Former Ireland international Gordon D'Arcy has warned that Welsh rugby still has further to sink before it hits rock bottom after the regions suffered another tough weekend in the United Rugby Championship.
All four Welsh sides fell to defeats in the latest round of fixtures with Cardiff beaten by the visiting Bulls, Ospreys losing at home to Glasgow and the Scarlets slipping to a one-point loss against the Lions on Saturday. The Dragons were then thumped 33-10 at home to Leinster on Sunday to cap a miserable 48 hours for the Welsh regional game.
After an uninspiring start to the new season, the regions are propping up the rest of the table with the winless Dragons sat second from bottom, just below the Scarlets and Cardiff who are in 13th and 14th respectively after each picking up a win. The Ospreys are Wales' high-flyers as it stands, with their victories over the Sharks and Zebres putting them 10th.
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But with the regional game operating under huge financial constraints while league opposition appear to be going from strength to strength, Leinster legend D'Arcy has warned that the situation could still "go from bad to worse". He argues that while Wales' improved performances at the World Cup injected some positivity into the Welsh game, it simply masked the "deep rooted issues" faced back home.
Penning his column for the Irish Times after watching the Dragons lose to Leinster, D'Arcy wrote: "Although we are just four rounds into the URC, I have a strong sense that this is not the bottom for Welsh rugby. As we see returning internationals more regularly involved among their opponents and trips to South Africa on the horizon, the situation can still go from bad to worse".
"With rugby in Wales still operating under huge financial constraints, the exodus of talent from the regions has been brutal and swift," he added. "The clubs and the Welsh Rugby Union are now trying to stabilise the financial viability of the game. The challenge they face is stark.
After slamming the "decades of underinvestment in the academy structures and poor governance" that have now been laid bare in Wales, D'Arcy claimed that there are "lean years on the horizon" with unions around the world now needing to make "extremely tough decisions" as they attempt to fix a game that, in his words, "has outgrown its resources".
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There is, however, an exception to this rule, in his view, with the 43-year-old claiming that the way the Irish Rugby Football Union is run has seen it avoid the same problems as in Wales and England. While the "conservative nature" of the IRFU has seen it make Ireland "a fantastic place to play rugby", he said, he found it difficult to see how, in Wales, "player welfare and morale could be anything other than rock bottom".
But despite his damning assessment, the former Ireland centre did have some words of encouragement for the Welsh regions and urged them to look to the example of Connacht, who have made a bright start to the new season. 20 years ago, however, the province was on the brink of extinction, with D'Arcy offering up their recovery as a "glimmer of hope" to the Welsh game.
"Connacht are also a team that could empathise with their Welsh counterparts," he said. "It was not that long ago players were prepping to strike had the IRFU proceeded with shutting down the province in 2003.
"Huge challenges face Welsh rugby. Although they are far from their nadir, there should be a glimmer of hope if they look across the water to Connacht, a shinning example of what is possible both on and off the field."
