Peter Jackson: Drumrolls, but the big act has yet to appear

The Welsh Rugby Union considered their announcement important enough to carry a ‘strict embargo’ until one minute past midnight on the first Wednesday of December.
A new initiative taken jointly by the Union and their four regions promised to put an immediate end to the bickering and start a winning partnership. A new acronym would solve the old problems – PRGB as in Professional Regional Game Board – four Union members, four from the regions under an independent chairman.
Its advent came with a roll of drums, acclaimed by the chief executive of the WRU, Roger Lewis, no less, as “a landmark moment in the history of Welsh rugby”.
It has proved to be such a landmark that 115 days later the new board has still to hold its first meeting. The warring factions have been at loggerheads for almost four months, unable to agree a framework for discussion.
Each side, surprise, surprise, blames the other. The Union says that all four regions signed up to a ‘Memorandum of Understanding’, outlining the remit of the Game Board in detail.  The Memorandum appears to have become one of misunderstanding as far as the regions are concerned.  They say the Union have moved the goalposts.
At a board meeting last Thursday, the WRU finalised a new proposal which they then sent to the regions.  Their claim of December 5 has still to come to pass: “By working together we will create a unity of purpose for Welsh professional rugby which will be underpinned by collective management, enhanced with greater central resources and structured to ensure effective decision-making.”
‘Central resources’ suggests that the Union want more control.  Whether their plan extends to the ultimate control of central contracts is not clear. Whether they can afford £10m to pay a squad of 40-plus players is even less clear.
Those in favour of a central system keep pointing to the Irish model as if that’s the example of central contracts as the perfect solution. They conveniently ignore the fact that Ireland have consistently under-achieved in recent years, especially at World Cups. Yes, their provinces have monopolised the European Cup but would they have done so without their Southern Hemisphere element?
England, let it not be forgotten, won the World Cup without central contracts and France, where the players are also contracted to the clubs, could not have possibly gone closer to winning the same World Cup in Auckland 18 months ago.
A lot happens in this game in four days never mind four months, but one of the Union’s  ‘definitive objectives’ as spelt out on December 5, “to help retain senior Welsh internationals playing in Wales where appropriate”, already sounds hopelessly out of date.
Since then two of last year’s Grand Slam team – Jamie Roberts and Danny Lydiate — have confirmed they will be decamping to France next season.
Now they are in some danger of losing George North and still the Board’s independent chairman, Mr Justice Wyn Williams, waits for the green light.
Significantly, two players with almost 200 caps between them are calling for Union intervention. Gethin Jenkins claims Welsh players are being ‘forced’ to leave. “It is all right paying off the Millennium Stadium debt,” he said in one national newspaper.  “But if players are leaving, you have no product.”
Adam Jones is another who has spoken out in support of the regional need for more help.
Meanwhile, the political impasse continues. How much longer will it take Welsh rugby to tackle the basic problem of establishing a set of goalposts at a fixed point on a level playing field?
WRU head of communications John Williams says: “We are working very hard to ensure a Professional Regional Rugby Board structure can operate in a way which helps us all work more closely together so that we can work in unison to make the best decision for Welsh rugby going forward.”
But wasn’t that what they said they had done on December 5?
Not surprisingly, the regions are showing signs of impatience, hence their preliminary talks with the English Premiership.