Will Biddick is set to get the leg-up on Kilbeg King at the Cheltenham Festival after Anthony Honeyball stated his intention to go for the National Hunt Chase with his Reynoldstown runner-up.

The National Hunt Chase is a race in which both Honeyball and Biddick have previous, having joined forces with Ms Parfois in 2018, leading inside the final half-furlong only to be pipped close home by Willie Mullins’ Rathvinden.

Although Biddick has a Festival winner to his name as both a trainer and a jockey, Honeyball is still searching for his first strike at the Prestbury Park showpiece and is confident his star novice chaser can play a key part in the marathon event after a fine effort at Ascot when beaten only a head by Ben Pauling’s Henry’s Friend.

“I went to the Reynoldstown with slightly different expectations than I did the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase (when third on Boxing Day) – in my mind and my world he was favourite, so I wasn’t over the moon to finish second at Ascot,” explained Honeyball.

“At the same time, the dream is still alive and he’s run a really good race with reasons to think he could go to the National Hunt Chase and have a really good chance.

“Hand on heart we’re probably not good enough to run in the three-mile novice (Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase) and while we’re not a million miles away, we’re probably right in going for the National Hunt Chase.

“He’s definitely got that bit of class and he would travel through that race, while I think his jumping would be economical and good enough. So I feel he would have a decent chance in that.

“It’s one of those races where he would tick a lot of boxes. He’s a nine-year-old and he’s got that bit of experience. I see no reason why he wouldn’t stay and he’s got what you need really.”

On the booking of Biddick for the nine-year-old, he went on: “I think it’s a race you have to get organised early for and we’ve got Will Biddick provisionally booked to ride him. I think he will be OK (to take the ride) as he often rides for Paul Nicholls in those types of races, but he doesn’t have one in it.”

Not only does Kilbeg King’s Cheltenham Festival bid give both Honeyball and Biddick the chance to correct the record of Ms Parfois’ National Hunt Chase reverse of six years ago, her owner Martyn Chapman is a member of the partnership that co-owns the Grade Two runner-up.

Honeyball continued: “Will was second for us in the race aboard Mrs Parfois when she was beaten by Willie and Patrick Mullins. It was an agonising one as halfway up the run-in she was back in front, but just got nabbed.

“One of the owners of Kilbeg King used to own Ms Parfois so there is a nice bit of symmetry to it as well. We’re looking forward to it and we wouldn’t run him unless we thought we had a decent chance of winning and we think we have.

“We will give it a go and who knows, you need a lot of luck, but we just hope he does everything right and if he does then we should at least be thinking we have a chance turning in, we hope.”

Kilbeg King has built up a wealth of fencing experience in four starts this season and having plied his trade in graded company the last twice, there are plenty of positives for his connections to cling to ahead of his Festival bid.

“His jumping was good in the Kauto Star and his jumping for the most part was good, solid and safe at Ascot,” said Honeyball

“There was just a slight frustration that at both two out and the last he just jumped them OK but landed a bit flat-footed. If he had jumped just one of them OK then that would probably been enough, but it is about jumping and Ascot is a good test.

“It’s good he has come through that and it is good experience under his belt and we’re hoping we can just do a few little things at home now to help him when the pressure is on.

“When he won at Punchestown we thought he fitted the same type of mould as Fountains Windfall and Ms Parfois and we were very much hoping he would end up in races like this.

“He was a good third in the Kauto Star and he’s backed that up with a really good performance in the Reynoldstown.”

Mark Selby reeled off four frames in succession to beat Barry Hawkins 6-3 and set up a quarter-final clash with Ronnie O’Sullivan in the Players Championship in Telford.

Hawkins dominated the early stages of the match, easing into a 2-0 lead and edging back in front with a break of 91 in the fifth frame after Selby had fought back to level the scores at the mid-session interval.

However, Hawkins made an increasing number of mistakes as the match wore on and Selby took full advantage with breaks of 56, 66, 75 and 67 to advance.

