It’s been a long and often fruitless season for Welsh rugby.

Going from the highs of reaching a World Cup quarter-final after thrashing Australia 40-6 to a Six Nations and wooden spoon along with a difficult domestic season particularly for three of the four Welsh regions.

This week the Sportin Wales podcast had the pleasure of welcoming rugby legend Shane Williams to the podcast and who better than Wales’ record try scorer to run the rule over each of the regions’ seasons.

Ospreys suffered a nine-try thrashing by Leinster out in Dublin which, according to Sportin Wales co-founder and Ospreys winger Alex Cuthbert, led to a “tuning” from defence coach Mark Jones.

Despite conceding two early tries, the Welsh side managed to get the scores back to 14-all before Leinster pulled away in the second half to a 61-14 victory.

“The problem you have with Leinster is once they have a sniff, they’re dangerous,” said Williams.

“When it got to 14-all I thought, this was good but I never saw them winning, but I didn’t see 60 points coming either.

“When Leinster get in front and they’re clinical and wear you down and in the end Ospreys looked out on their feet.”

Williams says it was good to see Wales’ World Cup co-captain Jac Morgan returning from injury and that Ospreys have seen some good individual performances in recent weeks.

“Morgan Morris…what a player, I’ve no idea how he’s not being looked at in Welsh colours at the moment,” said Williams.

“Meanwhile, Keelan Giles is having the season of his life, brilliant, good to see him on form, looked sharp, strong in the tackle, defensively in the right place, Luke Morgan is having a good season as well and Keiran Williams is Mr. Consistent.

“Two weeks they’ve had a couple of tunings, but we’ve got to say they’re the best region in Wales at the moment and there’s probably more to come from them next season.”

However, despite all the positivity for Ospreys, Williams has become frustrated with Dragons and disappointed in Scarlets’ run of losses.

Dragons lost 21-44 to Stormers having been 21-16 up with fifteen minutes remaining before a late collapse.

“For periods of that game the Dragons were playing some good rugby but you were waiting for that try from the Stormers,” said Williams.

“Once that happened, I went to make a coffee and when I came back they were two tries down again, that sums up the Dragons to be fair.

“We need a bit of positivity, we seem to be spouting the same stuff about how poor the regions have been and you just get fed up of it.

“You’re watching Dragons playing and thinking let’s have one Dragons win. They can play well for 25 minutes in spits and spats and you think, just keep doing that but they go to sleep and they’re two tries down, things you’d do in under 16s rugby.”

Scarlets however received a more damning assessment from Williams, despite him hoping they could succeed under the guidance of the Welsh winger’s former Wales teammate Dwayne Peel.

“Scarlets have been diabolical,” said Williams.

“Just for Peely I want them to win and you look at the players on the field there are some good players there.

“You can see with the amount of experienced players they’ve let go, they’ve thought ‘We need to get those out the way, to get these youngsters to come through,’ they were winning Grand Slams a couple of season ago and some of the best players in the world.

“But I’m thinking, where are these youngsters going to come from? They certainly don’t have that strength in depth at the Scarlets at the moment, I hope I’m wrong, because I want the regions to do well.”

With the budgets set to be reduced against next season from £5.2million to £4.5million, Williams believes things are “going to get worse before it gets better.”

“It’s a money saving process let’s be honest,” said Williams.

“Younger players are going to get opportunities younger and earlier which could be great for Welsh rugby eventually, three or four years down the line.

“Players who have 60 international caps are being let go because they can’t afford them, a new kid coming through who probably wouldn’t have got a senior contract until two years down the line but now he’s going to have to play 20 games a year.

“It’s tough in their first season. Let’s hope the Morgan Morse’s and these guys are world class and British and Irish Lions, winning Grand Slams for Wales, but it’s not going to happen now.

“We’re still going to be criticised for not winning games or told it’s not good enough and it won’t be next year, but it might be two or three years down the line, but that’s where we’ve put ourselves.”

During Williams’ time at Ospreys, the side was littered with a plethora of Welsh international talent alongside oversees stars leading many to refer to the team as the ‘galacticos.’

“When I was playing, you’d look at players that would come in to strengthen and bolster the squad, Filo Tiatia, Justin Marshall, Marty Holah, Tommy Bowe these guys would come in and they were world class,” said Williams.

“Then players like Justin Tipuric and Rhys Webb were around and learning from some of the best, Jerry Collins and these guys. They’d have two years with them and then say ‘Thanks Jerry, or Justin Marshall, I’ll take over from here’.

“World class players towards the end of their careers, or out of international careers and then people were learning from some of the best in the world, that was happening in every region, but we don’t have that luxury now.”

One question which has loomed large over Welsh rugby in recent years is whether there is a large enough player pool or financial power to support four regions in Wales.

Whilst Williams can see the short term gains of cutting the regions, for the time being he would like to see Welsh domestic rugby maintain its four pronged approach.

“If you cut the regions in half to two, you have more money to invest in players, facilities and coaches, then you’re going to have stronger regions to be able to compete,” said Williams.

“People are still going on about going back to Llanelli, Swansea and Ponty but then you’ve got 15 teams which are all spread so hopefully that debate is out the way.

“There’s no doubt, a quick fix, cut the squads in half but then we’re going back to a situation where youngsters aren’t getting opportunities again and then people can sign the Marty Holahs etc. It probably would be a quick fix with stronger squads.

“Do we still have the strength in depth now if we cut it to two to go to the RDS and beat Leinster or to beat the best sides in Europe with the talent pool at the moment, probably not.

“I can see the appeal in it but at the same time with the four regions we’re in a rebuilding phase where we’re trying to bring our youngsters through, chuck them right in the deep end, saying; ‘Morgan Morse, you’re young but you’ve got to do the business against Cardiff, take you to Leinster, play against the biggest pack in the URC in the Bulls.’

“Let’s give this a go, put a bit of faith in our four regions and youngsters coming through to maybe win us a Grand Slam in three years’ time, you never know with Wales.”