Dai Sport

Neil Warnock believes Cardiff City can stay unbeaten at home for the rest of the season after Lee Tomlin preserved their record with a late equaliser against Sheffield Wednesday. The Cardiff manager was in bullish mood, despite an at best mixed performance in their 1-1 draw on Friday night. Cardiff were outplayed for an hour, but managed to rouse themselves in the late stages and were thankful to Tomlin’s set-piece skills.

Jayne Ludlow is preparing her Wales team for a vital upcoming Euro qualifier against Northern Ireland. Like the previous World Cup campaign, it’s a momentum-builder that is gathering energy and changing the perception of women’s sport in Wales. But she still sees limits on the opportunities for girls in all sports – football, hockey, netball - and tells Graham Thomas how more needs to be done. When Jayne Ludlow recalls her own sporting childhood in the Rhondda, one of her more formative memories is of a door closing when she was 11. That was when the current manager of the Wales women’s football team left Dunraven Primary School and moved up to Treorchy Comprehensive.

Steve Cooper has defended his decision to use playmaker Bersant Celina as a wide player, rather than as a central No.10. The Swansea City manager – whose team travel to Barnsley on Saturday hoping to make amends for their shock home defeat to Championship bottom club Stoke City – has been deploying Celina in an unfamiliar wide left role in recent matches. It’s a decision that has perplexed some Swans supporters, as the former Manchester City player appears to have been less effective than in his previous central position.

Luke Charteris doesn’t want his former teammates to go through the same post-match agonies he suffered the last time Wales met France at the World Cup. The towering Bath lock – now on the coaching staff at the English club - played the full 80 minutes in the 9-8 defeat in the 2011 semi-final, when Wales lost skipper Sam Warburton to a red card after a mere 12 minutes. That defeat remains the biggest disappointment and regret in Charteris’ long career and it still hurts even to this day.

Warren Gatland insists Wales have done everything they can to ensure Dan Biggar has fully overcome concussion. Biggar suffered head injuries in successive World Cup games against Australia and Fiji, but he has met all targets and will line up in Sunday’s quarter-final appointment with France. “He felt better after the (Fiji) game, it was clear,” said the Wales head coach.

Lee Walker claimed one of the biggest scalps of his 25-year career by knocking world number one Judd Trump out of the 19.com English Open. The Gwent player had tasted victory just once this season before the tournament began, but made it three wins in as many days to set up a last 16 clash with Gary Wilson. In a high quality match, Walker stunned the world champion by taking the opening two frames with breaks of 74 and 67, only for Trump to reply with back-to-back centuries.

Wales are preparing for a huge test of their rugby credentials against France this weekend, but it isn’t just happening in Japan. This is the Wales rugby league team and the tournament is the World Cup Nines, which start in Sydney on Friday – just part of a busy current schedule for the league code, as Graham Thomas reports. Wales and the Rugby World Cup may be fixing much of the nation’s attention at present, but the sport’s other code is working hard to grab some of the limelight. Rugby League in Wales has always faced a challenge to move beyond the shadow of rugby union and this season might be their biggest yet if Warren Gatland’s team go all the way in Japan.