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On Wednesday, Wales made the trip to Japan, hoping to end their painful run of humiliating international defeats.

Wales will face Eddie Jones’ Japan side in Kitakyushu on Saturday, July 5, with the second Test taking place in Kobe a week later.

Wales lost their 17th successive Test defeat to England in March, 68-14, which is a record for a tier one nation.

Wales has fallen to the lowest position in the world, ranking 12th overall, with Japan just one place further down the miserable stretch.

The traveling party includes six uncapped players, with hooker Dewi Lake serving as captain.

In addition to Gloucester scrum-half Tomos Williams and flanker Jac Morgan, who is with the British and Irish Lions in Australia, Lake leads the 33-man squad.

The latest additions to Japan include Scarlets back Macs Page, Cardiff captain Liam Belcher, and Dragons prop Chris Coleman, Garyn Phillips, Keelan Giles, and Reuben Morgan-Williams.

After missing the Six Nations with an injury, Dragons second row Ben Carter, Scarlets flyhalf Sam Costelow, and Bath tight-head prop Archie Griffin have all been called back, along with Kieran Hardy, Alex Mann, Josh Macleod, James Ratti, Johnny Williams, and Cameron Winnett.

Taulupe Faletau, the player who defeated the squad that won the 2019 World Cup in Japan, along with Josh Adams, Nicky Smith, Aaron Wainwright, and Elliot Dee, will provide experience.

Dafydd Jenkins, Adam Beard, Will Rowlands, Henry Thomas, Ellis Mee, Gareth Anscombe, Max Llewellyn, Nick Tompkins, James Botham, Evan Lloyd, and Morgan Morse are among the notable absentees who have been injured, rested, and not selected.

Forwards: Nicky Smith, Gareth Thomas, Garyn Phillips, Keiron Assiratti, Chris Coleman, Keiron Assiratti, Chris Coleman, Archie Griffin, Liam Belcher, Elliot Dee, Ben Carter, Teddy Williams, Freddie Thomas, James Ratti, Taine Plumtree, Aaron Wainwright, Alex Mann, Taulupe Faletau, Tommy Reffell, Josh Macleod.

Sherratt was appointed as the caretaker of Japan after being asked to take charge of the tournament’s final three games.

Gethin Jenkins, the Cardiff defense coach for Sherratt, the Harlequins duo Danny Wilson and Adam Jones for the backroom, and Gloucester’s Rhys Thomas as the assistant forwards coach.

Wilson and Jenkins are just two weeks apart before their clubs return, and former full-back Leigh Halfpenny has taken on what the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) calls a skills coaching position.

This includes Neil Jenkins’ nearly 20-year-long commitment to kick with the senior squad.

Since their first meeting in 1973, Wales have won 13 of their 14 matches against Japan.

Australia’s mastermind, Australian Jones, who is now back in charge of the Cherry Blossoms, led Japan to its sole victory in Tokyo in 2013.

In the wake of the 2023 World Cup, Jones led an Australia side that was dumped out in the group stages. He then made his comeback to Japan.

Their mediocre performance at that tournament included a 40-6 defeat of Gatland’s Wales in Lyon.

Since Jones’ re-appointment, Japan has won four games and lost seven, and they were beaten by New Zealand, France, and England last year by at least 40 points.

A Maori All Blacks side from New Zealand will take on them on Saturday, June 28 in Tokyo, after they haven’t played a game since November 2024.

Jingo Takenoshita, a university student, was one of 16 uncapped players in Jones’ 37-man training squad.

Only one player, Michael Leitch, a Brave Blossoms veteran with 87 caps, was selected for the training camp, making him likely to be well-known to Welsh fans.

Non-capped Tests

Wales 62-14 Japan, Cardiff, 6 October 1973

Japan 12-56 Wales, Osaka, 21 September 1975

Japan 6-82 Wales, Tokyo, 24 September 1975

Wales 29-24 Japan, Cardiff, 22 October 1983.

full exams

Wales 55-5 Japan, Cardiff, 16 October 1993

Wales 57-10 Japan, Bloemfontein, 27 May 1995

Wales 64-15 Japan, Cardiff, 9 October1999

Japan 10-64 Wales, Osaka, 10 June 2001

Japan 30-53 Wales, Tokyo, 17 June 2001

Wales 98-0 Japan, Cardiff, 26 November 2004

Wales 72-18 Japan, Cardiff, 20 September 2007

Japan 18-22 Wales, Osaka, 8 June 2013

Japan 23-8 Wales, Tokyo, 15 June 2013

Western Force v British and Irish Lions

Centre Hunter Paisami and hooker Matt Faessler have been released by Australia to play for Queensland Reds against the British and Irish Lions next week.

However, six other Reds players – including Wallabies captain Harry Wilson and key back row Fraser McReight – have instead stayed with Australia to prepare for their warm-up Test against Fiji on 6 July.

Lions chief executive Ben Calveley had warned holding back Test players for the fixtures was contrary to an agreement with Rugby Australia and risked the tour being devalued.

However Schmidt has argued it is counterproductive to release all Wallabies back to their provincial sides as he attempts to prepare for the three-Test series.

