Italy's Long Relationship With Rugby...

Italy will come to Cardiff this Saturday as huge underdogs when they face the double European champions. However, the Italians are improving year on year, and have beaten everyone apart from England since their acceptance into the competition fourteen years ago. They are no longer a team that coaches can 'experiment' against. They will be ready to improve once more this Spring and will target that England scalp.

Rugby is unquestionably on the up in Italy, the demand for the Stadio Flaminio being expanded has seen them move to the Stadio Olimpico. A move that has seen them attract larger crowds than Wales, with 80,000 cramming in to see the All Blacks. For a nation whose national sport is football this is a major feat.

Leigh The Latest To Leave

Leigh Halfpenny has become the latest in an ever increasing list of Welsh players to go and ply their trade abroad. The fullback will join Toulon from when his contract with the Cardiff Blues ends this Summer. In a deal reportedly worth £395,000 who can blame the boy from Gorseinon.

Blurring The Lines Between Forwards and Backs

We should really have seen this coming a few years ago. If we go back to the World Cup in 2011 when Wales reached the semi-finals, the game was lost when Captain Sam Warburton was sent off twenty minutes in. Jamie Roberts was forced to play flanker in the scrum for the rest of the game. The role was not familiar to the giant centre; however, his stature did look familiar in such a role. If you look at the size of the backline on that day four of them could have looked the part had they had a different number on their back.

Welsh Civil War Has To Stop Now!

As the debating rumbles on in the boardrooms of Welsh rugby, a decision needs to be reached soon. Players are beginning to admit that not knowing what is going on next year is starting to affect their performance on the field. Who can blame them, if you were in a job and there was uncertainty over your future or where the work was going to come from you might feel the same.

Ryan Jones is the most recent of the Welsh players to bemoan the current situation, after he was announced in the six nations squad yesterday he has said that the off-field rumblings could effect Wales' campaign. This was along with the announcement that he would be leaving the Ospreys to go to Bristol at the end of the season.

Welsh European Review

A weekend where the Welsh sides had very little to play for, the Scarlets and Ospreys were already out of the Heineken, and the Blues needed a lot a factors to go their way if they were to progress. The Dragons did have the chance to put themselves in a useful position in the Amlin going into the last weekend against Bath, the only region that harbored any realistic hopes of progression before this weekend.

Nigel Owens Talks Rugby, Refereeing and the Regions

The day after the last of the South Wales derbies in the Christmas period between the Ospreys and Scarlets I was given a chance to talk to the referee from the night before, Nigel Owens. The Welshman has been called the best referee in the world by many people this year including former Welsh international and friend Jonathan Davies.

Ospreys Survive Scarlet Fightback

The rain held off for the start of the game the last of the Christmas Domino's derbies in Wales at the Liberty Stadium, but a heavy wind was blowing inside the stadium, leading to difficult kicking conditions.  It was set be a test of Welsh international 10's kicking skill in the wet conditions, with a permanent place in the Welsh jersey still up for grabs.

Cardiff Blues Vs Newport Dragons Report

The artificial pitch at the Cardiff Arms Park was the only thing that allowed this game to go ahead. It was a game that felt like the morning after the night before in more ways than one. Several players that we have come to expect more from simply did not perform, Faletau, Cuthbert and Halfpenny being fairly anonymous in open play although with his boot Halfpenny was typically lethal.