I wonder what answer you'd receive if you asked the shareholders of the Scarlets, Cardiff & Os this question: "which competition would you like your business to trade within in order to maximise your revenue, for re-investment into your business?"

My bet? None would say PrO'14.

Which, of course, leads to the question of why they put up with it. There's a reason Harrods is in Knightsbridge and not Sennybridge. Businesses fail, or rather don't succeed as they might, if they trade within the wrong environment. And it's clear this is what is happening here

Of course, WRU may say "we don't want you playing in the English system because of the risk of relegation" or other reasons. That's fair enough, but that "WRU want" must come with a premium payment but, as yet, it doesn't. It won't even pass on the CVC PrO'14 money to the clubs

So we have the WRU stacking ALL of the cards in their favour - they control the competition, they control the income, they control the wages, they control who plays when (if they are Team Wales players). The independent clubs can't even win the fruits of their own labour.

Next season we may have a PrO'14 (the bread and butter product for our pro clubs) in which the top players will be available for less than half of the games. How can the clubs generate sufficient income for their business when this is the case? Zebre with a Sunday PM kick off?

Yet the pro clubs stay silent. They have lost the fight, it seems. They don't control their own product - what other business would allow that to happen?!? Would Hugh James allow somebody else to dictate the wages it pays to its staff? Of course not. So why should Cardiff Blues?

So, all in all, Welsh professional rugby is fundamentally fucked. Those within in can't organise themselves to fight the paymaster, the paymaster has an executive out of its depth & about to get worse, with the game totally reliant on a saturated product. One hope remains: CVC

If CVC cannot deliver a league in which our clubs play English opposition then Wales pro rugby will shrink until we have two or three Union puppet teams, playing Scottish and Irish puppet teams. North, East, West. All controlled by the power crazy bureaucrats at the WRU.

Some people think this is a tremendous solution. They look at Ireland and say "let's follow that model". Funnily enough, they never look at Scotland (with the same model) or mention Connacht. Nor do they mention how the IRFU is significantly wealthier than the WRU.

So those who wish for the WRU to control the entirety of pro rugby in Wales, in a closed league of other puppet teams, playing in front of dwindling crowds (because the star players won't play many league games, remember) need to remember where the money comes from.

...because, when there is only source of income (the Union), the WHOLE game falters if there's one scare (as we're having at the moment). Once the 'lender of last resort' is your only resort, one shock to the system brings a complete collapse.