Wales

There was plenty of encouragement for Wayne Pivac in his first match as head coach as Josh Adams' hat-trick inspired Wales to a dominant 42-0 win over Italy at the Principality Stadium on Saturday.

A trip to Dublin to face Ireland, who themselves have a new man at the helm in the form of Andy Farrell, is sure to provide an altogether sterner challenge for the defending champions.

Ireland started their own campaign with a tense 19-12 beating of Scotland and Wales great Hook, who earned 81 caps and played in three Rugby World Cups for his country, is backing Pivac's men to flourish.

Speaking to Omnisport, the versatile Ospreys back said: "It's obviously going to be a much bigger test. 

"Ireland at home are always strong anyway. They've got some experience there, we know they're powerful, especially at the 22 line so they'll test Wales there. 

"But I think Wales will be full of confidence, they're enjoying playing under the new coaches, it seems to be quite a relaxed environment so I think the boys will thrive and give it a good go."

Hook, who won the Six Nations three times with Wales including Grand Slam triumphs in 2008 and 2012, says the result will provide a strong indicator of where the team is at in terms of their championship aspirations.

"I think they've obviously had a great start," he added. "But this is going to be a big Test out in Dublin and it will go a long way to seeing how we go in the championship.

"We've got plenty of confidence. It's going to be a much bigger test and after the weekend we'll know where we are."

Last month, Hook announced he will end a professional career that started in 2004 playing for Neath at the end of the Pro14 season.

Hook has played top-tier rugby in Wales, England and France – having also represented Perpignan and Gloucester in a distinguished career – and plans to continue working in the game.

The 34-year-old also has a new career venture, though, with the release of a series of children's books based around a young player's dreams to forge a top-level rugby career.

Hook was inspired by a visit to a book fair with his son Harrison and the opening title of the series, 'Chasing a Rugby Dream: Kick Off', will be released at the start of July.  

"I've got a few things going on. I'm hoping to do a bit of coaching, I'm just trying to sort a few things out with that," he said. 

"Obviously, I've got the books stuff going on, the children's books, which I'm enjoying doing at the moment. 

"I'm just trying to finish the season strong personally, then looking forward to the next chapter and going into post-rugby."

Expanding further on the books, Hook said: "It was a couple of years ago in Gloucester, my eldest boy Harrison wanted a children's book and there was a book fair at his school and he couldn't find a good rugby book, there wasn't any sort of children's rugby books there. 

"So, I just came up with a few ideas based on my rugby career and just my life basically and put that into a story through the eyes of a 10-year-old boy. 

"I got in touch with an author from Swansea who I know has written children's books and it went from there. 

"It was an idea that came from there, then we wrote the book together, got in touch with a publisher, he liked what he saw, and he gave us a series."

The Welsh county has put a coaching network in place to give young talent from ethnic minority backgrounds the best chance of following former England Under-19 spinner Prem Sisodiya into the first team.

Off the field, prayer rooms are being actively discussed, while Glamorgan hope to attract supporters of South Asian descent by establishing no alcohol areas as well as providing halal and vegetarian food options.

“We’ve got a joint strategy which has set out its intention of being the most inclusive sport in Wales and to reflect the diversities of the communities we have here,” said Mark Frost, community and development manager for Glamorgan Cricket and Cricket Wales.

“We’ve set out that whether you are a club or at Sophia Gardens (Glamorgan’s home), being a more diverse set up is actually better for you.

“We’re not doing it for box-ticking or to be politically correct, we’re doing it because it’s good for you and we want it to happen.”

In Wales, 60 per cent of clubs now have girls or women’s team offers – “a massive step forward”, says Frost – and ‘Street Cricket’ initiatives have been set up in locations throughout the country where clubs do not exist.

Glamorgan’s drive to produce players of South Asian heritage has seen coaches such as former Derbyshire and Middlesex paceman Ali Bukhari, Mohsin Arif, Imran Hassan and Mojeid Ilyas joining their ‘Talent Pathway’ scheme.

“That old adage ‘if you can’t see it you can’t believe it’ is a really important one,” said Frost, speaking at a Glamorgan junior programme event held in Grangetown, one of Cardiff’s most diverse communities close to the city centre.