He also pointed out the Lions will not put out a first-choice line-up for every match, with a Test team and midweek side – which will comprise fringe squad members – invariably emerging.

Calveley and Rugby Australia counterpart Phil Waugh met on Wednesday to discuss the issue, before Schmidt opted to release Faessler and Paisami.

“Yes and no”, he said when asked if he regretted not being able to turn out for the Perth-based side.

“Obviously it is out of the players ‘ control – we do what the coaches want, we get the schedule and we come into camp.

” There are four Force boys here]retained by the Wallabies], five back there, so there is a good share back there ready to rip in this weekend.

“It would have been awesome to play – any game you get to play against the Lions is pretty cool – but we are in camp, preparing for Fiji next week and we are really excited to watch the Force boys play at the weekend”.

Donaldson is one of three fly-halves in the Wallabies squad, competing with Tom Lynagh to back up first-choice Noah Lolesio. If selection goes against him, he could miss out on facing the Lions at all.

Force finished ninth in this season’s Super Rugby Pacific table, the lowest of any of the Australian sides.

“Yeah, they will win I reckon”, Donaldson said with a smile when asked about the outcome of Saturday’s match.

“It is an awesome experience for them and a great challenge, you saw the Brumbies win 12 years ago so it is not impossible”.

Lions assistant coach Andrew Goodman said he expects all the Super Rugby sides to raise their game considerably for a meeting with the Lions that only comes around once every 12 years.

“If you watch a Force team or a Reds team during Super Rugby, it’s not an indication of what you’re going to get against a Lions team”, he said.

Jofra Archer should not play in England’s second Test against India at Edgbaston, says former captain Michael Vaughan.

Archer played in his first first-class match for four years this week as he seeks to prove his fitness for a return to the Test arena, where he has not featured since 2021.

England selector Luke Wright said earlier this month that if Archer comes through the four-day game for Sussex he could be available for the second Test, which starts on 2 July.

“The good thing is that Jofra is back in the equation – but I’d like to see him play another four-day game”, said Vaughan, who is now a BBC Test Match Special pundit.

“He’s not played the longer format for four years so why, on the back of one game for Sussex against Durham, would you rush him back?

” We know the intensity at Test-match level is so different to county cricket. Let him play another four-day game – I would go with the same line-up, as long as the bowlers are fine and there are no niggles. “

Archer emerged as one of England’s most exciting prospects in 2019 when he bowled the decisive super over in the home World Cup win, before taking 22 wickets at 20.27 across four Tests in the Ashes series that followed.

But he has since been plagued by injury – an elbow issue first suffered in 2020 has required several surgeries and he also had a stress fracture in his back in 2022.

As a result, Archer’s frequent attempts to return to international cricket have been stop-start.

He was expected to play in the white-ball series against West Indies at the beginning of this summer but hurt his thumb while playing in the Indian Premier League.

Sussex start another County Championship game against Warwickshire on Sunday, which would overlap with the second Test – and Vaughan has backed the bowlers who played in the first Test to be selected again.

” Josh Tongue, the hoover, let him do that again at Edgbaston, “Vaughan said, referring to the Nottinghamshire seamer’s ability to knock over the lower order as he did in both innings at Headingley.

“I want to be a mum more than anything, but it’s just not on the cards for me.”

Nottingham Forest netball head coach Chelsea Pitman is telling BBC Sport about her difficult fertility journey.

She is recalling the conversations and self-questioning that followed “quite a few” miscarriages.

“The future could be bright, who knows,” she adds.

That glimmer remains, but however Pitman’s future plays out, she is determined that pregnancy and motherhood are never taboo topics in sport.

The former England wing attack wants others to feel liberated to share their unspoken stories – whether those are first thoughts about having children, or the recounting of painful experiences such as her own.

Pitman claims netball clubs have backed away in the past from players keen to become mothers and says this must stop.

Looking back only a few years, Pitman points to negative attitudes towards players with maternal ambitions.

She was reluctant to discuss her own wishes, or even the fact she had become pregnant, for fear of jeopardising her playing career.

“I like to think it’s changed,” Pitman says. “Back then, absolutely not.

“You’d be judged by it, or if it came to contracts or recruitment, that’s going to be at the forefront of coaches’ minds in a high-performance environment: ‘What, they want to have a baby?’

“Those conversations need to stop now. Hopefully they have stopped, but 100% back then I know I didn’t want it to be common knowledge.”

At Forest, her attitude is welcoming to prospective parents.

Pitman, 37, is the Diamond who became a Rose.

Born in New South Wales, she won the 2011 World Cup with the Australia Diamonds before her father’s English background enabled her to switch allegiances.

In 2018, she helped the England Red Roses win Commonwealth Games gold on the Gold Coast, getting the better of Australia in the final.

Pitman has travelled extensively in her netball career but has settled in Nottingham, where she has “absolutely fallen in love with the city”.

She guided Forest, in their debut season, to a creditable fifth place in the eight-team Netball Super League, and to a remarkable double over derby rivals and defending champions Loughborough Lightning.

Pitman loves the “muck-in mentality” at Forest and works to fuel the culture.

