Dai Sport

It’s a long way from Llandovery to the Lions, but Wyn Jones and Tadhg Beirne will bridge the divide this summer. Five years ago, Wales prop Jones and Ireland forward Beirne could be found playing in the same West Wales club side in the Welsh Premiership. It can be a long journey from club rugby to playing for the Lions for most players, but to travel from playing in front of crowds of a couple of hundred hardy locals at Church Bank, to facing the world champions, the Springboks in South Africa, is an impressive stretch.

Jenny Nesbitt and Kris Jones have been rewarded for their excellent early season form with places on the Great Britain team for next month's European 10,000m Cup. The Welsh internationals will be joined on the 12-strong team by Cardiff-based Jake Smith, Swansea Harrier Verity Ockenden and double Olympic Champion Sir Mo Farah.

The fans are coming back to football, but for some it’s too late to say a proper goodbye. Fraser Watson reflects on a year of echoing stadia and says the real stars of the game cannot come back quickly enough. The game was essentially over, Rotherham’s fate all but sealed, but the most poignant moment was yet to come. A mere four months after undergoing chemotherapy for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, Sol Bamba entered the fray as a late substitute for Josh Murphy.

Welsh gymnast Dylan Howells has been named in the Great Britain team for the 2021 Acrobatic Gymnastics World Championships. It’s a step up for the 20-year-old from Risca, after he previously made the GB team for the Acrobatic European Championships in 2019. The world championships will take place from July 2 to 4 in Geneva, Switzerland and Britain will be represented in the men’s pair, mixed pair, women’s group and men’s group events.

Neco Williams’ little brother wants to follow the Liverpool star into the Wales team. Keelan Williams, a 17-year-old who left Anfield to join Burnley, reckons he has already surpassed his older sibling on one front by beating him at the crossbar challenge in a park during lockdown. Now, he wants to get another one over on Neco by being quicker to a full Wales cap after the young defender captained Wales U18s against England last month.

Four Welsh players will help end 550 days of international exile after being named in the Great Britain hockey squads for home games against Germany that start today. Rupert Shipperley and Jacob Draper have been named in the men’s squad to face the Germans in a Pro league fixture this afternoon at Lee Valley and then again tomorrow. Wales pair Leah Wilkinson and Sarah Jones are also included in the women’s squad for the match this evening against Germany and again tomorrow night.

The Nicky Grist Stages, which is scheduled to take place on Saturday 10 July, has applied to the Welsh government to run as an official motorsport test event and join the nine other sporting and cultural trial events that will take place in Wales over the coming weeks.

Tom Llewellin will move up into a powerful four-wheel drive car this year and contest the MRF Tyres BTRDA Rally Series – and most, if not all, the Motorsport UK Pirelli Welsh Rally Championship – in a Mitsubishi Mirage. The 20-year old Pembrokeshire driver has been the young sensation of the Welsh forests in recent years, becoming Welsh Junior National champion, Restruct Two-Wheel Drive champion and RAVENOL Welsh Challenge champion in 2019, driving an Escort Mk2.

Wales captain Sophie Ingle is playing for the “best team in the world” according to former England striker Eni Aluko. Ingle is preparing for Chelsea’s Women’s Champions League final against Barcelona this weekend having already pocketed a second successive Women’s Super League title medal. The Wales skipper – now playing regularly in midfield rather than defence for both her country and her club – was part of the Blues’ line-up that lifted the domestic league trophy last weekend with a thumping 5-0 win over Reading.