It was another bitterly disappointing day for Welsh rugby

It was another dark weekend in Welsh rugby as Wales suffered a heavy 54-12 defeat to France at the Principality Stadium.

It was one way traffic as Wales were yet again ruthlessly put to the sword by a France side who look well placed to win the Grand Slam. To make matters worse it felt like a home game for France with a crowd of just 57,744 in attendance.

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Winners

Aaron Wainwright

The Dragons No 8 was Wales’ best player yet again.

Wainwright made 14 carries and 11 tackles in a spirited display. The explosive No 8 was the only Wales backrower to consistently get over the gainline and is a high quality player operating in a weak team.

If Wales are to stand any chance against Scotland then Wainwright will be central to their efforts.

His move to Leicester Tigers for the 2026/27 season could take his game to a new level.

Eddie James

The 23-year-old had a tough time against England in round one but he was much better against France. James gave Wales some go forward in the second-half while he put in a strong defensive shift.

There was enough about the Scarlets centre to suggest he can kick on as an international centre. But his long-term position at Test level is arguably at inside centre.

There is an argument to suggest Wales currently cannot afford the luxury of a ball player at 12 and need someone to get them over the gainline in the same manner Jamie Roberts used to do in years gone by.

James could be that man.

Dewi Lake and Wales’ set-piece

You wouldn’t have thought it if you just went by the scoreline but Wales’ set-piece was actually pretty good against France.

The lineout malfunctioned badly eight days prior at Twickenham but it was faultless at the Principality Stadium.

Dewi Lake came in for some huge criticism for Wales’ lineout woes in the defeat to England but he was much better this time around.

The scrum was also solid enough.

Losers

WRU

It was a record low for Wales as far as the attendance, with the 57,744 crowd the lowest for a Six Nations match in Cardiff outside of the Covid pandemic.

A drop off in attendance will inevitably hit the WRU’s back pocket and the effects of that will be felt throughout the game, especially at professional level.

The current situation is the direct result of years of underinvestment into the pathway and the four professional teams.

Plans to cut the number of professional clubs from four to three are controversial but there does need to be radical change.

Huge investment needs to be put into the pathway.

Adam Beard

The 30-year-old has been a tremendous servant to the national side and is heavily respected by both players and coaches.

There is a reason Montpellier are paying the former Ospreys lock big money. But this was arguably his poorest performance in a Wales shirt.

Beard missed a tackle he should have made on Théo Attissogbe in the lead up to the first France try.

But after Dafydd Jenkins had done so well to win a turnover Beard inexplicably kicked directly into a French player, resulting in Matthieu Jalibert touching down on the stroke of half-time to take the game away from Wales.

He needs to bounce back quickly.

Wales’ half-backs

Wales lost the kicking game hands down, with both Tomos Williams and Dan Edwards not accurate enough in this regard.

Edwards has not had a good start to the Six Nations and while he is a talented player with a high ceiling he has been exposed defensively over the past couple of weeks.

Yes, it is very difficult playing behind a pack who are getting a tuning but Wales need more direction from their half-backs.

Wales coaching team

It was always going to be an extremely difficult task to improve performances after inheriting a team who were at such a low ebb, but things really aren’t going well.

Tandy has not been helped by the fact he has not got a specialist defence coach and he will have to wait until the summer to get one.

But Wales have conceded 42 tries so far under Tandy and 302 points in just six matches.

The harsh reality is Wales currently don’t have the same calibre of players that were present in the first Warren Gatland era, while the system underpinning the national side is no longer good enough.

Tandy and his backroom staff are lambs to the slaughter and the fact there are currently so many inexperienced temporary appointments is not helping.

It’s now 25% off, and can be used on everything from patios, roofs, bricks and paving stones, to artificial grass, tarmac and decking

It’s been a wet winter, but with spring on the horizon, now’s an ideal moment to get our outdoor areas ready for spending more time outside. If your paving slabs or patio are showing signs of green mould, lichen and algae, an effective cleaning product can help, and we’ve spotted one currently discounted on Amazon.

The Wet and Forget outdoor patio cleaner is a bleach-free solution described as “one of the best outdoor cleaners ever” by Nottinghamshire Live. It’s currently available on Amazon, reduced from £35.99 to £26.68 for a five-litre container, though if that’s too large, there’s also a two-litre bottle discounted from £21.99 to £14.99.

According to the manufacturer, users simply need to mix one part of Wet and Forget with five parts water, spray it onto the surface and leave it to work its magic, with no need to scrub, rinse or pressure wash.

The brand states that one 5L container can create up to 30 litres of cleaning solution and treat a surface area of 100-300 square metres. It’s also described as super versatile as it can be used on everything from patios, roofs, bricks and paving slabs, to artificial grass, tarmac and decking.

