Taine Basham has vowed to "train the house down" after being named in Steve Tandy's Wales squad for the autumn internationals, while Saracens have sacked academy player Totoa Auvaa following an alleged off-field incident.
Basham determined to make impact
The Cardiff back-row has earned his first call-up under Tandy after an impressive spell of form at club level, having won the last of his 17 caps against England in 2024. Basham revealed he had spoken to the Wales head coach towards the end of last year, following Cardiff's double-header against the Stormers, and was encouraged to maintain his standards.
"It's nice to get the call-up," he said. "We had a talk on the phone towards the end of last year after the Stormers game. He just said to me, 'Keep going, keep improving, you fronted up really well against the Stormers'. He said to carry my form into the season. So I'm going to keep going."
The 26-year-old has enjoyed a resurgence since joining Cardiff from the Dragons in 2025, establishing himself at No 8 and producing a series of impressive performances in the United Rugby Championship. His form had strengthened the case for his inclusion before Tandy named his squad, with Basham offering power, dynamism and a strong carrying threat in the back row.
Saracens sack Auvaa
Saracens director of rugby Brendan Venter has described the club's decision to sack academy player Totoa Auvaa as a "victory for the club" after his latest off-field incident. The 21-year-old back-rower left Saracens with immediate effect following an alleged altercation in St Albans in the early hours of Sunday, October 11.
Auvaa had previously been involved in an incident with England cricket stars Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson in June, when he aimed a punch at Atkinson that missed and struck an ECB security guard, who required stitches. Saracens investigated the incident at the time but did not formally sanction Auvaa, with the club later coming under scrutiny after his involvement in the latest alleged altercation.
Venter has now praised chief executive Ed Coetzee for his handling of the situation, insisting the club had acted decisively after reviewing the evidence. "We saw the evidence, Totoa was wrong, we've given him a chance, it was decisive," Venter said. "I actually think it was a victory for the club in that way because Ed dealt with it really well, I don't think he could have dealt with it better."
Wales Women name team for Japan
Head Coach Sean Lynn has named the Wales Women side for the first Test against Japan at the Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium, Tokyo on Saturday, October 24th. Flankers Alex Callender and Kate Williams will co-captain a side with five changes, two positional, to the starting line up that faced the USA. Callender, who made her Wales debut against France in the 2019 W6N, will win her 50th cap for her country against Japan in WXV.
Nel Metcalfe returns to action after missing the recent 2026 W6N campaign and is selected on the wing to face the Sakura Fifteen. Seren Lockwood is back at scrum half and partners Keira Bevan, who moves to fly-half, at half back to face Japan. Lock Jorja Aiono is named in the Wales engine room alongside Branwen Metcalfe, while Carys Cox moves to centre to partner Freya Bell in the Welsh midfield.
The Wales starting line-up includes 12 players who have played Celtic Challenge rugby for Brython Thunder and Gwalia Lightning. Wales recorded a 50-19 win over South Africa and went down 26-24 to a USA Eagles ranked sixth in the world rankings.
Andrews death puts rugby into perspective
Cardiff head coach Corniel van Zyl says the loss of Lions lock Hyron Andrews has put rugby into perspective, following the second-row's sudden passing. Last week was a difficult week for South African rugby, after the 31-year-old died the day before the Lions' Champions Cup match with La Rochelle.
One of Andrews' former clubs, the Sharks, travel to the Arms Park this week to face Cardiff - with South African-born van Zyl admitting the shocking news had hit everyone hard. "Obviously, over the weekend you definitely had the sense of why are we here? What are we doing? What's the purpose of everything? It's definitely putting everything into perspective. I'm sure there's a lot of people at the Sharks would have been close friends with him. Last week would have been tough for them. This week is probably no different, because there's no manual for that. You can't know what to do. It's just you have to adapt on the go."