“Barry was getting on top of me from the start, I started off slow and Barry’s had a good season so far,” four-time world champion Selby told ITV4.

“It was a tough game for me because you’re playing one of the top players on form and he’s also a good friend so it’s hard to try to overcome both of them.”

Looking ahead to Thursday’s quarter-final with O’Sullivan, Selby joked: “It gets easier next game doesn’t it?

“I cherish every game I play against Ronnie so I’m really looking forward to that. If I play like I did after the interval with that authority and that confidence, then I’ll go into the match with a chance.

“You know what you’re going to get with Ronnie, he very rarely plays to a bad level.

“It’s either very good or unplayable so it makes your job a lot easier going into the match because you know you have to turn up and, if you don’t, you’re going home.”

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has echoed two of Sir Alex Ferguson’s famous lines by vowing to knock “noisy neighbours” Manchester City and Liverpool “off their perch” within three years as he set out his vision to rebuild the Red Devils.

Ratcliffe, 71, is now co-owner of the club he has supported since the age of six after completing the purchase of a 27.7 per cent stake which delegates control of football operations to his company Ineos.

He set out his ambition to challenge City and Liverpool for domestic and European silverware, using the famous sentiment of United’s great former manager, but called on fans to be patient, insisting it will take two or three seasons at least for Ineos to get the club to where he wants them to be.

In 2002, Ferguson said his “greatest challenge was knocking Liverpool right off their f*****g perch”, going on to surpass their rivals’ league title tally, while he branded City as the “noisy neighbours” in 2010.

In the longer term, he is looking to work with the public sector on either building a new £2billion stadium to regenerate the area around the Old Trafford, which he envisages hosting England games and FA Cup finals, or redevelop the existing site at a cost of £1billion.

“We have a lot to learn from our noisy neighbour and the other neighbour (Liverpool). They are the enemy at the end of the day,” Ratcliffe said.

“There is nothing I would like better than to knock both of them off their perch. Equally, we are the three great northern clubs who are very close to one another.

“They have been in a good place for a while and there are things we can learn from both of them. They have sensible organisations, great people within the organisations, a good, driven and elite environment that they work in.

“I am very respectful of them but they are still the enemy.”

Asked about the timeframe to make United truly competitive, Ratcliffe added: “It’s not a light switch. It’s not an overnight change – it’s going to take two or three seasons.

“You have to ask the fans for some patience. I know the world these days likes instant gratification but that’s not the case with football really.

“It’s not a 10-year plan. The fans would run out of patience if it was a 10-year plan. But it’s certainly a three-year plan to get there.”

Ratcliffe, whose stake in United will rise to 28.9 per cent by the end of the year by virtue of his investment in club infrastructure, acknowledges that having a modern fit-for-purpose stadium is vital.

He said the focus will be on either a stadium in the north to rival Wembley as the go-to venue in England for major matches, or to redevelop Old Trafford.

“There is a really good case to refurbish Old Trafford, probably about £1billion in cost, or something like that,” he said.

“You finish up with a great stadium, it’s probably an 80 or 90,000-seater. But it’s not perfect because you’re modifying a stadium that is slap bang up against a railway line and all that type of stuff, so it’s not an ideal world. But you finish up with a very good answer.

“There’s this wider conversation with the community as to whether you could use a more ambitious project on site as a catalyst to regenerate that Old Trafford area. There’s a strong case for using a stadium to regenerate that area, like with the Olympics, like Seb Coe did with that part of East London quite successfully. City have done it and they’ve done quite a good job (of regenerating Eastlands).”

Both of those projects had state support, and Ratcliffe saw no issue with the same happening at United to achieve that.

“The people in the north pay their taxes like the people in the south pay their taxes,” he said.

“But where’s the national stadium for football? It’s in the south. Where’s the national stadium for rugby? It’s in the south. Where’s the national stadium for tennis? It’s in the south. Where’s the national concert stadium? It’s the O2, it’s in the south. Where’s the Olympic Village? It’s in the south.