“The coaching pathway for Welsh age-group squads is helping to contribute from both the coaching and mentoring of players from an ethnic minority background.

“We’ve also spoken to community leaders and said we’re really taking the subject of prayer rooms seriously, as well as having a good variety of food options and areas of no alcohol or low alcohol so people can find an area that suits them.

“We know that T20 and The Hundred has attracted a younger audience, a family audience, and we’ve not yet got the right number of people coming forward from an ethnic minority background.

“But we’ve seen growth in the club game over the last eight years from five to 12 per cent of juniors and seniors from an ethnic minority background, which is more than representative of the population of Wales.”

Sisodiya attended the schools’ event at the Grange Pavilion, little more than a six hit from where he was born and grew up.

He said: “Being of Indian heritage and to say I’m from Grangetown is massive to me.

“When I was growing up we were always playing on the streets and in the park with a bat and ball.

“To see how a facility like this has developed is amazing. I think if I’d had this as a youngster it would have pushed me even more.

“When my dad came over from India he played for the Welsh Asians, but there’s a lot more integration now and it’s important Glamorgan spot that talent at an early age.”

While he ended up with relatively pedestrian figures of 1-34 off his four overs to help Surrey defend a mammoth 237, his dismissal of South African Colin Ingram for 11 was extremely significant.

With that dismissal, the 35-year-old Trinidadian became only the third man in history to reach 500 wickets in T20s, joining Afghanistan’s Rashid Khan, who has 555 and fellow Trinidadian, Dwayne Bravo, who leads the way by a mile with 615.

Narine made his T20 debut all the way back in 2011 when he represented Trinidad & Tobago against Hampshire in the Caribbean T20 at the Kensington Oval and has since gone on to represent a number of franchises in leagues across the globe, most notably helping the Kolkata Knight Riders to a pair of IPL titles in 2012 and 2014, taking over 20 wickets in each season.

In Surrey’s next game, which they also won, Narine was back to his best with figures of 3-12 in 2.5 overs.

In total, Narine has taken 503 wickets in 461 matches at an average of 21.01 including 12 four-wicket hauls and one five-wicket haul.

For the West Indies, Narine has taken 52 wickets in 51 matches at 21.25. His last T20 for the West Indies came against India at Providence in 2019.

Seales has, so far, taken 5-101 in 23 overs as Glamorgan have advanced to 411-9 off 102 overs, replying to Sussex’s 278 all out off 87.2 overs on day one.

Glamorgan’s batting effort was led by excellent centuries from Colin Ingram and Kiran Carlson.

Ingram led the way with a 248-ball 170 including 23 fours and three sixes while Carlson made 148 off 217 balls and hit 21 fours in the process.

Seales and Sussex will enter day three on Sunday trailing Glamorgan by 133 runs looking to dismiss them as quickly as possible.

Full scores:

Sussex278 off 87.2 overs (Fynn Hudson-Prentice 48, Cheteshwar Pujara 41, Jack Carson 39, Aristides Karvelas 39, Mir Hamza 4-70, James Harris 4-93)

Glamorgan 411-9 off 102 overs (Colin Ingram 170, Kiran Carlson 148, Jayden Seales 5-101)

Elsewhere, Jason Holder was one of three Worcestershire batsmen to make centuries as they piled up a massive 618-7 declared in their first innings against Kent on day two at the St. Lawrence Ground in Canterbury.

Holder made a brilliant 123* off just 110 balls including seven fours and three sixes while Gareth Roderick and Matthew Waite both also reached three figures with 117 and 100*, respectively. 

Adam Hose fell just ten runs short of a century himself.

Joey Evison and Matt Parkinson each ended with three wicket-hauls for Kent.

In reply, Kent reached 111-2 at stumps with Captain Daniel Bell-Drummond (54*0 and Jack Leaning (43*) at the crease.

Joe Leach has taken both wickets to fall so far.

Full scores: 

Worcestershire 617-8 dec. off 158.5 overs (Jason Holder 123*, Gareth Roderick 117, Matthew Waite 100*, Adam Hose 90, Joey Evison 3-58, Matt Parkinson 3-201)

Kent 111-2 off 33 overs (Daniel Bell-Drummond 54*, Jack Leaning 43*, Joe Leach 2-12)