“Warren Gatland Knows ow to prepare for the Diggest tournament”

Wales have big calls to make heading towards the World Cup there's talented youth but do they need their hands held? Stephen Jones assesses the country's prospects

AT LEAST you could say that the revival and even the revolution in Welsh rugby has started, because the root cause of the headlong decline of rugby at pro and amateur levels in one of the great rugby nations was caused largely by the antiquated system of governance in which the tail furiously wagged the dog.

As a result of the EGM towards the end of March, the old board of time-servers with blazer and tie has been supplanted. There will now be, thank God, a big representation from industry, marketing and from other key fields. Five of the board will be female and the whole scene will be modernised beyond compare.

These were events to celebrate but it has been a long way down. The fact is that professional rugby in Wales in still in chaos because of the swingeing axe applied to player wages, a fact which has caused some well-known players to seek not only hardship allowance but counselling to be able to see futures more clearly.

All levels of the pro game are affected, but as we went to press it was still likely that a good number of the promising youngsters would leave to play outside the country – the law still applies which in most circumstances prevents players wearing the national jersey if they don’t play their domestic rugby in Wales. The inevitable outcome is that the more players crammed into the misfiring Welsh regions, the less valuable, high-grade competition they will get.

So where does the World Cup now fit in? Goodness knows. Wales narrowly avoided the Wooden Spoon in the Six Nations and after warm-up games they will compete in a pool alongside Australia, Fiji, Georgia and Portugal.