“All of this talk about levelling up and the Northern Powerhouse… where is the stadium in the north? How many Champions Leagues has the north-west won and how many Champions Leagues has London won? The answer to that is the north-west has won 10 – Liverpool have won more than us – and London has won two.

“Where do you have to go if you get to the semi-final of the FA Cup and you’re a northern club? You have to schlep down to London, don’t you? People in the north pay their taxes and there is an argument that you could think about a more ambitious project in the north which would be fitting for England, for the Champions League final or the FA Cup final and act as a catalyst to regenerate southern Manchester, which has got quite significant history in the UK.”

New father Kyle Steyn is intent on helping Scotland maintain their recent ownership of the Calcutta Cup this weekend after watching helplessly from his couch as his team-mates suffered an agonising Guinness Six Nations defeat against France last time out.

The Glasgow wing was named in the starting XV for the Murrayfield showdown with Les Bleus a week past Saturday, but he had to withdraw on the morning of the game after his wife Ally went into labour late on the Friday afternoon.

Steyn’s daughter, Arabella, eventually arrived via Caesarean section late on Monday morning, almost two days after the 20-16 defeat by France in which the Scots were controversially denied victory after the officials decided against awarding them a late try when Sam Skinner thought he had grounded the ball on the whitewash.

“My wife had been in labour from about 4 o’clock on Friday and we were hoping maybe I could make it back (in time to face France) if baby was born in the middle of the night, but it didn’t go that way,” explained Steyn.

“I was busy on the couch, trying my best to watch, but every five minutes my attention went elsewhere.

“I was the same as every other Scot at the end, screaming ‘that’s down, that’s a try’. I was gutted for the boys, you could see it on their faces and that’s what really hurt, the feeling that it was one that got away.

“But it was brilliant to be back in this week and see everybody. You can see the guys have very much put that behind them and I think the Calcutta Cup at home is an easy reason to move on from that and focus forward.”

Steyn has “amazing memories” of helping Scotland win 29-23 at Twickenham last February to make it three victories in succession over England.

Gregor Townsend’s side have lost only once in their last six meetings with their old rivals.

“We definitely take confidence from that, and a bit of momentum, but coming off the back of the World Cup, they’ve just made the semi-finals and they seem to be finding their gears under the new management,” said Steyn.

“They are a really good side with a lot of threats, so it’s a great challenge for us. It’s an amazing game to play.

“I’ve never played (for the) Calcutta Cup at home so I can’t wait for that. As far as the Six Nations goes and being a Scottish rugby player, there’s no bigger occasion than the Calcutta Cup at home.

“We’re really excited by the opportunity, especially in a year where we’ve only got two home games.

“We had the force of Murrayfield behind us for the France game and the boys are really looking forward to feeling that support again on the weekend.”

Sir Jim Ratcliffe accepts Manchester United have a lot to learn from their “noisy neighbours” Manchester City and Liverpool but is determined to “knock both of them off their perch” within three years as he set out his vision to rebuild the Red Devils.

Ratcliffe, 71, is now co-owner of the club he has supported since the age of six after completing the purchase of a 27.7 per cent stake which delegates control of football operations to his company Ineos.

He set out his ambition to challenge City and Liverpool for domestic and European silverware but called on United fans to be patient, insisting it will take two or three seasons at least for Ineos to get the club to where he wants them to be.

In the longer term, he is looking to work with the public sector on either building a new £2billion stadium to regenerate the area around the Old Trafford, which he envisages hosting England games and FA Cup finals, or redevelop the existing site at a cost of £1billion.

“We have a lot to learn from our noisy neighbour and the other neighbour (Liverpool). They are the enemy at the end of the day,” Ratcliffe said.

“There is nothing I would like better than to knock both of them off their perch. Equally, we are the three great northern clubs who are very close to one another.

“They have been in a good place for a while and there are things we can learn from both of them. They have sensible organisations, great people within the organisations, a good, driven and elite environment that they work in.

“I am very respectful of them but they are still the enemy.”

Asked about the timeframe to make United truly competitive, Ratcliffe added: “It’s not a light switch. It’s not an overnight change – it’s going to take two or three seasons.

