REGIONAL rugby won't solve Wales' problems overnight, says former Leinster coach Mike Ruddock who tomorrow takes his Ebbw Vale side to crisis club Swansea.
Moves towards regional rugby are stepping up, but while Ruddock is generally in favour he says it will take time to succeed.
"Regional rugby is possibly inevitable to bridge the gap to international rugby, but it should be phased in not rushed," he said.
"It took three years to get Leinster up and running, to bring everyone in and blend a team.
"Just because you put your best players into a provincial team, you don't get the results immediately. It takes a while.
"The Irish and Scottish provinces will still be ahead of us. The Scots have not been particularly brilliant, but they've been building and now they are really strong.
"Connacht have taken four or five years to emerge, but it's not suddenly the cure of all ills.
"And it has still got to be funded properly or there will be the same problems."
Swansea is another of Ruddock's former clubs and he still lives there.
But though there is nothing at stake in tomorrow's final Celtic League pool game as neither side can make the quarter-finals.
He says, though, that the match will be psychologically important to take into Tuesday's quickfire return when the sides meet again in the first Welsh League fixture of the season.
"If we can get a result it will give us confidence for the league game, so mentally there is something on it," said Ruddock.
"Obviously Swansea have got a few problems with rebuilding, but we've all been through it as older players leave or finish and we suddenly have to rebuild.
"They've still got good players and, though there's nothing on it, they've still picked Colin Charvis and Ben Evans which shows the respect they have for us.
"They won't want to lose in front of their own fans and they'll be under pressure to perform.
"There is nothing to lose for us and we'll be trying to gain our first win there since 1979," added the Steelmen's coach.
Vale are waiting on fitness tests to locks Chay Billen, Peter Sidoli and Neil Edwards and scrum half Gareth Betts (Bryan Shelbourne is already out) before naming a side.
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