Should the WRU RIP?

Graham Henry resigned as Wales coach on Wednesday

BBC Sport Online's Jonathon Moore fires a warning shot across the bows of the Welsh Rugby Union as the game in Wales again faces up to the possibility of meltdown.

After just one Six Nations game in 2002, Welsh rugby is again in turmoil.

Forget the brave talk and forget any hope of a successful season.

For Welsh fans the present is gloomy and the future bleaker still.

If the prospect of facing France at home in two weeks causes the jaw to ache, then the thought of travelling to Twickenham is sure to trigger a nervous breakdown.

But this is nothing new for Welsh fans who would happily write off yet another championship to discover a glimmer of light in what has become a very long tunnel indeed.

Perhaps those in charge at the WRU should follow Graham Henry through the door?

Whoever takes charge at the helm this season will have an impossible job in preventing the ship from sinking any further.

Perhaps more importantly, questions must be raised as to exactly how the game is being run in the Principality.

The WRU must shoulder the blame for the current state of affairs, though it seems unlikely they will acknowledge any wrongdoing.

They will argue they paid top money for the world's best coach, built a superb rugby stadium and organised a successful World Cup.

It seems, therefore, they have done all they can.

If that is what they believe, perhaps those in charge should follow Graham Henry through the door?

Wales lag behind

In 2000 Wales pipped Ireland at Lansdowne Road 23-19. Two years later, the gap between the teams is 40 points in Ireland's favour.

Why? The IRFU persuaded their players to return home, centralised the contracts system and demanded that their provincial coaches concentrate on home grown talent.

In short, they absorbed they necessities professionalism demanded of a country with fewer than 20,000 players.

In the same period, Wales, buoyed by a 10-match winning run that involved two one-point victories over France and England and a less-than impressive series win in Argentina, sat back and awaited success.

Samoa defeated Wales in 1999 - a sign of things to come

But the World Cup did not quite go to plan. Henry's 'world-beaters' came close to losing their opening game against Argentina and lost their group game against Samoa.

For many fans the alarm bells began to ring, but not, apparently, at the WRU.

Talk of a dedicated youth academy died down, few strategic plans on the future of the game were drawn up and a centralised contract system where players are safeguarded from fatigue remains as elusive as ever.

Instead, the WRU opted to change only the top of the pyramid with solutions that have proved to be both short-sighted and short-termist.

The present situation remains as dire as ever.

The popularity of rugby in Welsh schools is on the wane, though few will publicly admit it, and the future of the game is reliant on the number of second-class southern hemisphere players that can be shoe-horned into the Welsh set-up.

The time is nigh for a major overhaul.

On Sunday's performance, there are blatantly too few Welsh players worthy of their salary and the inertia of the WRU could ensure that rugby forever loses a nation that once gave so much to the game.