Super Rugby Pacific is coming to its grand finale, Joe Schmidt is about to make his first Wallabies selection and a Test series against Wales beckons. Consider this article as comforting words of warning from a Wales fan who has watched his domestic teams fail miserably campaign after campaign in the United Rugby Championship, witnessed a wooden spoon in the Six Nations, and been forced to put faith in a mixed squad selection to play against the world champions, then travel to the Southern Hemisphere in July.

On the surface, both of our once-great, rugby-playing nations are facing the same challenges on and off the pitch. Even the most optimistic supporter cannot yet claim that either side has turned a corner towards an upward trajectory. Wales have a new (or old) head coach in Warren Gatland, Australia have another experienced Kiwi in Joe Schmidt. These shrewd coaching appointments paint a reality that neither fanbase wants to acknowledge: up-and-coming quality coaches are nowhere to be seen in either nation.

Rugby in Wales has struggled to cope with professionalism from its inception; five regions in the form of Cardiff, Ospreys, Dragons, Scarlets and the disbanded Celtic Warriors became four. Does five teams being cut down to four sound familiar to Australian rugby fans? We are now considering cutting down to three as our “player pool” is not the quality or quantity that it once was.

Of these teams, Ospreys and Scarlets can be considered successful with six domestic titles between them in the last twenty years. We have the Scarlets and you have the Queensland Reds.

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They both have a colour for a name but take that away and you have Llanelli or Brisbane, passionate fan bases and rugby strongholds but cannot compete in international competition despite strong player production lines.

We have the Ospreys and you have Brumbies, consistently some of the strongest rugby-playing sides put together but struggling to motivate a home fan base that are more focussed on other sporting teams in the same city (Swansea City FC and Canberra Raiders).

Then we have Cardiff, what should be the heartbeat of our professional game with the highest population and strong club rugby tradition, you have the Waratahs based in Sydney. While both were waiting for stadiums to be built, they both lost their connection to the community and their core fan bases with consistent underperformance despite resources and assistance from nearby governing bodies.

Finally, we have the Dragons and you have the Force. The teams that make up the numbers and for various reasons, others want them dead and buried for the betterment of the national game.

The Wales fans are desperate to exit the United Rugby Championship and join an Anglo-Welsh league. Our theory being that we will at least prefer getting beaten by teams that we are capable of driving to!

Our attendances have fallen to all-time lows and we have new executives trying to fix a whole lot of mess that the previous incumbents left behind. We are struggling with retaining our best players at the youth level within their borders.

The riches of other nations are too much for our clubs and national finances. We have consistently dropped the number of caps required to be selected when playing abroad and are now sending a squad of players that includes a player in the fourth tier of Japan.

Similar teams, similar problems and I believe, similar solutions. Cost cutting and asset stripping are not the ways to turn any sport or business around. Remembering the mission and purpose that sport brings to your communities is the starting point. It is possible for these existing teams to turn things around rather than starting again.

We want to see local players at venues nearby, then competing on the world stages, representing their communities and doing their nation proud. Whatever happens in the Test matches, we all want to see fifteen countrymen go out onto the pitch and give it their best in what is sure to be an intriguing series.

Ultimately, our national teams’ successes are the catalyst for overall success and unfortunately, rugby has a winner and a loser. Whoever triumphs is sure to be considered on the road to recovery by their national media. For my health, I hope it is Wales. Diolch.