Dai Sport

Most uncapped players on the eve of their first Six Nations would be nervous but WillGriff John is ready to hit the ground running in Test rugby. It’s fair to say the 27-year-old has taken the long route to the top having been released by the Cardiff Blues at a young age before resurrecting his career in New Zealand with Northland. The tight-head prop, who started out as a No.8, then figured for Doncaster in the English Championship before impressing with Sale Sharks.

Bentley factory driver Seb Morris has been announced as the ‘Pro’ driver for French team CMR in this season’s five-round GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup – adding to the Wrexham driver’s works commitments in the global Intercontinental GT Challenge. Morris, who was confirmed as an official Bentley racer for 2020 less than a couple of weeks ago, will dovetail his driving duties with the manufacturer’s full works squad, run by M-Sport, with his new role at CMR in GT World Challenge Europe at the wheel of a customer Bentley Continental GT3. He is already a proven force in the championship formerly known as Blancpain Endurance Cup, becoming a podium finisher in the Pro-Am class on his debut in the series in 2018 and establishing himself one of the quickest drivers on the grid.

The 2020 FIA World Rally Championship gets underway on Thursday at the famous Monte Carlo Rally – and it’s where Elfyn Evans will make his competition debut for the Toyota Gazoo Racing World Rally Team. In a sport where loyalty between personnel and teams still remains reassuringly common, it’s been an unusually busy winter in the normally quiet rally driver transfer market. Evans (who has never before rallied in the WRC with anyone except the M-Sport Ford team), Sébastien Ogier and Kalle Rovanperä have all moved to Toyota, world champion Ott Tänak was made an offer he couldn’t refuse by reigning manufacturer champions Hyundai (who keep Thierry Neuville, Sébastien Loeb and Dani Sordo), Esapekka Lappi is the new star at M-Sport Ford and Citroën missed out on all the big name signings, threw a hissy fit and pulled the plug on its WRC programme. Whilst Ogier, winner of the last six Monte Carlo rallies, will start the first round as favourite to bag early maximum points, the intriguing new driver/car combinations means that there will be a ferociously close fight for the world title this year. Evans could most certainly be in the thick of that battle, as an exciting new era for the Dolgellau star begins.

Cardiff City chairman Ken Choo has said the first anniversary of the death of Emiliano Sala is a time to remember the player, while insisting he has no regrets about the actions of the club since. Cardiff and Nantes will pay tribute to Sala one year on from the plane crash which claimed his life at the age of 28, with the clubs still locked in a legal dispute over his transfer fee. On January 21, 2019, the Piper Malibu light aircraft carrying Sala and pilot David Ibbotson from France to the UK crashed into the English Channel, as he prepared to link up with his new team-mates.

The Dragons have turned themselves around in recent months in a way that few saw coming, not least the other three Welsh regions who used to regard beating them as something to take for granted. Not any more. Robin Davey looks at the transformation at Rodney Parade. Two wins and a losing bonus point in their three recent holiday derbies and a place in the quarter-finals of the European Challenge Cup - that's the current state of play at the Dragons. No, it's not a dream, it's reality. The Dragons – for so long the butt of most of the jokes in Welsh rugby - really did beat the Scarlets and the Ospreys in their festive derbies while gaining a losing bonus point against Cardiff Blues.

Newport County will go into their Leasing.com Trophy quarter-final on Tuesday night without the services of leading scorer Padraig Amond. The Irish striker picked up a bizarre injury taking off his boot in training the day before the 2-0 home win over League Two leaders Swindon Town at the weekend. “It’s nothing serious, he just felt his hip flexor when taking his boot off – the most bizarre thing ever,” admitted County boss Michael Flynn.