So the cat - a particularly smelly one - is out of the bag. Take cover, Mr Rob Andrew, Mr Brian Smith...

"Among the most disturbing revelations were the comments provided anonymously by the players. A selection appear below:

On the pre-tournament preparation:

"It wasn't hard, it was just LONG. We felt physically and mentally drained at the end."

"The man-management was absolutely terrible."

"All the plans we'd worked on for weeks suddenly went out the window because they didn't happen to work in one game."

"There were two massive playbooks, which many players didn't look at because it was in too much depth."

"There wasn't enough focus on basic skills."

On the performances at the World Cup

"To go into World Cup games not having a game-plan, any structure or clear idea of what we were going to do in attack was astonishing."

"I really can't believe we lasted as long as we did in the tournament. We played like crap."

Peerless, of Wigan.

Some of the secret pie eaters in the Welsh squad will be disappointed, as well as any non tackling perma tanned types who had designs on a Welsh jersey. The boy from Wigan is now full time. No longer will our Shaun single handedly subsidise the Severn Bridge toll with all his M4 dashes, because now he's here to stay. Perhaps Cardiff gives him the environment he's happiest in, the closest experience to being in Wigan on match day, in a rugby town, warts and all.

 The clarity of the WRU move in the wake of the RWC is highlighting the ever deepening sense of confusion at Twickers. As Will Carling observed quite some time ago, it's fine to allow a bunch of gin soaked committee men to run the game as long as the national side is winning. Now, the competence of those committee men is coming under some scrutiny. The obvious question is now being asked - WHY give Johnson the job of running the national side, without ANY coaching and/or management experience?