By Nick Mullins BBC rugby union commentator

What on earth are we to make of events in Wales at the moment?

Last week, a new head-honcho breezed into the Welsh Rugby Union. David Moffett said he was determined to get to grips with everything, grass roots and all.

Llanelli's success is the exception, not the rule

From the turf at the Millennium Stadium to the famous names at the top of the game, nothing was sacred.

He wanted four brand-new provinces. He wanted to bin generations of history and tribalism.

Llanelli, Swansea and Neath would join forces, so would Cardiff, Bridgend and Pontypridd.

And while Newport, Caerphilly and Ebbw Vale were learning to live with each other, a team would also be established in the north, in Wrexham.

The message was clear enough. If those with a dragon in their hearts ever wanted to re-live for real the great days of Barry John, Phil Bennett and Gareth Edwards then there was a big spoon of medicine waiting to be swallowed.

It wouldn't be pleasant, but it was time to take it.

Only the gloriously stupid would suggest the game in Wales is in rude health

Then what happens? Those same clubs produced a weekend of Heineken Cup rugby to suggest the sun still shines on the land of the daffodil.

And there's the danger. Only the gloriously stupid would suggest the game in Wales is in rude health. It needs emergency surgery.

Neath's historic defeat against the Italians of Calvisano was a more accurate health check.

While clubs like Llanelli have produced magnificently defiant European acts in the face of adversity, what could they achieve if they weren't burdened by a system more appropriate to the 19th Century than the 21st?

Under the Big Plan, the best 150-odd players will be kept and nurtured as full-time professionals, the rest will become amateurs again.

It is the kind of scheme that just might fire the element of competition exiled players like Rob Howley think is sorely missing.

Without change, more Welsh dejection looms

Quite simply, the Welsh league cannot feed the current number of elite players. At a time when the best should be beefing up, they are under-nourished - held back by the need to feed too many mouths from too few bowls.

The question that needs to be considered is this: what will hurt more in the years ahead - watching a new province called the West Wales Wizards (or whatever the marketing men might dream up) or getting used to 50-point wallopings by England every 12 months?

Clubs would still exist, but as smaller factories supplying material for the big, hi-tech plant up the road.

Sometimes the path to the brightest end is the one that starts with the most painful beginning.