“You have to ask the fans for some patience. I know the world these days likes instant gratification but that’s not the case with football really.

“It’s not a 10-year plan. The fans would run out of patience if it was a 10-year plan. But it’s certainly a three-year plan to get there.”

Dual Grade One winner Gala Marceau finished a disappointing third as Hispanic Moon claimed top honours in the Bet Victor Quevega Mares Hurdle at Punchestown.

Gala Marceau locked horns with fellow Willie Mullins-trained mare Lossiemouth on several occasions last season, coming out on top at the Dublin Racing Festival before her esteemed stablemate turned the tables in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham and confirmed the form at Punchestown.

Gala Marceau did though round off her campaign with a top-level win in France, and while she was beaten by another Mullins mare in Ashroe Diamond on her return to action at Doncaster late last month, she was widely expected to get back on the winning trail at Grade Three level on home soil.

Ridden by Paul Townend, the 2-7 shot travelled well for much of the of the two-and-a-half-mile contest, but was being ridden along before the home turn and soon emptied in the ultra-testing conditions.

Saylavee, also trained by Mullins, did her best to make a race of it with Henry de Bromhead’s 11-2 chance Hispanic Moon, but the latter kicked eight lengths clear in the hands of Darragh O’Keeffe.

Coral reacted by trimming Hispanic Moon’s odds for the Mares’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival to 16-1 from 50-1, while easing Gala Marceau to 12-1 from 7-1. Lossiemouth is the 1-2 favourite.

Robbie Power, the winning trainer’s race planner, said: “That was great. She was impressive here back in November and I don’t know what went wrong at Christmas, there was no real excuse for her, she just didn’t run her race for some reason.

“That was much more like it today and Darragh knew himself after jumping two hurdles that she was back to herself. She was a different mare, she travelled and jumped really well. She winged the last and went from there to the winning post with her two ears pricked.

“Hopefully there is a bit more in the locker. She’s in the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham and we’ll see how she comes out of this, we might take a punt.

“You’d have to be tempted after that, she’s beaten Saylavee a lot easier than she did here back in November.”

Of the market leader, Mullins said: “Paul thought she ran a bit keen and she was very disappointing, especially after her promising run in Doncaster.

“I haven’t seen anything wrong with her yet, but she was blowing quite hard when she came in. Unfortunately it’s one of those things.”

Gary Moore is looking to Peking Opera to continue his stable’s fine form with the one-time Irish Derby fourth seeking to book his ticket to the Triumph Hurdle in Kempton’s Coral Adonis Juvenile Hurdle.

Moore, whose son Jamie recently announced his retirement from the saddle, enjoyed a big-race double at Haydock last weekend as Salver confirmed himself as one of the UK’s leading juveniles and Botox Has claimed Grade Two success in the Rendlesham.

Lower Beeding-based Moore is now on the hunt for further graded honours with his former Ballydoyle inmate, who made the perfect start over hurdles at Sandown earlier this month.

He showed there he had plenty of speed to go with his staying power and he has forced a change of thinking from his trainer, with Moore conceding he never had a trip to Kempton in mind for the hot juvenile prospect.

“Going into Sandown, on his Flat form, I thought he would want a stiff two miles,” explained Moore.

“The last place I thought I would run him was Kempton, even though the Adonis was probably the obvious race anyway. But I thought he would want a stiff two rather than an easy two and as it worked out, I thought he travelled well (at Sandown) and if they had gone a better gallop it would have helped him more.

“Hopefully the track will suit him and hopefully he will show enough to be a Triumph Hurdle horse – he will need to because it’s quite a good race.”

Moore’s success with Salver this season has seen him clipped into as short as 10-1 for the Triumph Hurdle next month, while it is Peking Opera’s exploits on the Flat combined with his Sandown hurdles debut that are driving his odds, ranging from 16s to 33-1.

Those prices could plummet with a bold showing from the son of Galileo on Saturday, but Moore says he has collected few clues on the gallops as to who may be better, with both kept separate in their work at home.

