Dai Sport

Alisha Butchers is back and ready to push for honours with Bristol Bears as the Allianz Premier15s reaches the business end of the season. The 39-times capped flanker, who celebrates her 26th birthday this month, hadn’t played since damaging her knee in the opening game of the World Cup in New Zealand last October.

Cardiff City’s players shouldn’t have any worries about whether or not their new boss Erol Bulut can lead them out of the disaster that was last season. The Turk has already proved how cool, calm and reliable he can be in a crisis, helping out his former players after the 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck southern Turkey and Syria on Monday, 6 February.

Former Cardiff City manager Malky Mackay had ex-Swansea City man Yan Dhanda to thank for keeping Stirling County in the Scottish Premier League. Mackay – who took Cardiff into the Premier League in 2013 - admitted it was one of the craziest games of his managerial career.

Captain Kiran Carlson has paid tribute to Chris Cooke and Colin Ingram after Glamorgan made it four wins out of five in their Vitality Blast campaign. The pair were instrumental again as the Welsh county beat Sussex Sharks by 32 runs at the 1st Central County Ground.

Gareth Bale is poised to return to the Wales squad – but as a mentor, rather than a maestro on the field. Wales manager Rob Page has held talks this week with Bale about a formal role that will tap into his vast knowledge and expertise, but will not involve coaching. Bale is living in LA and has been playing a lot of golf since he retired from football in January, but Page has kept in regular contact and views the former captain as an asset on the route to qualification for Euro 2024.

Colin Ingram insists Glamorgan will go into their next Vitality Blast T20 clash against Sussex at Hove on Sunday in confident mood after they moved up to fourth place in the table. Ingram combined with Chris Cooke on Friday night to share a stand of 109 as the Welsh county beat Kent by seven wickets with an impressive display in Cardiff. That win lifted Glamorgan to fourth in the south group as they won for the third time in their opening four games of the tournament.

Cardiff City owner Vincent Tan has claimed new manager Erol Bulut will enable the club to attract “higher profile players” in the future. The Bluebirds announced on Saturday they have appointed former Fenerbahce boss Bulut as their successor to Sabri Lamouchi, who kept them in the Championship last season but was not retained. Tan’s suggestion that putting Bulut in charge will lead to a “higher profile and standard of player in the coming years" is a remarkable one, given that the club are still operating under a transfer ban and that the Malaysian himself long ago appeared to turn off the financial taps are far as new signings were concerned.

Adam Wedge will bide his time before he bids to nose past Sean Bowen and become the leading all-time jockey at Ffos Las Racecourse. The Vale of Glamorgan-based Wedge was neck-and-neck with Bowen in the race to overtake the legendary AP McCoy, who led the way at the Carmarthenshire track with 69 winners at the venue before his retirement in 2015.

Alun Wyn Jones has confirmed he will not be an Ospreys player next season. The former Wales and British and Irish Lions captain announced his retirement from international rugby last month after making a world-record 170 Test match appearances.

Jasmine Joyce will be joined by Morgan and Tom Williams in competing for Team GB in Rugby Sevens at the Kraków-Małopolska 2023 European Games between 21 June-2 July. Team GB have selected a squad of 178 athletes to compete at the third staging of the event, with Rugby Sevens making its debut. The winners of the men’s and women’s sevens tournaments will qualify for the Paris Olympic Games next year.