Welsh Rugby

Ieuan Evans admits to feeling the same tingle of excitement that greeted the first of his then record 72 Welsh caps as he prepares himself for a possible return to national duties. His glittering array of rugby credentials – five Welsh cup wins and a try in the triumph over Australia with Llanelli, a Heineken Cup victory with Bath, three British and Irish Lions tours, 34 Test tries and 28 games as Wales captain – provide a solid bedrock for his bid to take a seat on the Welsh Rugby Union council. But the 56-year-old World Rugby Hall of Famer wants the 300 clubs to consider his business background first and foremost as he prepares for a special webinar Q&A session on Thursday ahead of the election for a seat as a national representative.

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.

A year ago Anthony Buchanan launched an ‘SOS’ appeal to try to safeguard the future of Llanelli rugby club. How could one of the greatest club rugby names in the world game be under threat, most people thought, but Buchanan wanted to let everyone know just how close to extinction the club he played for and served for so long actually was. The original ‘Scarlets’, formed in 1872, had just hung onto their Welsh Premiership status with a dramatic play-off victory over Championship winners Pontypool and the former Wales prop set about improving performance on and off the field for last season.

With the return of live rugby still some way off, S4C  and Clwb Rygbi continue to mine the rich seam of classic games from the past. This evening, they have a belter of a club clash from the early 1990s, a period when Llanelli and Neath were the strongest forces in the land and fierce rivals. Former Scarlets Ieuan Evans and Emyr Lewis recall the famous 1993 Swalec Cup final.

The Dragons are set to return to European rugby’s elite for the 2020-21 season with a place in the Champions Cup. The region has not been involved in the top level tournament for nine years, but the re-jig of the current Guinness Pro 14 campaign is poised to provide Rodney Parade with a stage to host the continent’s top teams. Organisers have confirmed the Pro 14 season will resume with derbies behind closed doors from August 22.

Martyn Phillips insists he will continue to negotiate with players over wage cuts even though he believes consultation leads to unrealistic expectations. The Welsh Rugby Union chief executive has admitted the current 25 per cent temporary reductions are likely to be only the start of a process of more financial pain for players employed by the Welsh regions. But he also seemed to suggest he thinks listening to others simply creates a false hope they might get what they want.

Welsh rugby fans have been warned not to cling to “false hope” that the sport is about to return any time soon. Football may be limbering up for its re-appearance on Wednesday night when the Premier League kicks-off again behind closed doors, but rugby is not on the same trajectory according to Pontypool after they took part in a video conference for clubs with the Welsh Rugby Union. Pooler – who were dominating the Championship once more before the shutdown arrived in March with their league eventually cancelled – have given a frank and transparent update to their supporters which will cool any expectations for a quick resumption, even as many other professional sports start to stir.

Billy McBryde has become the latest Welshman to be recruited by former Wales defence coach Clive Griffiths at Doncaster Knights. Last season’s top scorer in the Indigo Group Premiership is heading even further north from RGC 1404 into the semi-pro world of the English Championship to try to advance his career. The 22-year-old former Wales age-grade international ended last season with 163 points and played 50 games on the trot for the Gogs.

Gareth Anscombe has revealed he would love to emulate Dan Carter and be playing rugby past his 38th birthday. But for the time being the Wales fly-half is just enjoying rugby’s return in his New Zealand homeland this weekend as he continues his battle back from injury. Anscombe has not played since injuring his knee in a warm-up match against England before last year’s World Cup, but his spirits have been lifted by the resumption of the sport in the only rugby-playing nation now free of coronavirus.

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.

For Welsh fans, the return of rugby in New Zealand this weekend has an added attraction – Warren Gatland. The former Wales coach will be in charge at the Chiefs, where Gareth Anscombe believes the “Gats Factor” is already having an effect, as he told Graham Thomas. Gareth Anscombe believes Warren Gatland is already improving New Zealand rugby – thanks to his tried and trusted coaching methods with Wales. Both New Zealanders will be absorbed in the return of rugby this weekend, when Super Rugby Aotearoa kicks-off in their homeland which is now free of coronavirus.

