By Sean Davies BBC Sport Interactive

Sport is dying in Wales' second city.

Swansea's capitulation to old rivals Cardiff in the Welsh Premiership was a sad response to a week of politics that threatened to wipe the All Whites' name from top-level rugby.

Perhaps all great things end this way. Historians would have us believe that the Roman Empire did not fall in a great cataclysmic event - it just kind of fizzled away.

It may be stretching things to compare the decline and fall of Swansea sport to the end of the Caesars, but to those who care such things cannot be taken lightly.

Petty's reign at the Vetch made Swansea a laughing stock

Rugby disasters have been matched by the performances of the football side. Financially crippled, humiliated by the Tony Petty saga, and four points adrift at the bottom of Division Three.

Then there's cricket. As Glamorgan continue to improve their Sophia Gardens home in Cardiff, fixtures at St Helen's are down to a handful.

The surfing's still good on the Gower, but even that could be under threat if they continue the dredging in Swansea Bay.

The city's plight seems to be meeting with little pity, but it is worth remembering the names that it has provided to Welsh sport down the years.

Football legends? Try John Toshack, Dean Saunders, John Hartson and John Charles.

John Charles is held in worldwide esteem

Cricket? Well, there was Alan Jones, Don Shepherd, Greg Thomas...

The legions of rugby stars span the ages - from Dicky Owen to Mervyn Davies to Scott Gibbs. But you don't need to trawl the archive to find the achievements of the rugby team.

Just three years ago the All Whites ended their rebel season on top of the unofficial Anglo-Welsh league and beat Llanelli so comprehensively in the Swalec Cup final that Gibbs described the game as like 'men against boys.'

Mike Ruddock laid the basis for a decade of success with the squad he built at St Helen's in the early '90s.

They won three league titles and two domestic cups in the decade, not to mention the small matter of taking the scalps of world champions Australia in 1992.

Swansea has been called the 'death of ambition' because people never want to leave its laid-back, coastal climes, but it has been a dearth of ambition that has cost sport in the city dear.

Gibbs continues Swansea's illustrious list of internationals

The dilapidated Vetch and St Helen's have worn the look of condemned stadia for years, but refurbishment will not be forthcoming as the specter of the Morfa Stadium continues to loom just over the horizon.

Supporting sport in Swansea has become very much the preserve of the die-hard.

The fervent atmosphere at St Helen's for the Australia game has never been repeated, and standing on the open, empty, weather-beaten terrace takes an act of will beyond your average fan.

With the lack of vision and investment in facilities and marketing being matched by a similar myopia with regard to nurturing the football and rugby squads, it is little wonder that the crowds are so low, the passion so tamed.

To my knowledge, TS Eliot was not a Jacks fan, but he seemed to have a handle on our woes.

"This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper."
The Hollow Men

There will be features on the state of sport in Swansea every night this week on BBC Wales 2W News and Sport, 2100 GMT, plus regular items on Radio Wales and Radio Cymru