Customers have praised the outdoor cleaner, which boasts a 4.4-star rating from over 27,000 reviews. One buyer commented: “Wet and Forget is honestly one of the best outdoor cleaners I’ve ever used. I applied it to my patio, fencing, and the side of the house where mould and green algae always build up”, reports the Express.

Another was impressed with how quickly it worked, noting: “I just mixed this as per the directions and sprayed with a garden sprayer onto the surfaces affected. That was Sunday. By Friday, the green was completely gone! I had expected a far longer wait or to have to scrub the surfaces, but no. Very happy indeed.”

A third reviewer said: “This product is the best on the market and worth the cost. My fences have looked great for years with a treatment every five to seven years or so. Plus, unlike high-pressure cleaning, it doesn’t remove the pine wood treatment, meaning it is clean but not exposed to termite damage.”

However, some customers remained unconvinced. One wrote: “Did not find this sufficiently effective on removing algae from Indian stone flags.”

Elsewhere, the Wet & Forget Rapid Mould & Algae Remover Spray 2L is £49.99 at Lakeland. This is another product from the same brand, available in a two-litre bottle that claims to cover up to 200 square metres. It can be used on patios and garden paths and simply attached to your garden hose.

Another alternative is SCRUBB Exterior Liquid concentrate Algae & mould remover, £13 at B&Q. This five-litre bottle might be suitable if you need to cover a larger area, as it’s super concentrated and can be diluted up to a 1:10 ratio depending on the area to be cleaned.

It is said to work on any surface, from decks to tiles, plastic, glass and even roofs. The brand also says it’s fully biodegradable and surface safe.

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The title of the show is Turner & Constable, Rivals & Originals. But if Constable is judged, not for his big Academy pictures but for his outdoor oil sketches, his wonderful cloud studies and his late almost expressionist work in which oil is smeared in great thick sweeps, you get a different perspective. Indeed, if you were to start this exhibition backwards at the end of their careers, you would see the avant garde element in both men, though Turner did live 14 years longer. Turner’s astonishing impressionism is evident in all his late work, in the indistinct outlines inside his great washes of translucent paint, the vortices of colour that conjure up atmosphere rather than form.

The reckoning for America’s Next Top Model came just as it did for much of the cultural phenomena that populated the noughties. 

It was a brutal, toxic gold rush for reality TV, where the humiliation of women was often an easy punchline. ANTM arrived in 2003 to become a pop culture juggernaut of meltdowns and viral moments, all posing as a modelling competition.

Netflix has now given the Tyra Banks-created show the exposé treatment, with Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model, a three-parter promising to be ‘the definitive, must-watch chronicle’ of the show and its unique flavour of carnage across 24 so-called cycles.

I don’t quite have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the cycles and their contestants. I started tuning in after the show went co-ed, becoming a proto-Love Island. My abiding memories are of Banks demonstrating her come-hither ‘smize’ and chastising contestants about the dreaded ‘no neck monster’. 

But watching ANTM through the prism of this documentary makes me wonder how I ever enjoyed it at all.

Compiling one morally questionable scene after another tells a dire story, one of body-shaming weigh-ins, eating disorders going unchecked, tear-strewn makeover scenes and challenges ranging from the offensive to the disturbing.

‘We are actually going to switch your ethnicities!’ the stunned models were told on one shoot. Now, the production talking heads are sheepish at the decision, but they then did the same thing a few cycles later.

Elsewhere, models were styled as homeless people, a bulimic woman with fake vomit on her hands and violently killed crime scene victims.

One contestant recalls being told to pose as a woman shot in the head, when her own mother had been left paralysed by a bullet. This, at least, prompts remorse from producer Ken Mok in front of the Netflix cameras.

The docu-series access is notable, with former supermodel Banks in the hot seat, alongside several contestants, as well as show judges Nigel Barker, Miss J Alexander and Jay Manuel.

All three were culled ahead of cycle 19, which Banks said she cried herself to sleep over. None of them appears to have had much to do with her since.

As Banks tells it, her pitch for ANTM came from a boundary-pushing place to create racial and body diversity on screen and in fashion. That ethical underpinning was somehow lost along the way.

Many contestants did not see that ANTM was a reality show before it was a career launchpad. They clearly do now. Winnie Harlow – whose follower count is finger-wagged at us – is one of the handful that went on to genuine success. Most left Banks’ runway and returned to obscurity.

Shandi Sullivan’s story in cycle two is particularly devastating. It is a sequence of events she is still distraught over, but Banks needs to be reminded of the grotesque circumstances. 

Directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan might have pressed Banks and co on certain moments, but if they squirmed, it is not evident here. The show’s host has an excuse for everything: narrow beauty standards, agents in her ear for a certain look, viewer demands and network pressure.

Those arriving with expectations of a mea culpa from Banks will likely be disappointed.

Perhaps fairly, the poorly-aged clips are often excused as a product of the time. But I can’t see how Banks has taken stock of the outpouring of grief and hurt from the models, because she says (with the excitement of someone devoid of the ability to read the room) that the show will be back for cycle 25.

The two up top does, however, depend on Farke’s three at the back, and with Pascal Struijk still out with a hip problem, Farke may revert to a back four and load the midfield.

Either which way, Birmingham’s recent form, unbeaten in their last eight, means manager Chris Davies will likely be undeterred by Farke’s tactical flexibility. His side’s 0-0 draw to West Brom on Tuesday was the first time Birmingham have failed to score at home since August, and they’ve lost just once at St Andrew’s in the league this season. They’ve dusted themselves off from a poor December and are just two points off the play-offs, meaning owner Tom Wagner’s expectation of Premier League football in 2026 remains within reach.

Just the one recent injury for Birmingham, who will be missing Paik Seung-ho to a shoulder injury. That presents former Leicester and Everton winger Demarai Gray with the opportunity to make his first start since an injury in late December.

This is the first time these two sides have met in the FA Cup since Leeds won a repay at St Andrews in 2013. No replays today, stay tuned for team news and build up!

Batter Steve Smith has been added to Australia’s T20 World Cup squad in time for Monday’s crucial match against Sri Lanka in Pallekele.

Smith, 36, travelled to Sri Lanka as cover after captain Mitchell Marsh was hit in the groin area last week and suffered “testicular bleeding”.

Smith was not officially added to the squad, with the management waiting to see how the situation developed, but now comes in as a replacement for bowler Josh Hazlewood.

Hazlewood was ruled out on the eve of the tournament and not replaced.

Selector Tony Dodemaide said: “With Steve here, along with some uncertainty around Mitch and Marcus Stoinis, it made sense he is activated and available for selection in time for the match, if required.”

Smith has not played a T20 for Australia since February 2024 but scored a century and two fifties in six matches in the Big Bash after the Ashes in January, leading some to suggest he should have been in Australia’s squad regardless.

Australia’s batters have struggled in the tournament so far, bowled out for 146 all out in a 23-run defeat by Zimbabwe to leave their place in the Super 8s.

They beat Ireland by 67 runs in their opening match but also lost 3-0 in Pakistan prior to the World Cup.

Australia will be eliminated from the World Cup if they lose to Sri Lanka and Zimbabwe beat Ireland on Tuesday.

They may need to win both their remaining games and rely on net run-rate.

The most indulgent day of the year is here once again. No, we’re not talking about Christmas, or Easter – it’s Pancake Day. The one date in the calendar when you can absolutely eat the same dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner – without guilt, without shame.

Seasoned flippers have been practising, supermarkets have been stocking up on sauces and spreads for alternative toppings, and now the time is finally here to show off your skills.

Skip to:

So, gather your ingredients, grease your pan and don your apron. Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s traditional feast day, from why it’s celebrated to how to make pancakes as light as clouds – whether you favour a thin British classic or a fluffy American stack. And if you’re after the simplest batter and a fail-safe cooking method, try Mary Berry’s easy pancake recipe for Shrove Tuesday.

Pancake Day has been celebrated in Britain for centuries as the feast day before Ash Wednesday, when the fasting season begins.

Historically, Anglo-Saxon Christians would go to confession on Shrove Tuesday to be absolved of their sins, before indulging in rich fat-based foods to use up ingredients ahead of Lent.

However, it is believed that the Christian Pancake Day was in fact borrowed from an old pagan festival to welcome the arrival of spring. Circular, hot pancakes were seen to symbolise the sun, providing those who ate them with the sun’s power and strength.

Shrove Tuesday originates from the Old English word “shrive”, which means to give absolution once hearing confession, usually by a priest. The day marks the end of Pre-Lenten Season, also known as Shrovetide.

This year, Shrove Tuesday falls on February 17th, but the exact date of Pancake Day changes year on year as it is determined by when Easter falls – which can also differ annually due to the spring equinox.

Shrove Tuesday is always celebrated the day before Ash Wednesday, which takes place 40 days before Easter to represent Jesus’ 40 days spent fasting in the desert.

The all-important question. Many a family argument has been sparked due to over-confident flips and splattered batter, resulting in tears, tantrums and reluctant clean-ups. So, what is the secret to a slick flick of the wrist?