Rugby is back this weekend. At least, in New Zealand it is. The newly constructed Super Rugby Aotearoa kicks off on Saturday with a twist – orange cards. Not red, not yellow, but something in between – a pale, washed-out shade of orange. It’s got Peter Jackson seeing red. As from this weekend, referees in New Zealand will be empowered to use a new card, a soft red as in soft on law and order. The red cards they carry into rugby’s first high-level matches since Scotland beat France more than three months ago will be a diluted version of the real thing, a red-lite which will be condemned by many as undermining the ultimate sanction.

He’s only gone and done it again! Back in 2007, Phil Bennett’s marvellous try against Scotland at Murrayfield won the BBC Wales vote for the best Welsh try in the Five or Six Nations and now it has come out on top once more in the Welsh Rugby Union’s ‘Greatest Ever Welsh Try’ competition. The Llanelli outside-half featured twice in a try that began at a breakdown in the Welsh 22 and ended up with what Bill McLaren described in commentary as “the try of the Championship”. More than that, it clinched another Triple Crown.

Next year’s British and Irish Lions tour to South Africa could now be moved back to the autumn, the hosts have conceded. The acceptance comes as countries around the world try to put together a revised playing schedule that proves workable in the wake of the current shutdown for the sport. While football plans to resume in the UK next week – albeit behind closed doors – rugby only has tentative dates in place for a resumption in August and the knock-on effects for both the Test and domestic game of five months of inactivity are going to be huge.

Welsh rugby fans can get an immediate look at how Warren Gatland gets on when Super Rugby returns to New Zealand this weekend. The former Wales coach will be sending his Chiefs team out to meet the Highlanders on Saturday in the new Super Rugby Aotearoa tournament. With crowds allowed in after New Zealand declared it was free of new cases of coronavirus, there is the possibility of sold-out grandstands when the Highlanders host the Chiefs in Dunedin on Saturday and the Blues face the Hurricanes at Eden Park on Sunday in the first round.

Former Wales U20 cap and Cardiff Met skipper Aled Ward has opted to join English Championship side Hartpury University RFC next season. Ward was in the Cardiff Met side that played Hartpury University in the 2018 BUCS Super Rugby play-off final at Twickenham in 2018 and has been capped at U18 and U20 level. He also spent a year in the Cardiff Blues academy.

Ashton Hewitt has thanked those who have supported his backing for the Black Lives matter campaign and the revelations over his own experiences of racism in Wales. The Dragons wing – who was called up to train with Wales during this season’s Six Nations – gave a revealing account of his encounters with police as a black rugby player. His interview with the South Wales Argus and other media led to a huge reaction and also provoked debate with fellow former Dragons star Andrew Coombs, who accused protestors in London of violence towards the police.

Robert Jones cherishes each one of his 54 Wales and three British and Irish Lions caps. But the proud son of Trebanos says that Swansea’s 1992 triumph over then World Cup holders Australia means more to him than his victories in a red jersey. The scrum-half played 286 times for the Whites between 1983 and 2002, and was wearing the No.9 shirt when the Wallabies paid a visit to St Helen’s on 4 November 1992. The match will be re-lived on S4C’s Clwb Rygbi, at 6.15pm on Saturday 6 June, and will also be available to watch on S4C Clic and BBC iPlayer after broadcast.

It was the game that rescued the career of Shane Williams – Wales v New Zealand in the pool stages of the 2003 World Cup. Before the tournament, it looked as if the player who would go on to become Wales’ greatest try-scorer might not even make the plane. He did – just – as a utility third scrum-half and back-up wing. Tonight, 17 years on, the game is being replayed and re-assessed on S4C where Williams watches the 53-37 defeat for the first time since that day in Sydney . . .

Gareth Edwards, Phil Bennett, Scott Gibbs and Justin Tipuric are the final four doing battle to be declared scorer of Wales’ greatest try. The awesome foursome have made it through to the semi-finals of the Welsh Rugby Union’s online challenge to find the nation’s favourite score. The top 16 have now been whittled down to a quartet of classic tries, with two from the Seventies against a Nineties icon and a recent gem from this season.