“I’ve never galloped them together,” continued Moore.

“One is an out-and-out stayer and the other should be as well, but on his pedigree and what he’s done (on the Flat), he (Peking Opera) should have a bit more class.”

Moore could also be represented on the card by Grade One scorer Le Patron, who could attempt to get back on track in the Coral Pendil Novices’ Chase after seeing his jumping fall apart in the Scilly Isles last time.

The six-year-old finished a long way adrift of Nickle Back on that occasion, with Moore having plenty of respect for that rival who is also entered at the weekend.

“My biggest concern in that race is Nickle Back and I don’t know if he will run or not, but I wouldn’t be in a rush to take him on to be honest,” added Moore.

Stuart Edmunds will saddle his first ever runner in Ireland on Thursday when Marsh Wren bids for Listed honours in the Carey Glass Irish EBF Colreevy Mares Novice Chase at Thurles.

The eight-year-old, who is part-owned by former Cardiff and Coventry City defender Ben Turner, has won two of her three starts over fences to date, with victories at Warwick and Uttoxeter sandwiching a second-placed finish in Listed company behind Nicky Henderson’s Arclight at Wincanton.

Edmunds admits taking on the Irish in their own back yard is a stiff test, but with conditions in Marsh Wren’s favour and Turner and other members of the Far Bihoue Partnership set to make the trip, the trainer is excited by the challenge.

“We thought about going for a previous mares’ race there, but in the end we decided to go for what was not too difficult a race at Uttoxeter,” said Edmunds, who is based near Milton Keynes.

“We just thought she’s already Listed placed, she loves soft ground and the boys are all very excited about going to Ireland, so she’s gone.

“We wouldn’t be going if we thought it was a waste of time, we think she’s gone there in good order and the more rain they get the better, as long as it’s on.

“She loves testing conditions, the trip (two and three-quarter miles) in Ireland is about right and it’s worth a few quid at €30,000, so why not have a go?”

Marsh Wren features in a six-strong field, with Gordon Elliott’s pair of Harmonya Maker and Jumping Jet and Gavin Cromwell’s Law Ella seemingly her biggest threats.

There is also British interest in the BoyleSports Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle, with the Willie Mullins-trained Stoke The Fire carrying the colours of Middleham Park Racing.

An impressive winner on his hurdling debut at Tramore, the five-year-old lines up as one of three runners for the champion trainer in the Grade Three contest alongside Largy Hill and What Path.

Middleham Park’s National Hunt racing manager, Tom Palin, said: “He’s the first horse we’ve had with Willie, but we’ve obviously been huge admirers of his for a long time. We like to have our horses with trainers who provide you with the best chance of having good runners on the best days, and there’s probably no finer man than Willie for that.

“We actually bought this horse as a possible Irish Cesarewitch contender, that’s more of a longer-term plan, but he might give us a little bit of fun over hurdles in the interim.

“He certainly gave us a bit more than a little bit of fun on New Year’s Day with a fairly bloodless victory at Tramore, when he seemed to cope with the testing conditions well and we were very taken by how he jumped on debut.

“This feels like the right sort of race to pitch him in and I’m sure whatever happens, he’ll still be a nice horse capable of taking us to Festivals both on the Flat and over hurdles, whether that’s Fairyhouse or Punchestown in graded company or in handicaps, we’ll have to wait and see.”

The likely favourite for the race is Elliott’s Staffordshire Knot, who will carry the colours of Gigginstown House Stud for the first time after being bought to stay in the yard for €510,000 at Andy and Gemma Brown’s dispersal earlier this month.

Hughie Morrison reports Not So Sleepy to be firmly on course for next month’s Unibet Champion Hurdle after going up the Lambourn gallops “like a rocket” on Wednesday morning.

The mud-loving veteran has won 11 times over jumps and on the Flat combined, most recently proving the fire still burns bright despite his advancing years when claiming Grade One honours in a rescheduled Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Sandown in December.

