Rugby Union: Wales crave a broader vision: Rugby union's richest legacy depends on two countries leagues apart finding common ground, says Chris Rea

THESE ARE rebellious, some would say mutinous, times in Wales. From the nonconformist beginnings more than a century ago, when men from all walks of life took up rugby (whose only tradition in those embryonic times was innovation), and played as the spirit took them, the game has plunged into the murky depths of duplicity, dishonesty and despair. Rugby was the means by which athletically gifted Welshmen could express their creative flair and their native wit. But the heirs to a priceless fortune have been guilty of almost criminal profligacy and neglect.

Torn asunder by incessant squabbling and petty rivalries, Welsh rugby has for too long been the sick giant of Europe. Wales are condemned to life amongst the likes of Spain and Portugal in the lead-up to the next World Cup. Their domestic game is in no better shape.

The Heineken League, just one month into the season, has developed into an incestuous struggle between four clubs, Cardiff, Llanelli, Neath and Swansea. What chance do the less affluent clubs have against Cardiff, where the most junior member of the 40-strong squad considers it more advantageous to be last in line than first choice anywhere else. The same argument can, of course, be applied in England where Bath's second string, playing in front of four-figure crowds at the Recreation Ground, are stronger than half the first XVs in the First Division.

But the playing base in England is so much broader than it is in Wales and although it is inevitable that the strong in England, as is already the case in Wales, will get stronger at the expense of the weak, it will not have such a grievous effect on the club structure. Nevertheless, the prospect of an Anglo-Welsh league looms larger. At the moment Wales need England more than England need Wales, a situation which will certainly prevail at least until the Rugby Football Union's present contract with Courage, a mutually agreeable one, expires in just under four years' time.

Not the least of the recent misfortunes in Wales is that the Welsh Rugby Union had requested informal talks with the RFU on the subject of an Anglo-Welsh League in March, on the very day before the Dennis Evans affair broke. The meeting was abandoned, but not the concept which, along with a European championship, is now being touted as the logical progression in a fast-moving sequence of events. As yet, however, the Anglo-Welsh league is a blank piece of paper some way from the drawing board, but it has more chance of getting to the design stage than a European league. The stiffest resistance to that would come from the French, who are even more hostile to inclusion of their money-spinning club championship in a wider competition than the RFU are to the Courage Leagues.

But there is a compelling case to be made out for a competition involving Bath, Leicester, Northampton, Wasps and Harlequins and either Bristol or Gloucester, and Cardiff, Llanelli, Neath and Swansea.

Apart from anything else it would help fill the gap between club and international rugby, which is being bridged in England by the abominable Divisional Championship. Dick Best, the England coach, has been reported as saying that, with Bath and Leicester so far advanced from the other clubs in their development, there should be an extension of the Divisional Championship. Perish the thought. That is not what television, whether it be the BBC, ITV or satellite, would be paying its millions for. But an Anglo-Welsh league is an altogether different story, driven as it would be by serious money.

Admission into the league would be a problem because there would be no substructure underpinning it. The criterion for entry would be more likely to relate to resources than playing standards, and already I can hear the outraged protests from the north, one of whose visionaries, the late Eric Smith of Orrell, predicted just such an outcome when the league structure was established seven seasons ago.

On present placings, the north would have no representatives in an Anglo-Welsh league. Furthermore, if the project were to be organised not on a league basis but as a conference without promotion or relegation, then we could well see history repeating itself.

It is, after all, almost 100 years since the northern clubs broke away from the rest to form their own league. Who would be an administrator? It will take the wisdom of Solomon, the energy of Hercules and the entrepreneurial impertinence of Mike Burton to get the game into the next millennium.