Cobner is the Welsh favourite

Rugby Union

Terry Cobner, the former Wales flanker and captain, is favourite to be named as the Welsh 's new director of rugby today. The WRU received around 80 applications from all over the world for the pounds 50,000- a-year post.

Cobner, who is on the teaching staff at Oundle College, captained Pontypool for 10 successive seasons. He won 19 caps for Wales, captaining them on their tour to Australia in 1978, and toured New Zealand with the 1977 Lions.

Wales's outside-half Neil Jenkins has a broken collar-bone and will miss the international against Italy on Tuesday 16 January and may be absent for the Five Nations' Championship game against England at Twickenham on 3 February.

Rob Andrew and Australian winger David Campese will renew their rivalry in a friendly on Tyneside next month. Campese's New South Wales side face Andrew's Newcastle on 13 February - the first time the pair have met since England's World Cup quarter-final victory over Australia in Cape Town last summer.