The European failure by the Welsh regions has provoked much debate about the way Welsh rugby is organised. Robin Davey believes the debate at least shows passions still run high, but believes major change is unlikely.

More than 15 years on and arguments still rage about the merits or otherwise of the regions at the top end of Welsh rugby.

The debate resurfaced this week after the lamentable performance of the regions in Europe when all four teams crashed out at the pool stages.

Not one made it to the knockout phase with the Scarlets and Cardiff Blues failing to progress in the Heineken Champions Cup and the Ospreys and the Dragons likewise in the Challenge Cup.

That prompted an inquest into what went wrong, especially as last season the Scarlets reached the semi-finals of the senior competition and the Blues won the Challenge Cup.

Lack of funding has been put at the heart of the problem – the regions struggling to compete with their richer English and French counterparts.

Nowhere was the contrast more stark than at Rodney Parade where the relatively impoverished Dragons couldn’t keep pace with Clermont Auvergne who have a whopping overall budget of 32m euros and a playing budget more than double that of the Dragons.

Consequently, Clermont – who will surely win the Challenge Cup and regain their rightful place in the Champions Cup – fielded players from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Fiji and England and played a brand of rugby our sides can only dream about.

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Adding fuel to the fire, Stuart Barnes, the former England international who pulls no punches as a pundit, also weighed in this week.

“Whereas the Irish provinces have always been a step up from the infinitely weaker club game (ditto Scotland), Wales had a well-structured and diverse club game,” he wrote.

“The current system may feed the national team but it has failed to enhance the day-to-day existence where once the oval ball was king.”

Barnes actually grew up in Wales, though born in England, and went to school at Bassaleg, also enjoying a successful Wales Schools run before joining Bath and playing 10 times for England.

So he knows the system in Wales and his comments have provoked a huge reaction on social media.

Many believe regional rugby has never worked, claiming with some justification, it is poorly supported and lacks identity while others still feel bitter about the decision to remove historical names like Swansea and Newport from the titles.

Yet those place names are often incorporated in scoreboards in France and England when it comes to European competition because fans won’t know what the Ospreys and Dragons are or where they come from.

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Also throwing his hat back into the ring in a wide-ranging interview this week, was David Moffett, the man so many fans in Wales love to hate because he was the person who introduced regional rugby.

He was chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union at a time when the game was basically bankrupt in the professional era, with 12 sides which proved impossible to fund.

An EGM of all the clubs was called to discuss the way forward, a meeting I was present at, and a move to operate with four or five club teams at top level was overwhelmingly defeated.

Which ones would it be? The more populous areas, generally clubs with the greater tradition, of Cardiff, Newport, Swansea and Llanelli? What about the Valleys, clubs like Pontypridd, Pontypool, Ebbw Vale? How about the claims of Neath and Bridgend?

It was an impossible task so Moffett stepped in and said Wales would have five regional teams, which later became four with the demise of the Celtic Warriors.

That is how it’s been since – four regions – but they have been unloved and there have even been suggestions that four should be reduced to just two teams, one from the east and one from the west, in order for Welsh teams to compete better in Europe.

Moffett pours cold water on that idea and to a possible return of club rugby at fully pro level.

“Do you want to go down to two teams, east and west? Nobody would follow those in Wales,” he claims. “And I don’t see how you can go back to clubs.”

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So, to coin a phrase, we are where we are – Team Wales doing just fine with nine successive victories behind them, but the regions struggling in Europe and not doing that well in the Guinness Pro 14 competition, either.

And Project Reset, the new agreement between the WRU and the regions, remains unsigned because some of them are failing to meet the criteria and are substantially in debt.

Consequently, budgets have still to be finalised for next season which means that all-important recruitment can’t go ahead.

It’s not just about money, of course, for all the teams have committed a whole series of basic errors which shouldn’t be made at that level. Attitudes are also criticised with a kind of complacency creeping in which is always a risk when there is no relegation.

The rugby in England and France is far more intense precisely because there is the threat and worry of relegation, but on the other hand it tends to be far tighter with fewer risks being taken, meaning the rugby can be less attractive.

And leading players in Wales, Ireland and Scotland come under the umbrella of their Unions, so are told when they can or can’t play, leading to greater rest periods compared with England and France where players are often pretty much flogged.

So there are no easy solutions.

One thing is for sure, though – regional rugby is here to stay. There will be no going back to clubs and with Wales being a relatively poor country we will continue to just muddle along.

Sure, there will be periods of success but in all probability longer periods in the wilderness.

That’s the reality of the situation.