It’s the long awaited return of Gwylio’r Cymry as we look back at the Welsh internationals / Welsh qualified players in action in the elite leagues over the last weekend, with new researcher Alex Paynter.
Heading the pile was Wales squad member Caleb Aekins (see pic above – credit SW Pix) who scored a hat-trick for Leigh Centurions against Widnes Vikings in the Challenge Cup.
🗣 “𝙄 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙄’𝙫𝙚 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙖 𝙝𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘𝙠!”
Listen to hatrick hero Caleb Aekin’s thoughts following our @TheChallengeCup victory over @WidnesRL#Leythers 🔴
— Leigh Centurions (@LeighCenturions) February 28, 2022
Making his Leigh debut was his fellow Wales squad member and former Wales junior international Luis Roberts. Matty Fozard lined up for Widnes that evening.
Also in Challenge Cup action were Charley Bodman (Hunslet), Rhys Evans, Ben Evans, Dan Fleming, Elliot Kear, Ant Walker and Chester Butler (all Bradford) and Cobi Green, Rhys Davies and Sean Penkywicz (all Rochdale).
Starring in Super League was Lloyd White for Toulouse at home to Huddersfield, whilst the Welsh qualified duo Lewis Dodd and Morgan Knowles were in action for St Helens as they beat Wakefield Trinity.
Playing in their respective Super League reserve sides were Luke Thomas at Warrington and Kyle Huish at Wigan.
Further afield, Curtis Davies was in action for Villeneuve in Elite League 1, plus appearing in the NRL trials for Newcastle Knights v Melbourne Storm were Welsh qualified players Bradman Best and Tyson Frizell.
With the Wheelchair leagues now kicking off and women’s coming soon, watch out for this column weekly as Alex Paynter and Harry Jones will look back on the previous weekend’s action.