• Use a steel or cast-iron pan (not a non-stick one), greased with a little oil
• If the edges of the pancake don’t come away from the sides of the pan when you give it a gentle shake, it’s not ready to be flipped
• Be confident, and use the same action as you would when tossing a stir-fry

Death in Paradise fans will see the team up against a particularly puzzling case involving the murder of a “reclusive pensioner”.

Death in Paradise continues with stars from the worlds of Happy Valley and Keeping Faith joining the season 15 cast.

BBC fans were disappointed when Death in Paradise failed to air in its usual time slot on Friday but thankfully, viewers won’t have much longer to wait as it returns tonight, Monday, February 16, at 9pm on BBC One.

This time around, DI Mervin Wilson (played by Don Gilet) is tasked with tracking down the killer of a “reclusive pensioner” who was shot dead in his home.

Ahead of the cosy crime’s return, here’s everything there is to know about the guest stars of Death in Paradise season 15, episode three.

Death in Paradise season 15 episode 3 guest stars

Henry Ashby – Aneirin Hughs

Henry is at the heart of the investigation as he is this week’s unfortunate victim but what could he have done that made someone want to kill him?

Welsh actor Aneirin Hughes is best known to some for starring as Chief Superintendent Brian Prosser in the Welsh police drama Hinterland.

But for BBC viewers, Hughes will be remembered as father-in-law Tom Howells in the Welsh thriller Keeping Faith with Eve Myles.

Fleur Edwards – Siobhan Finneran

Actress Siobhan Finneran is no stranger when it comes to hit dramas having starred as Clare Cartwright in BBC’s Happy Valley, Sarah O’Brien in Downton Abbey and ITV’s Protection, along with a string of other popular shows.

This time around, Finneran is playing the overly enthusiastic and chatty neighbour of the deceased, Fleur Edwards, but is she hiding a dark secret?

Craig Pinnock – Ben Willbond

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After some digging, unassuming accountant Craig Pinnock is depicted as the team’s prime suspect after a witness spotted someone matching his description fleeing the scene.

However, Craig has a rock solid alibi so it’s up to Mervin and his colleagues to determine whether they’ve really got the right culprit.

Actor Ben Willbond is a member of the “British Them There” collective, meaning that he has written and starred in productions like Yonderland, Horrible Histories and Ghosts, in which he played Captain.

He has also had minor parts in various dramas including The Wives, The Cleaner and Hijack with Idris Elba.

Baxter Turton – Kojo Kamara

As of yet, few details are known about Baxter Turton but going by images from the episode, he could be working as a gardener.

Actor Kojo Kamara stars as DS Rob Selforth in the BBC sitcom The Outlaws, with smaller roles in shows like The Beast Must Die, There She Goes and Sherlock and Daughter.

Death in Paradise continues every Friday at 9pm on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.

One resident believes “bigger cafés are taking over” from independent brands

People have said they find it ‘disappointing’ that some shops have ‘disappeared’ from their Cambridgeshire town’s high street. Over the years, many shops have disappeared from town and city high streets, leaving shoppers sad when some of their favourite brands leave.

This is the feeling for some residents in St Ives. Jackie Smith said St Ives is a “very safe” and “lovely” town, but said that more shops and cafés are leaving the high street.

She said: “The bigger cafés are taking over from the smaller people. We used to have one café down the road that has gone now.

“There’s a big Caffe Nero, but also a Costa opposite. Younger people can afford to go somewhere like Costa now. You couldn’t do that in my day!”

Derek Green said he finds it ‘disappointing’ that more shops are leaving the high street. He added: “That’s the only thing disappointing about St Ives. We used to have a lot more independents, like cafés and shops, but the bigger brands are taking over.”

His thoughts were echoed by another long-term resident, who wished to remain anonymous. They said the “high street is not what it used to be”.

They added: “We used to have a lot more shops than we do now, I mean you can see from how some are left empty. I guess it’s the same everywhere, but it’s a shame to see shops disappearing from the high street.”

Not only do people think there could be more in the high street, but they also think there could be more to the town’s market. Sara Jarlett, who runs a pick and mix stall in the market every Monday and Friday, thinks the market could be bigger.

She added: “Apparently years ago, the market used to be all the way down to the other side of the crossing. It’s a lot smaller now.” Sara thinks more stalls could be on offer at the market. She said: “You could get other stalls here like bric and brac.”

As well as improving the high street, some locals believe there is a problem with traffic in the town. Amelia Phillips said: “The traffic sometimes heading to Cambridge at commuting times is bad.”

Another woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said traffic in the centre has “become a problem”. She added: “There are a lot more cars on the road compared to when I moved here a long time ago. But, I guess that is the same everywhere else.”