There are children around the club. Scotland international Iona Christian gave birth to son Lawrie in March 2024 before joining Forest.

Pitman will often care for Lawrie while the squad are working hard in the gym.

She was experiencing “a flat day” recently before Christian handed her Lawrie.

“He just brought me back down to earth and took the stress off me,” Pitman says.

Pitman thought having a baby would “be so easy”.

She feels her body, which allowed her to achieve so much in netball, “failed” her when she needed it most.

“I was like, ‘OK, my body allowed me to achieve everything there was to achieve in the sense of netball, but it hasn’t allowed me to achieve the one thing that I really wanted’,” she says.

One miscarriage came on England duty, shortly before Covid-19 triggered lockdowns.

Pitman was close to the three-month pregnancy stage at which point many people share their news with friends and family.

“It was really tough,” she recalls.

A cruel twist of fate meant Pitman, who knew she was miscarrying, was selected by UK Anti-Doping for a post-match urine test.

“For people that don’t know, you need to pee in a cup, and when you’re miscarrying, obviously things are happening as well. I just remember looking at the team doctor, going, ‘this is the worst week of my life’,” she says.

Pitman urges anyone going through pregnancy loss to “lean on the ones that you love” rather than delay conversations.

She elected to “just put it somewhere and then deal with it later”.

Eventually she told her story on social media and also spoke to BBC Sport about the toll of the lost pregnancies.

Pitman found she was not alone. A wave of support followed.

“I was like, ‘why do we keep this quiet?'” she says.

Pitman remembers speaking with friends about whether she would choose another gold medal ahead of starting a family. The answer came easily.

“Like 100%, I want to be a mum more than anything, but it’s just not on the cards for me,” Pitman says.

“We don’t know the future. The future could be bright, who knows, but that was probably the bit that I had to understand a little bit.”

Pitman gets “goose bumps” when she learns how other sports are helping women.

WTA Tour tennis players wishing to freeze eggs or embryos, so they can start a family at a later date, will have their ranking protected in future. The tour has also introduced paid maternity leave.

“I truly hope we head down that path,” Pitman says.

Realistically, netball lacks the necessary financial resources though. The Super League relaunched in 2025 but remains semi-professional.

“Until we are able to full-time pay those girls or those women, we can’t have those conversations about what maternity pay looks like and what support we can give in fertility options,” Pitman says.

For now, Pitman encourages players to back their instincts about whether to try for a baby.

At the age of 37, former England midfielder Adam Lallana has stopped playing.

Lallana, who made his debut there in his first season with the club and won 34 caps for his nation, made his comeback last year.

In 2014, he moved to Liverpool from Saints for £25 million, where he won the Premier League and Champions League.

On his social media accounts, Lallana wrote, “I call the end of my playing career with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride.”

“Southampton is the beginning and the destination of all of it,” according to the phrase. I ultimately owe everything to the club.

Lallana made his Southampton debut as an 18-year-old in 2006 after graduating from the academy.

He was a member of the Saints’ back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League, appearing in more than 250 games.

Lallana served as the team’s captain when he left for Anfield in the summer of 2014, where he also represented England at the World Cup.

Lallana moved to Brighton before making a second-guessing return to St Mary’s in 2024 after winning the Champions League with Liverpool in 2019.

Due to Saints’ demotion to the Championship, he only started five games.

Lallana continued, “I’m proud of the playing career I’ve had, and I have no regrets about it.”

I embrace every high and low as they have transformed me into who I am.

Thank you to everyone who made the journey so memorable, to the staff at each club and organization, to the coaches and managers, to my teammates, and of course to the supporters.

“But most of all, to my own team, my family,” she said. Thank you for sticking with me and being there for me through it all, my wife Emily, our wonderful sons, my mom, dad, and sister.

Former England midfielder Adam Lallana has retired from playing at the age of 37.

Lallana, who won 34 caps for his country, returned to Southampton last season after making his name in his first spell there.

He joined Liverpool from Saints for £25m in 2014 and went on to win the Premier League and Champions League.

“As I call time on my playing career, I do so with an overwhelming sense of gratitude and pride,” Lallana said on his social media accounts.

“Southampton… the place where it all started, and fittingly where it ends. It’s the club I ultimately owe everything to.”

Lallana came through Southampton’s academy before making his debut for the first team as an 18-year-old in 2006.

He went on to feature more than 250 times for Saints and was part of the squad that won back-to-back promotions from League One to the Premier League.

Lallana was captain when he left for Anfield during a summer where he also played for England at the 2014 World Cup.

After winning the Champions League with Liverpool in 2019 and the league title the following campaign, Lallana joined Brighton before returning to St Mary’s in 2024.

He only made five starts as Saints were relegated to the Championship.

“I’m proud of the playing career I’ve had and have no regrets about any of it,” Lallana added.

“I embrace all the highs and all the lows as they’ve shaped me into who I am.

“To everyone who made the journey so special, the staff at each club and organisation, the managers and coaches, my teammates, and of course the supporters — thank you.

“But most of all, to my own team… my family. My wife Emily, our amazing sons, my mum, dad and sister, thank you for putting up with me and being in my corner through it all.