Wales boss Warren Gatland has condemned the standard of this season's Guinness Premiership.
Gatland's 29-man squad for the autumn Tests contains a solitary player - Sale Sharks scrum-half Dwayne Peel - who plies his trade in England. And New Zealander Gatland, a Premiership title winner when he coached Wasps, has pulled no punches following a succession of poor games during the season's first six rounds.
"I think the Guinness Premiership, having watched the games, is the weakest Premiership I've seen since I have been up here (in the United Kingdom)," he said.
"It is the weakest in terms of the quality of the teams involved.
"Look at Gloucester. When I was at Wasps you would go down there and know you were going to have a really tough, physical match up front.
"I couldn't believe they just weren't competitive against Wasps on Saturday (Gloucester lost 35-6 at home).
"When the Premiership is strong, it's a good gauge of how players are likely to perform at international level."
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Umm, didn't Llanelli recently thrash london Irish? Didn't the Ospreys recently thrash Leicester, I like Bridgend _ it's a good place to go shopping, there are never any traffic jams there, because nobody goes there, you have to get a grip and move into the 21st century. Regional rugby is our only hope./
What the hell is this man talking about? Did he watch Llanelli Scarlets v Newport Gwent Dragons on Friday evening? It was dire and uninspiring and a perfect example of the lack of competitive spirit within the regional sides in Wales to say the least! Before critisising English Rugby he wants to try and put his own house in order first if he really made these comments in the first place. The WRU have killed rugby in Wales. The regional sides pretend competitiveness on the ashes of what were once proud rugby clubs. Just look at the likes of Bridgend as an example. I'm Welsh and ashamed of these comments and the WRU
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