020-21 season after they return from the enforced break due to the coronavirus pandemic. The region have confirmed that Parkes is ending his six-season stint in Llanelli and he is set to also bring down the curtain on his Wales career by joining Panasonic Wild Knights in Japan.