Morrison has since given his 12-year-old a winter break and is now beginning to turn the screw ahead of what will be his fifth tilt at Champion Hurdle glory in just under three weeks’ time.

“I went away last week and I came back and thought he was looking rather fat, which is a good sign because you want them to be doing well,” said the trainer.

“Over the last year or 18 months we’ve taken him to Lambourn the odd time, because we’ve been snowed in or something like that, and he actually had a nice gallop in Lambourn this morning.

“Thanks to the people in Lambourn who accommodated us, he had a spin up The Long gallop and he went up there like a rocket.”

Not So Sleepy was pulled up in his first Champion Hurdle four years ago and has finished fifth in the last three renewals, twice behind Honeysuckle and once behind Constitution Hill.

With Constitution Hill and last year’s runner-up State Man again set to be in opposition, Morrison is under no illusions about the task facing his charge on March 12, but he is happy to roll the dice and will be praying for testing conditions on the opening day of the Cheltenham Festival.

“I’m sure they will start quivering in their boots when they hear Sleepy is running,” he joked.

“We’d like a day like today on Tuesday March 12! Hopefully we get wet ground to make it hard work so the speed horses can’t quicken away from him. We also need Constitution Hill and State Man probably to have a day off.

“We are realistic, but at this moment in time I’m very happy with him.”

He added: “He’s lucky he’s not in a Willie Mullins or Gordon Elliott yard as he probably wouldn’t be running, would he? He’d be running in a County Hurdle or being saved for an egg and spoon race the week before or something.

“I know that sounds cynical, but I think the interest in Cheltenham is waning a bit because of the monopolisation. When you watch the Grand National weights yesterday, I found that deeply depressing.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has called for Red Bull’s investigation into Christian Horner to be transparent – and said the controversy is “an issue for all of Formula One”.

Horner is under investigation by the racing team’s parent company Red Bull GmbH following a claim of “inappropriate behaviour” by a female colleague.

The 50-year-old emphatically denies the accusation and remains in his role as Red Bull team principal.

He is in Bahrain for this week’s three-day test ahead of the opening race, also in the Gulf Kingdom, on March 2.

And Horner has stated it is his intention to be in his post for the start of the new campaign.

“It is clear,” Wolff said when asked to address the allegations during the lunch interval on the first day of testing.

“Formula One and the teams stand for inclusion, equality, fairness and diversity, and that is not only about talking about it, but living it day in, day out. These are just standards we set ourselves.

“We are a global sport and one of the most important sport platforms in the world and role models, too.

“But having said that, there is a lot of speculation that has been happening over the past weeks, and lots of things that are going on.

“What is important at that stage is for a process with rigour. I think what Red Bull has started as an independent investigation, if this is done in the right way, with transparency, that is something we need to look at.

“What the outcomes are, what it means for Formula One, and how we can learn from that because we want to talk about racing cars, and we want to talk about the sport, rather than these very, very critical topics that are more than just a team issue.

“It is phenomenon, and an issue for all of Formula One, and every individual that works out there.”

Horner is due to be in the media spotlight at an F1 press conference alongside four other team principals on Thursday.

Speaking at Red Bull’s car launch, last week, Horner said he was unable to provide a timeline as to when the investigation will be completed.

It is understood both Red Bull and Horner are keen for a swift resolution, but sources have indicated that a conclusion is not imminent. F1 bosses have called for the controversy to be “clarified at the earliest opportunity”.

Max Verstappen put Red Bull’s off-track troubles to one side by setting the pace in the opening session on Wednesday.

The three-time world champion ended the running nearly seven tenths quicker than Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in third, eight tenths back, and the only other driver within one second of Verstappen.

George Russell was sixth for Mercedes, 1.68 secs off the pace. Lewis Hamilton gets his first taste of the final Mercedes he will drive on Thursday ahead of his blockbuster switch to Ferrari next year.

Eydon will bid to honour his sire Olden Times when he makes his eagerly-awaited return from 665 days off the track in the BetUK Winter Derby at Southwell.

