The three clubs who are producing the most significant rise up the Aviva Premiership rankings this season have one pertinent feature in common - their directors of rugby are all Welsh.
Gloucester, Wasps and London Welsh are the teams who have markedly improved on the positions they were in last May.
Gloucester finished the 2011-12 campaign in ninth position - now they are fourth. Wasps clung on in 11th place to avoid relegation - now they are fifth. And London Welsh were fourth in the Championship, but won promotion via the play-offs and an appeal - now they are 10th.
That is a climb of five, six and six places respectively. So, take a bow, Nigel Davies, Dai Young and Lyn Jones.
Revival: Wasps have improved greatly under Dai Young this season Crossing the Severn: Davies left the Scarlets for Gloucester over the summerWhile the exodus of top players to French clubs is seen as a negative factor for Wales, the move by these three coaches to English clubs has the potential to be a highly positive development.
The trio have come from different regions to make their mark on the east of the Severn.
Davies moved from the Scarlets to Kingsholm last summer and has rapidly accelerated the progress of gifted tyros such as the 10-12 axis of Freddie Burns and Billy Twelvetrees.
Young left Cardiff Blues to join Wasps and the desperate survival mission last season brought through a raft of home-grown rookies, who are now prospering higher up the table.
Jones, having established the Ospreys as a force, led Welsh into the Premiership and despite minimal preparation time, they have won four games and claimed four losing bonus points to defy doomsday predictions.
What the trio are managing to do is advance their coaching CVs in a league that is more relentlessly demanding than the one they were involved in before. They are also building a compelling case at club level for one day taking on the Wales job.
Current head coach Warren Gatland is contracted to the WRU until the end of the 2015 World Cup and at present, with the Kiwi on Lions duty, Rob Howley is serving as caretaker and heir.
But the former scrum-half’s elevation is by no means a formality if Davies, Young and Jones continue to make such a positive impact as they are doing in the English and European game.
Any one of them could wind up in Gatland’s shoes three years from now. Or perhaps the WRU could be tempted to adopt the ‘three wise men’ coaching model that served the All Blacks so well at the last World Cup, and appoint the lot of them.
Against all odds: Jones (right) has guided his London Welsh side to four victories this season More from Chris Foy... CHRIS FOY: Gatland holds breath over Lions in final showdowns with O'Driscoll among the potential casualties 23/05/13 World of Rugby: Email farce has Aussies on back foot ahead of Lions tour 16/05/13 Chris Foy: Lancaster pledges to set England's 'X-factor' backs free in Argentina 09/05/13 Chris Foy: Standby Lions face a tricky choice of resting and going off the boil... or playing and risking injury 02/05/13 CHRIS FOY COMMENT: Robshaw's omission is harsh and cruel but making Sam the leading man is a sensible move 30/04/13 Chris Foy: Jonny, hero of HQ, is set for one last hurrah with Toulon... 25/04/13 Chris Foy: It's all kicking off over Six Nations on Friday nights 18/04/13 CHRIS FOY: Fillol's 14-week spitting ban shows folly of disciplinary system 11/04/13 Chris Foy: Fans will end up paying for 2015 World Cup stadium fiasco 04/04/13 VIEW FULL ARCHIVEDwyer recovering from heart attack
Bob Dwyer, the coach who guided Australia to World Cup glory in 1991, has spoken of his relief at surviving a heart attack on Wednesday.
After suffering chest pains at his farm in Bowral, south of Sydney, the 72-year-old was taken to hospital, where he suffered the cardiac arrest and was immediately revived with an electric charge.
Dwyer, who went on to coach Leicester after the Wallabies, said: ‘Talk about being in the right place at the right time. If it had happened at home, I would be dead.’
Having returned to his farm, he added: ‘I feel fine’, and it was reported that he was recuperating as a true Aussie sports fan should - by lying in bed, watching cricket.
Tapping-up is a blight on the game
When London Irish director of rugby Brian Smith spoke about Alex Corbisiero and Jonathan Joseph leaving the club in the summer, he shone a glaring light on premature approaches to players.
‘There are other clubs that are very pro-active in the tapping-up of players,’ Smith said. ‘I’ve absolutely no doubt that a number of our lads have been worked on since very early in the season.’
Just to clarify the issue, RFU regulation 7.1 states: ‘No club… may, directly or indirectly, approach any player who is under contract with a club… to induce or attempt to induce such player to leave that club… unless such approach is made in the final three months (or six months in the case of players playing for Premiership clubs) of the term of that player’s contract.’
Most contracts expire on June 1, so talks can begin on January 1. In reality, deals are done long before.
Tapping-up is rife but is impossible to police and the practice is tacitly accepted. The regulation is merely a hollow attempt to present an image of order and fair play.
On the move: England centre Jonathan Joseph (centre) is expected to leave London Irish in the summerDragons on the mend
All of a sudden, the prospect of Wales mounting a spirited defence of their Six Nations title doesn’t look so fanciful.
First, Cardiff Blues revealed that Jamie Roberts and Leigh Halfpenny are set to return from injury, perhaps this weekend. Then came the news that Dan Lydiate, who broke his ankle in late September, may be back in action by early February.
Thus, the wonders of modern medicine, allied to sheer dedication from the flanker, means the imminent reunion of the superb Lydiate-Sam Warburton-Toby Faletau back-row will rekindle Welsh hope.
On the mend: Dan Lydiate is recovering well from a broken ankleThe last word...
Scrum skulduggery is to rugby what diving is to football: a curse that needs the collective will of all if it is to be beaten.
After his Leicester side beat Gloucester last Saturday, Richard Cockerill condemned referee Andrew Small for not sending more visiting forwards to the sin-bin, as they repeatedly offended.
Small did yellow-card Gloucester prop Shaun Knight, but seemed to overlook others. He showed fine commonsense, for all Cockerill’s angst, as banishing several front-rowers could have led to uncontested scrums, which would have done the Tigers no favours at all.
While Leicester are often dominant in this area, if they are on the back foot, every side will collapse or wheel or stand up, rather than go backwards. The cheating will go on unless all coaches and players have the will to banish it. As with diving, that is a forlorn hope.
More... Former Australia coach Dwyer in hospital recovering after heart attack Irish exodus set to continue with England stars Corbisiero and Joseph eyeing exit door
