PRIVATE equity firm CVC would have felt there was something familiar about events at the Royal Dublin Society on Monday evening.

The day after Lewis Hamilton had cruised to a seventh world Formula One title, Leinster eased to another success in the Guinness PRO14.

Edinburgh were edged out in the semi-finals last season yet were demolished 50-10 at the RDS.

The men from Ireland’s capital continue to lap their rivals, head coach Leo Cullen suffers from rugby’s equivalent of ‘he’s just got the best car’ and Irish rugby dominates the constructors’ championship, aided by the budgets of the provinces.

Leinster have a perfect 30 points from 30 and Ulster are also unbeaten with 28 from 30. Their lead over the third-placed Ospreys in Conference A is a mammoth 19.

South Wales Argus: The Dragons talk things through after conceding another try at LeinsterThe Dragons talk things through after conceding another try at Leinster

Munster have enjoyed a winning start to be clear in Conference B with five from five, 22 from 25 points.

Connacht have won two and lost two but are likely to scrap with Cardiff Blues, the Scarlets and Edinburgh for the play-offs.

The ‘big three’ Irish provinces certainly look good but it’s Leinster in particular that are streets ahead, both inside and outside of Test windows.

Like Hamilton and Michael Schumacher in F1, their dominance is bad for a product that can struggle to capture the imagination.

CVC previously invested in motorsport’s premier championship and now they have a 28 per cent stake in the PRO14 with some pretty big challenges facing it.

The competition hasn’t been helped by unfortunate coronavirus issues that have led to an imbalance of games played, a plight that all leagues in many sports are suffering with in 2020/21.

Then there is the Cheetahs and Southern Kings situation – are they in or out? Is it a PRO14 or PRO12?

The lure of the rand is set to prompt a bigger South African influence in the competition in the future with the likely arrival of the Bulls, Stormers, Sharks and Lions. If Stellenbosch Coronations held a crowdfunder then they’d probably have a fair crack at joining in.

There is the broadcast issue with some tough decisions ahead after going with Premier Sports in 2018; the ability to watch every game is attractive but CVC will no doubt want the product to be hitting more screens than it does at present.

But amid all these issues, the predictability of the PRO14 is a huge problem. The gap between the haves and the have-nots is huge (and the gap between Leinster and the other haves is also sizeable).

The champions went through last season unbeaten and their last league loss was at Ulster in April 2019 when they already had top spot secured.

Redundancies at the Argus mean that I now cover Newport County AFC in addition to the Dragons and ‘anyone can beat anyone’ is actually true in League Two.

The Exiles are flying high thanks to their superb October yet their five-game winning streak could easily have yielded seven points rather than 15.

One of their toughest games was provided by Harrogate, who are fresh in League Two after surprisingly winning the National League play-offs.

There is jeopardy at County games that just isn’t there for many Dragons fixtures; there is the hope that they will cause an upset but recent history ensures there is certainly not an expectation.

None of the Dragons results this season were a surprise and if you go through their fixture list then predictions would have a high success rate. It’s only derby battles that don’t really follow the form guide.

The Dragons need an Irish off day to beat a province, the same applies on their travels to Scotland, Benetton tend to have too much power (even in Test periods) while wins are traded with Zebre.

Too often the PRO14 follows the script and that is an issue for those trying to increase its profile and encourage interest.

The season started intriguingly when there were fully-loaded teams but at the moment it's all too predictable.