"Calling the Bluff" (aka - The state of Welsh rugby)

"Top-down rugby works as long as the top works. Three grand slams were the perfect answer to any doubts about investment in development in Wales. Who cared about the schools, the clubs or even the regions as long as Wales were winning? But Wales have stopped winning and the real state of the amateur and professional game is being exposed. Justin Tipuric was the exception that proved the rule: skills under pressure will collapse at the Millennium Stadium if skills are neglected at all lower levels of the game. The passes slung into thin air by Jonathan Davies and Jamie Roberts and the failure to turn several second-half overlaps into tries revealed a lack of understanding of angles, alignment and hand positions, simple virtues that are no longer absorbed from a young age on the rugby fields of Wales." - Eddie Butler

Source: see item 4 here

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/feb/04/six-nations-talking-points-opening-weekend

Note that in item 4 of the above link, there is also a link to the decline of Welsh rugby (in Maesteg & Bridgend, & Pontypool areas) - the article is written by Donal McRae:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2013/feb/01/bridgend-maesteg-death-welsh-rugby