Blues wing Tom James is one product of the Welsh academies

Former players Ieuan Evans and Jonathan Davies have questioned whether young players are being taught enough skills.

"The pundits seem to be making judgements... without knowing what's going on," Richards told Scrum V.

"The boys are far better informed of tactical awareness than anyone who played 10, 20 or 30 years ago."

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Wales greats Evans and Davies had raised their concerns last week during appearances on BBC Wales' Scrum V programme.

The four academies are run by the WRU and divided along the lines of Wales' four professional regional sides - the Ospreys, Cardiff Blues, Llanelli Scarlets and Newport Gwent Dragons - with which they work closely.

Richards defended the academies and said they are succeeding at bringing through the next generation of top-class players.

The elite performance manager said they were already "pretty sure" of the players who would be representing Wales in four years time at the 2011 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand.

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Richards also challenged any former players to spend some time among the academies, both to see how they performed and to add their own experiences to the teaching.

"I'd like to make an open invitation to any ex-players or pundits to come and have a look what we're doing and then make an informed judgement," Richards added.

"If they can help us to make it better we'd be absolutely over the moon."

The four regional coaches, Dai Young of the Blues, Lyn Jones of the Ospreys, Phil Davies of the Scarlets and Paul Turner at the Dragons, agreed the academies were performing well.

But all four voiced concerns over the difficulty of exposing these youngsters to enough top-class rugby as part of their development.

The coaches were able to give game time to promising youngsters during the early part of this season, when many senior players were away on international duty for the World Cup.

But this opportunity rarely presents itself and most young players will now have to gain what experience they can playing in the Welsh Premiership, while they wait and hope for opportunities at regional level.

"The Welsh Premiership is getting better year on year but we still need to look at getting it closer to regional rugby or putting something in between," Young said.

Turner echoed Young's opinion, using the example of 19-year-old prop Jamie Corsi who was called up to Wales' tour of Australia last May having made just six starts for the Dragons.

"Jamie jumped more or less from the academy into the national squad, although that had a lot to do with injuries," Turner said.

"He went lacking the experience he really needed (to have gained at regional level)."

Young felt that teenage wing Tom James underwent a similar experience, thrust into that same tour of Australia despite limited experience with the Blues and Wales Sevens.

While all four coaches have a willingness to bring through new talent for Wales, the agreement is that they are caught between that and the need to ensure the regions win rugby matches.

Asked when young players should play for their regional side, Young answered simply: "When they are better than the senior players."