AND then there were none. No Welsh team in the quarter-finals of the Heineken Cup, surely not even Cardiff Blues after the way they threw away a golden opportunity on Saturday.

They got in via the cat flap this time when they had to travel to Italy to win a play-off to qualify, then they were rewarded with the easiest draw of any of the Welsh regions and they blew their golden chance against Perpignan, who don't usually travel well and even lost at Rodney Parade last season without a losing bonus point.

So though the Blues have got an outside chance - they have to achieve a bonus point win at Leeds this weekend and hope other results go their way - they don't even deserve any last minute reprieve this time.

Obviously things are not sweetness and light with Newport Gwent Dragons and they have lost all five of their Heineken Cup pool games, but for the capital city team to be such permanent under-achievers is at best embarrassing and at worst a disgrace.

Why is it that they regularly flop on the big occasion? Why do so many established players go back instead of progressing when they transfer to the Arms Park? Why is the team spirit so evident with teams like the Dragons and Llanelli Scarlets so lacking at Cardiff?

It's all been happening for years, and even the arrival of a new training facility at the Vale of Glamorgan (something Dragons coach Paul Turner wants badly) appears to have made little difference.

The Dragons, Scarlets and Ospreys were out of Europe almost before a ball was kicked once they were drawn against the leading French and English teams, such is the gap in finance, power and ability.

With the honourable exception of Munster - even Ulster have 'gone' now - and the odd scare provided by Edinburgh, the Heineken Cup is now a two-country tournament with France and England dominating.

They've monopolised all the necessary ingredients for success. A leading English team like Sale, for example, have got talented players bursting at the seams.

Jason Robinson, Charlie Hodgson and Mark Cueto are an incredibly gifted trio while Sebastien Chabal is a magnificent athlete, full of power, pace and lurking menace, while even an unheralded player like openside Magnus Lund, born and bred in Manchester but with Norwegian parents, is a wonderful prospect.

And Sale are able to turn a player like Mark Taylor, unwanted by any of the Welsh regions, into a vital member of their midfield. They can transform a player like Nathan Bonner-Evans, not needed by the Opsreys or anyone else, into a formidable stand-by player and they can turn Elvis Sevealai'i, also an Ospreys player last season, into one of the best attacking centres in English rugby.

Oddly enough, considering they are top of the Guinness Premier-ship, their facilities are little better than those of the Dragons and their ground - the headquarters of football league club Stockport County - is certainly nothing to shout about.

Northampton, on the other hand, may be surprisingly struggling near the foot of the league table, but their ground and facilities are magnificent, real state-of-the-art and the envy of so many.

And across the channel, Toulouse is a rugby place through and through, the game oozing from the very heart of it's classical city centre square, rugby tradition all around.

And then there's Biarritz down south with its gorgeous weather, another huge benefit, compared with the rain, mud and cold here. All of which, coupled with financial backing, gives them huge clout.

Back here we drift along going nowhere when the Dragons ought to be announcing all sorts of initiatives to try to get new fans into the ground for Saturday's 'dead' game against Castres.

Some claim the lack of success is because regional rugby is not working and that the heart and soul has been ripped out of the game with the demise of club rugby. They may have a point, but we didn't fare any better with the club system and there's no going back now.

Fewer teams at this level were vital if they were to be competitive, even if they're still not really successful, while politically speaking a super-club system was not acceptable and an attempt to introduce it was thrown out by an overwhelming majority a few years ago.

So we are where we are, a rugby country still struggling for a real success on the world stage and in Europe. Not very good is it?

We'll continue to try to make the best of a bad job. But, hand on heart, is a Welsh team going to get to the final of the Heineken Cup, never mind win it? Is Wales going to reach the World Cup final, let alone win it?

We all know the answers to those questions. Short of developing more generous, rugby-mad millionaires, short of trebling the size of our country I don't see much in the way of a solution on the horizon.