The new United Rugby Championship season is edging nearer, with the Welsh sides finishing up their pre-season preparations ahead of the new campaign.
All four sides will be hoping for better things after a disappointing full set of bottom-half finishes. Standing in their way, of course, are a variety of clubs from Ireland, Scotland, Italy and South Africa.
We spoke to players from each of the URC's 12 other clubs to see which Welsh stars they really respect and relish playing against...
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Iain Henderson (Ulster): 'Phenomenal' Navidi is underrated
"You always know your internationals and then every year, a couple more come up. One who I always think is really exciting and is perhaps slightly underrated is Josh Navidi. I think he's class. I know he's been playing for years, but he's a phenomenal player. He's incredibly explosive and powerful. He shows that on both sides of his game - his carrying and his tackling.
"Some people might underestimate him as he flies under the radar sometimes and then has these incredible performances where he completely smokes you. He's almost someone in my head that I'm always wary of. Another one who I had the opportunity to play with is Justin Tipuric. He's one of the most talented footballers I've played with. His skillset is more like a back's than a forward's. But how he has a hard edge coupled with his ability is phenomenal. He's another one I'm a fan of.
"I've played with and against Alun Wyn Jones loads of times. He's a talisman every time he plays."
Michael Lamaro (Benetton): Morgan 'outstanding'
"Obviously Welsh teams have such great players in general. The young ones coming on, everyone is always pushing forward. If I have to mention one, George North is one of the toughest ones to play against. One of the younger ones, Jac Morgan, has really stepped up in the last year in an outstanding way. He's played really well. I could mention many more players.
"With Morgan, he's a really good ball-carrier, good jackaller and he's physical. He's tough to play against. All the things that make a seven a good player."
Josh van der Flier (Leinster): Tipuric is incredible athlete
"There's some unbelievably talented players in Wales. Certainly, as a back-row, every team you play has someone good on the poach. There's good back-rowers scattered on each team. For me, Tipuric is one of the toughest opponents I've played against. He's an incredible athlete obviously, but he's a really intelligent number seven who makes you work and think at the same time. He's very impressive. The likes of Josh Turnbull, Ellis Jenkins and Josh Navidi - they're all really incredible players.
"Tipuric's a brilliant player. In terms of playing against him, a lot of the time it's making my team-mates aware of what he's doing because you can't run after him for the whole game! But he contributes to the game in loads of ways. What I find most challenging is the small stuff you don't see. He makes a challenge, you think he's down and the ruck is over, then he pops up and steals the ball.
"Everyone sees his running rugby and his handling skills on the edges, but he's a tough man to keep hold of. Sometimes you can get caught into thinking it's a one-v-one as he's your opposite number, but it's about making your team-mates aware of him. It's something we talk about for any of the Welsh sides we play - there's always a breakdown threat. We drive that to make sure whoever is at the clearout to hit the ruck is there quickly so we're not turned over. It's something we work at hard against the Welsh teams, especially Tipuric."
Andrew Conway (Munster): Davies is a challenge
"I've played against Liam Williams a fair bit. Me and Josh Adams have come up against each other a few times. He's an interesting character to play against. Gareth Davies is a challenge. He's got a different way to him. I always go back to that Scarlets team that beat us in the final in 2017. We just got open that day and they seemed to be two or three steps ahead of us. When you get a Welsh team on it, they're tough opposition."
Johan Goosen (Vodacom Bulls): Jon Fox is tough
"This competition is so tough. Every weekend is so tough. I just saw Jonathan Davies and it's always tough against him. He's a world class centre. Cardiff have some good players as well. There's no easy matches, especially when you travel to Wales."
Chris Cook (Zebre): Priestland is fun
"For me, Rhys Priestland is always good fun because I played with him for five years. Alun Wyn Jones and Foxy, people like that - they're always good to play against. I'm looking forward to playing the Ospreys because Boothy (Toby Booth) is the coach. Me and Boothy have a good relationship and we'll fire into each other. There's so much history with Wales so it's always good fun. As a kid, I used to hate going to Wales and playing age-group games because you'd get your head kicked in."
Cameron Wright (Cell C Sharks): Jones and Davies do things so well
"I think Jonathan Davies is always a good one, so is Alun Wyn Jones. They've been around for ages. From a tactical and technical perspective, they're pretty sound. There's a reason why they've got about 200 caps for Wales between them. They just do the little things spectacularly well, which is something we've tried to learn from and tried to adopt. It's going to take a while to get to that calibre of player. Unfortunately, guys like Louis Rees-Zammit aren't playing in the URC but it would be nice to see him pull on some sort of Welsh jumper at some point. We managed to play against him for the British and Irish Lions and he was quite a spectacle. Those are the types of players we relish playing. We relish playing big-name players, guys who have done it for years and can test our skillset and what we're about in South Africa."
Jack Carty (Connacht): I look up to Anscombe
"I always love going up against Jarrod Evans. He's such a good running threat. You've got Gareth Anscombe and his goal-kicking. It's incredibly good and I look up to that. I was saying earlier that the Welsh/Irish games probably aren't to the same intensity as the interprovincial ones but there's always a bit of bite to them which we like. The Welsh fans are always good at getting on your back. We were playing the Dragons a few years ago and we had a potato thrown at us which was a first. They're always incredibly tough games. The game against the Scarlets last year was massive for us. I don't think we'd ever won over there before. They're always fiercely contested."
Leolin Zas (DHL Stormers): I used to watch Davies as a kid
"There's quite a few great players there. It's a great country and a great rugby nation. I don't want to point out some of the guys who have put me in a difficult spot, but I'll go with Jonathan Davies. Obviously, he's older and I used to watch him as a kid. I've so much respect for him. I used to play centre."
Hamish Watson (Edinburgh): Faletau and Tipuric are class
"I think all the match ups are pretty tough against the Welsh teams. Playing against all the guys I met up last summer during the Lions will be a good test. I don't know where Tipuric is up to with his recovery, but I enjoyed training with him. He's a player I looked up to before. I think he's a great player.
"Alun Wyn is another top player. You've signed some guys back with Taulupe Faletau coming back which is good for Welsh rugby and it's good for him. Liam Williams has gone to Cardiff too. I think the Welsh sides are looking good and those two signings are big ones in particular. I look forward to playing those guys. It's always nice to play guys you've had a connection with through the Lions.
"It was really cool to get to know those guys, play with them, train with them and have some beers with them. You have perceptions of people and what they might be like. They're all great guys and so easy to get on with. While I hate playing Wales in Test rugby as it's a game that always gets away from us, all those guys are pretty good lads.
Edwill van der Merwe (Emirates Lions)
"I played against Cardiff and Ospreys at home, with lots of running rugby. But there's not a name that stands out. It was very fun though. The Ospreys game was an evening game and the Cardiff one was in the day. Both were good matches with exciting rugby.
Rory Darge (Glasgow Warriors): Turnbull is such a presence
"I think in Cardiff, Turnbull is a big, physical presence. I played down in Cardiff in that game last season and it was so competitive. Willis Halaholo was unbelievable in that game, running real hard lines. I like going up against that physical presence. Navidi played that game as well. Obviously he's a world class player in my position as well. Throughout the regions, there's class players in every team. Last year was my first season playing at this level and to be playing guys like this was surreal."
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