New Big Four can be cure for Welsh ills

When everyone was panicking about the state of Welsh rugby at the start of the season I suggested that we kept calm until the season got a bit older. Driving home from the shambolic Llanelli-Swansea match last weekend I decided that now was the time to panic and try to find a quick way out of the mess.

In recent years, Welsh rugby has been battered by so many plans and blueprints for the future we're in a state of bewilderment about which way to go. But there is a plan emerging that I believe offers clear direction, does not destroy clubs or their traditions and gives the game in Wales a structure that will benefit all levels.

It is not my idea, particularly, but it is a way forward that has emerged from conversations I've had with several top people in the WRU, the media and the Welsh management team, including Steve Hansen, the national coach.

The club scene is not their business but it produces the material they have to work with so they have an obvious interest in a plan that can work – even if it does depend on Welsh coaches only.

Most of those who have studied club rugby in Wales are agreed that we can muster enough playing strength for only four teams. It is the debateabout the make-up of those sides that causes ideas to die at birth. Previous plans for creating provincial sides or merging top teams have called for the demise of some of the most famous clubs in rugby.

Under the new plan, no club dies but all must adapt to the creation of four area teams out of the top eight clubs – Llanelli and Swansea in the west, Neath and Bridgend, Cardiff and Pontypridd and Newport and Ebbw Vale in the east.

They would compete in the Celtic League and the Heineken Cup and would each have 25 players centrally contracted to the WRU. They would be allowed only one or two foreign players each and each team would be coached by a Welshman.

Meanwhile, those eight clubs plus Caerphilly and the top three clubs from the present First Division would form a new semi-professional First Divisionand, again, would each be coached by a Welshman. When the area teams weren't playing, of course, the players could appear for their original clubs.

Below that, the league structure would be amateur with promotion and relegation up to the first so that the way, and the incentive, would be clear for players and coaches to progress from the bottom to the top-four area teams.

Obviously, the strength of those four area teams would require a little balancing out at first. Take Gavin Henson, for instance. He would find it difficult to compete for a place in the Western team at outside-half against Stephen Jones and Arwel Thomas or as a full-back against Kevin Morgan or Garan Evans. But he would prove valuable in either position for the Eastern team.

It is difficult to forecast how the English and French would react to facing a more competitive Welsh contingent in the Heineken Cup but, surely, it is in everyone's interest to have a stronger Wales at all levels just as it has been for Ireland and Scotland.

I'm certain the players would welcome the move because, at the least, it would bring a greater chance of success, but it wouldn't make their lives easier, as players and coaches would be on just a year's contract. Those players, or coaches, not performing would drop down to their clubs and I'm sure there would be fierce competition to replace them.

It may be that the Welsh clubs do well in the Heineken Cup that began this weekend and we know that Neath, Llanelli, Cardiff and Pontypridd have progressed to the quarter-finals of the Celtic League.

But no one can deny the overall standard of Welsh club rugby this season has been depressing. We must act as soon as possible to inject more urgency and competition into the domestic game. We can no longer afford a comfort zone.

I firmly believe this plan would revitalise the players' attitudes and reward those prepared to work harder. It would certainly bridge the gap that now exists between club and international rugby and give Hansen the help he needs. It would also give our coaches equal opportunities to show their ability and to aim for the biggest prize of all – replacing Hansen at the Welsh helm.