An impressive winner of the Feilden Stakes when trained by Roger Varian in 2022, he was last seen finishing fourth to Coroebus in that year’s 2000 Guineas, with an injury sustained in the build-up to the 2022 Derby the start of a plethora of issues that have kept him sidelined for almost two years.

Now in training with Andrew Balding, he sat out the whole of the 2023 season, but is reported to be in rude health following a recent racecourse gallop at Kempton and will be partnered for the first time by Kevin Stott when lining up in the Group Three event, which for the first time will be run over 11 furlongs.

“He went for a racecourse gallop the other day with Andrew and it seemed to go satisfactory,” said Ted Voute, racing adviser to Eydon’s owner Prince Faisal.

“His last run was in the Guineas when he was fourth. It will be some training feat to get him back and to the level of fitness required to run creditably after such a length of time off. But, touch wood, Andrew is pleased with him and thinks he will run a nice race.

“It’s a pretty even field and they are all rated around the same figures apart from Lord North and we will see.”

Connections will not only be hoping Eydon’s Rolleston appearance can book a trip to the Middle East for Dubai World Cup night next month, but also that the five-year-old can pay an on-course tribute to his sire, who died earlier this month at the age of 25.

“He has an entry in Dubai (in the Sheema Classic), but that is rather far-fetched at the moment. He would have to beat Lord North or run very respectably against him, but we will see how we get on,” said Voute.

“We keep our fingers crossed and his owner has had incredible faith in him and patience which in this day and age is quite unusual.

“He loves the sire line and sadly Eydon’s father Olden Times passed away two weekends ago from old age. It would lovely if he could replace him somehow, but he’s got a lot to do before he does that.”

Gareth Thomas believes a fast start is vital for Wales in their quest to claim an odds-defying victory over Guinness Six Nations title favourites Ireland on Saturday.

Wales have been largely written off, heading to Dublin after suffering nine defeats in their last  10 Six Nations games to face an Ireland side chasing successive Grand Slams.

Andy Farrell’s team have won 38 of their last 40 Tests at home, being beaten only by England in 2019 and France two years later during that time.

They are also closing in on a Six Nations record-equalling 11 successive wins, remaining undefeated since France toppled them two years ago.

And Wales must halt a poor recent Dublin record, having not landed a Six Nations win there there for 12 years when Leigh Halfpenny’s late penalty secured a 23-21 triumph.

“It is obviously going to be a challenge for us,” Wales prop Thomas said.

“But talking to the boys in the week and last week and saying how exciting it is if we get it right in terms of what we need to do, it will be a class challenge for us.

“It is going to hurt, but it is going to feel good if we get those bits right.

“I think starting fast, just going at them, not accepting their style of play, because if they get what they want they will be very good.

“I think just going after them, going at them, beating them physically, if we don’t start like that then we have no chance.

“They are playing some really good rugby at the minute, but watching the first two games (against France and Italy), people are letting them play like that.

“So it is up to us to go at them defensively and stop that smooth kind of attack they have got.”

Much has been made of a new-look Wales Six Nations squad, with Test rookies like Cameron Winnett and Alex Mann performing impressively during narrow defeats against Scotland and England.

Bath prop Archie Griffin joined them in making an international debut during the tournament, and 20-year-old Cardiff forward Mackenzie Martin will follow suit if he features off the bench this weekend.

And while Wales might no longer have the services of players like Halfpenny, Louis Rees-Zammit and Dan Biggar available – or, for the current Six Nations, injured trio Jac Morgan, Dewi Lake and Taulupe Faletau – green shoots are evident.

Thomas added: “We have lost a lot of senior boys, which is always difficult, but I am enjoying trying to help the younger boys who haven’t had that experience yet.

“We have got a group of young boys who are listening, learning and working really hard, so there is a good energy about the place.

“It is such a fine margin in terms of getting those two games to be wins (Wales lost to Scotland and England by a combined margin of three points).

“Give us those two wins, and we are in a very good place.

“The amount of effort that has gone into those first two games, we are going to need the same again, but close the game off a little bit better as well.”