Here are the latest rugby evening headlines on Friday, July 8.
Cuthbert out for revenge
Alex Cuthbert is out for revenge after being part of a Wales side which came even closer to a victory in South Africa than last week's team. He started on the wing in Nelspruit in 2014, when Warren Gatland's side lost by a solitary point, 31-30, after more late drama.
Cuthbert was at his best on that tour, scoring tries in both Test matches but shining particularly brightly in the second encounter at the Mbombela Stadium. Seven of Wales' 23 in Bloemfontein this weekend started that match eight years ago.
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"There are quite a few of us, aren't there?" the winger said. "It's one of those where it's about what could have been at that time. I didn't think I'd have another opportunity to come out here and play against South Africa, so to get that opportunity on the weekend, I'm really going to take it.
"It's something I've been very much looking forward to and I'm going to make sure that I leave absolutely everything on the field, like we did that day and hopefully this time we're on the right end of the result."
On the Nelspruit Test, he added: "It was probably up there as one of my favourable .performances. But the result is what we were really after, being the first team to win here and I felt like we were a good side in that second Test and deserved to win.
"South Africa are a side that play more than 80 minutes and that's what it's going to take this weekend. I'm very much looking forward to getting back out there and righting the wrongs."
Habana: 'South Africa need to step up'
Bryan Habana does not believe the Springboks' team selection is disrespectful to Wales, admitting he is excited by how much competition there is, but has told the 'Boks they need to step up to beat Wales again.
"I think Jacques Nienaber and Rassie Erasmus have really got a plan in preparing for Rugby World Cup 2023, and if you look at some of those 14 changes that are coming into that Springboks side they really are those that have been performing at club level for their teams in South Africa and in Europe, and are guys that have great experience," Habana told Sky Sports News.
"As a former player, the competition of this team really excites me because a lot of them have been selected on form. They'll know what happened physically from Wales last week and they'll need to definitely step up.
"In my opinion, definitely no disrespect and the challenge has been laid for them to step up and show what they can prove."
Ireland's Sexton 'fine' for second Test after head knock
Ireland captain Johnny Sexton insisted he is "fine" and passed head injury tests "with flying colours" as he allayed concerns about his selection for Saturday's second Test against New Zealand.
The influential fly-half failed an on-pitch assessment during the first half of last weekend's 42-19 first-Test defeat by the All Blacks and left the field without returning.
Head coach Andy Farrell's decision to pick his skipper for the next instalment of the series in Dunedin has been questioned in some quarters, including by campaign group Progressive Rugby. Yet Sexton, who expected to come back on in Auckland having sustained the knock by slipping into New Zealand captain Sam Cane, played down fears surrounding his physical condition.
"You go off for an HIA (head injury assessment) and you don't come back on, everyone presumes that's a concussion, but it's not," he said, according to the Irish Times. "It's just, if there is a suspected (concussion) or if there is any doubt about the player. And obviously the independent doctor felt for whatever reason, my reaction to the knock or whether it was one or two little things in the test, but anyway, that's history now.
"I went off for tests expecting to come back on and wasn't allowed, which is fair enough, that's what it's there for. It's there to protect players if there is a suspected concussion, that they are kept off, and that's what happened with the independent doctor.
"Yeah, move on, did all the tests and obviously passed all of them with flying colours. Looking forward to this week."
Sexton, who turns 37 on Monday, has battled with head knocks and the perception around them throughout his career.
Scotland U20s issues to be probed after defeats to opponents including Wales
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend admits there needs to be a deeper look at issues facing the under-20s following their latest heavy defeat. Kenny Murray's side went down 55-17 against Georgia on Wednesday to make it 13 consecutive losses at that level.
The young Scots conceded 134 points in three games of their summer series in Italy against the hosts, Wales and Georgia, and their previous match was a 59-5 defeat by Ireland in the Under-20 Six Nations.
Townsend said: "We obviously feel for them. We were watching the game on the bus on the way back from training and, when they went 12-0 up, we were excited for them because we know Georgia are a quality side.
"But it has been a tough 18 months for them. Following Covid, we have not done as well at that level, that's clear. But there are some very good individuals in there, very good performances. We will learn as a group why it hasn't worked this year and what we need to do better there.
"We have obviously got to look deeper at what we need to be doing at age-group level, academy level, support our players to challenge them and give them better competition. That's probably the big lesson this."
Wales world rankings climb on the cards
Wales could climb two places up to seventh in the world rankings if they beat the Springboks on South African soil for the first time, but they would need the Argentina v Scotland result on Saturday night to also fall in their favour.
South Africa, New Zealand, France and Ireland are all vying for the No. 1 spot.
South Africa’s fate is in their own hands as a second win over Wales in as many weeks would assure them of the lead for at least one more week. If they draw, the All Blacks will go top with a win over Ireland.
Andy Farrell's Irish would go top for the first time since the 2019 World Cup if they beat their hosts by more than 15 points and Wales win.
As for France, who face Japan for the second time in as many weeks early on Saturday, they would require South Africa and New Zealand to have heavy defeats if they were to be ranked top in the world.
England will swap with Australia again and move to fifth if they overturn last weekend's defeat, while the Wallabies cannot fall lower than sixth.
Biggar: 'Wales require 10-15% improvement for win'
Dan Biggar says Wales require a "10-15 per cent" improvement in their quest for a Test series-levelling victory over South Africa on Saturday.
He also poured cold water on Sir Gareth Edwards' suggestion that the Springboks have disrespected the tourists with their second Test team selection.
Nienaber's line-up contains a total of 393 caps, but 321 of those Test appearances are shared by just five players in lock Eben Etzebeth, fly-half Handre Pollard, centre Jesse Kriel, prop Trevor Nyakane and flanker Pieter-Steph Du Toit.
Biggar, though, has no doubt about Wales' degree of difficulty in Bloemfontein as they target a first win against the Springboks on South African soil.
"We put on a really good show last week and in my opinion we are going to have to improve 10-15 per cent to get anything out of Saturday," he said.
"I know the side we played last weekend are renowned, experienced, World Cup winners and the rest of that, but this team, you have got Pollard at 10 and some real exciting form players.
"When I saw that they had made 14 changes, I was thinking 'who are they going to bring in'? But then you look at the team sheet and I don't expect this to be anything other than an incredibly tough game."
New Wales investment explained
Nigel Walker has revealed that the 17 extra full-time contracts for Wales Women for the next six months have not required significant further investment from the WRU.
The budget for Wales Women's performance programme this year was previously revealed to be £2million following January's unveiling of 12 full-time and 12 part-time WRU contracts for players in the first move into professionalism, but WRU performance director Nigel Walker has said the latest budget is "not significantly greater than £2m".
"We’ve pretty much done everything I had earmarked," Walker said. "We had an initial budget [of £2million]. What we’ve done here is prioritise the professional contracts and we’ve just reworked the existing budget in order to enable us to do what we’re doing."
The financial value of each contract has never been publicly revealed, although the full-time deals have reported to be worth in the region of £20,000 each - meaning 17 new full-time deals for the next six months would cost around £170,000.
"As we made our way through the Six Nations, as you would expect, Ioan and I spoke on a regular basis and following the Six Nations we talked at length about what we could do to aid our preparations for the Rugby World Cup," said Walker.
"Obviously Ioan is a very persuasive man and we came up with this model of having a largely full-time squad available from the beginning of this month through until December 31 so they would go terminus with the original contracts that we had."
It follows a similar announcement in Scotland - who Wales face in their World Cup opener on October 9 - whereby a 36-player squad will be able to train full-time for 11 weeks ahead of the World Cup.
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