Dai Sport

Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson has admitted his team have to “take it on the chin” after they were dumped out of the FA Cup at the first hurdle. Harrogate pulled off the biggest upset of the opening round on Sunday as the Sky Bet League Two side beat League One high-flyers Wrexham 1-0 to reach the second round.

Omer Riza has revealed he held “constructive talks” with Cardiff City’s board as he edges closer to his ambition of being given the manager’s job on a permanent basis. Cardiff scored two late goals to snatch a dramatic 2-1 win at home against promotion-chasing Norwich City at the weekend.

Filo Tiatia will be given a chance to prove he should be the man to step up and take permanent charge at the Dragons. The former All Blacks forward, who joined the Dragons as defence coach this summer, will now call the shots as interim head coach after their decision to part company with Dai Flanagan.

Luke Williams believes Swansea City’s previously shot-shy strikers can build on the club’s first goals for over nine hours. After failing to find the net throughout October, the Swans eventually ended their barren run when Zan Vipotnik turned in Ronald's cross to spark a 2-1 victory at Oxford United at the weekend.

It says much about Gareth Anscombe’s self-belief that he wants to play for Wales at the next World Cup. After all, the last tournament was only 12 months ago and it ended in another bitter injury nightmare for the 33-year-old outside-half.

Welsh fans will be able to join Warren Gatland and his squad in running the rule over next week’s opening opponents in the 2024 Autumn Nations Series when Fiji kick-off their tour with a clash with Scotland at Murrayfield this weekend. The side is drawn exclusively from their Super Rugby Pacifica team the Drua because the game falls outside the Test window.

Wales skipper Aaron Ramsey will miss his side’s push for promotion back to the top tier of the Nations League after being ruled out of their final two fixtures in Group B this month. The Cardiff City midfielder has already missed the last two games after picking up a hamstring injury after coming on as a replacement in the final 10 minutes of the 2-1 win in Montenegro in the second round match in Niksic on 9 September.

The Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) has acknowledged it “needs to apologise” for threatening to pull the women’s team from competition, though the organisation denies any sexist intent behind its actions. According to a report by The Telegraph, the WRU allegedly warned the women’s team they could be withdrawn from the upcoming Rugby World Cup if they did not agree to new contract terms.

Tommy Reffell insists he will have no problem if Warren Gatland gives out the hairdryer treatment in the Wales dressing room this autumn. Reffell was one of the Leicester players who took a full blast of hot air from Tigers coach Michael Cheika recently.

When football managers – and rugby coaches – talk about training sessions having “an edge” about them, it normally only means one thing. There’s been a fight. It may not have been full-on, fists swinging, bare-knuckle bruising. But someone, somewhere has over-stepped the mark and tempers have boiled over. Nine times out of 10, managers love this kind of thing. It proves their players are more like thin, hungry dogs, than fat, sleepy cats and they look forward to unleashing the hounds on Saturday afternoon.