TV VIEW: To be sure, things have changed. Once upon a time, you'd have thought that only the Welsh could play rugby; that they had a patent on passion. It was a time when names like JPR and Gareth didn't need a surname because, in truth, they were the rugby kings and everyone knew who they were.

For those who spent Saturday afternoon in an armchair, all snuggled up to watch the Celtic League final, the sense that times have changed utterly was brought to us before the match got started.

The BBC reporter, Graham Thomas - with fittingly mournful background music - took us to the Valleys where he discovered the sort of disharmony not normally associated with melodious Welsh tones. If we thought we had things bad with the fight (successful) to save Connacht from extinction, things are much, much worse in Wales. The game is in utter disarray and it seems the new national sport involves fighting around boardroom tables.

The Welsh have struggled more than most to grasp the concept and demands of professionalism in rugby. Just like the coalmines, the seam of rugby talent is not what it once was. In talking to many of those involved in the fight to restructure rugby in the Valleys, Thomas found a sense of bewilderment and an uncertainty that once was alien to anyone from this neck of the woods.

And, as Paul Thorburn opined, there seems to be an understanding that things simply can't go on as they are if rugby there is to be rekindled into what it once was.

"You've got to look at the bigger picture," said Thorburn. "No one likes change. There's always going to be heartache along the way . . . who knows, two, three, or four years down the road, when Wales have won the Rugby World Cup in 2007, it'd be marvellous."

Maybe Thorburn has a crystal ball or is just the eternal optimist, but there was no solace to be taken from Neath's performance in the final with Munster. In fairness, neither Conor O'Shea - who has developed into a superbly articulate television analyst - nor Jeremy Guscott were under any impression other than that Munster would win. Despite being prodded and poked by anchorman Steve Rider, the two outlined just why Munster would win. Of course, they were right.

The match commentator, Nick Mullins, told us that Munster's "pack can growl, (and their) backs can purr . . . but they might lack a bit of pace". However, it was his co-commentator, Jonathan Davies, who was the more critical. He is someone who learned his rugby in Neath and it must be horrible for him to see what has happened in Wales to the sport he loves.

There was one juncture in the first half when Davies did get a bit excited. It came just after Lee Jarvis's drop-goal had put Neath within touching distance of Munster. He told of how Munster were "shaken" and of how they were being "severely tested". Sometimes when you're down, you're down, and no sooner had the words escaped Davies's eloquent lips than Alan Quinlan broke away to score Munster's first try.

"Well, well," said Davies, followed by a silence and then, "Neath didn't need that . . . that's a desperate punch for Neath."

It sounded as if the wind had been knocked out of him as well.

The passion was being sucked out of Davies too. His mood turned to pessimism.

"There's no real pattern in this game, (just) penalty goals and little infringements and the try came from a charge down and a ricochet . . . there's not much going on in this game," said Davies, who was beginning to sound like he would prefer to be anywhere other than the Millennium Stadium.

By half-time, he was moaning. "It's been a very, very scrappy game," he said. as if we didn't get the point, he added. "Very scrappy."

One thing that has always impressed me about analysts in rugby games is they are not afraid to tell things as they are and, if the match was ambling towards a Munster win, O'Shea and Guscott in the studio were not letting Neath forward Brett Sinkinson off lightly for his horrific actions in stamping on Ronan O'Gara.

Although the match commentators failed to realise the seriousness of the incident at the time, O'Shea and Guscott were well armed for their attack by the time the half-time chat came around.

"It's very, very cynical and it is done on purpose," observed Guscott, while O'Shea called it as it was: "He's nowhere near the ball. It's not a rucking motion, it is a downward stamp . . . there is no place for it in the game."

On the restart, his attention drawn to what had happened, Davies had the right intention if the wrong choice of words: "We've got to stamp it out of the game," he said.

It just wasn't a day to be Welsh . . . even the singing was left to the Irish. Changed times indeed.