Forget Brexit, the real cliff-edge moment has arrived for the Welsh regions and their place in Europe. The next three rounds of Guinness PRO14 matches will determine whether or not the Scarlets fail to reach the Heineken Champions Cup for the first time in their history and if the four Welsh regions have any teams in Europe’s top tournament next season. There is so much to play for to ensure the domestic season doesn’t go out with a whimper after such a thrilling Six Nations campaign. Surely, one Welsh region – either the Cardiff Blues or the Scarlets (the Ospreys are a long shot) – is good enough to make the play-offs and play in the Europe’s top-tier in 2019/20.

It’s that annual Welsh rugby tradition – Armchair Weekend – when supporters of the four Welsh regions grab a beer, slump in front of the box, and watch the European knockout stages featuring teams from Ireland, Scotland, England and France. Robin Davey says the full house Celtic contingent this season makes the Welsh absence even more embarrassing. Wales may have won the Grand Slam and the nation is still recovering from the celebrations, but back down on earth professional rugby carries on without almost the entire Six Nations squad. It’s all about Europe – not the Brexit variety – but the quarter-finals of the Heineken Champions and Challenge Cup competitions. And there is not a Welsh team in sight.

Wayne Pivac is in danger of leaving the Scarlets on a low note after admitting they served up their worst display in his five years in charge as they were hammered by the Cardiff Blues. Pivac – who is leaving at the end of the season to prepare to take charge of Wales after the World Cup – is in familiar territory for many coaches whose next job is announced long before they leave their current one. No matter what they utter in public about maintaining their focus until the last goodbye, they are often undermined by players who decide the king is dead, long live the next one.

Project Shitstorm – obviously hatched in a secret war room in Edinburgh Castle – appears to have done its job. You can hardly see Saturday’s Six Nations fixture in front of you, for all the muck that has been thrown around in the past few days. But Robin Davey insists Wales can rise above the stink, keep their noses clean, and gain the whiff of a Grand Slam in the air by the time they return to Cardiff. Wales should have nothing to fear at Murrayfield this weekend – apart from the echoing bickering going on back at home. Certainly, when you look at this Scotland team and compare it to Warren Gatland’s side then the form, the experience, and the quality stacks up clearly in the visitors’ favour.

The Scarlets have finally agreed with the Ospreys. . . the merger is off. The two regions have now issued statements in the last 24 hours in complete accord that all merger discussions have been taken off the table and it’s as you were in Welsh rugby. Following the Ospreys’ statement yesterday accusing the Professional […]

First it was on, then it was off. Then it was just another back-of-the-fag-packet plan tossed into the bin after 15 months of waiting for Welsh rugby’s leaders to show the way ahead. The shambles of Project Reset is picked over by David Williams who just wants to flush the chain and run away. When is a merger not a merger? When it’s a takeover. That seems to be at the heart of the ‘on-off’ relationship between the Scarlets and Ospreys and their proposed gathering of the west Wales clans for the betterment of Welsh rugby. But who proposed such an unhappy and unlikely marriage in the first place? That seems to be the question exercising most people. Was it a WRU suggestion, or did it come from the supposedly cash-strapped Ospreys?

Welsh rugby’s merger bingo – that now pairs the Ospreys to combine with the Scarlets – will be discussed this evening by the four regions and the Welsh Rugby Union against a backdrop of outrage and suspicion. The proposal that was put to the staff of both west Wales regions on Monday has met with widespread derision, particularly on social media. Only vague plans have so far been given to those at the sharp end, but they are expected to include job losses, including some players.

Project Reset has been. . err . . . re-set – at least until the start of the 2020-21 season. But the various ideas for the reform of the regional game in Wales have not been shelved, just shuffled along the desk a little. Robin Davey looks at the options and says money, as usual, will trump those quant little considerations like performance or fair play. Those people disturbed and confused by Brexit ought to turn for comparison to domestic rugby in Wales, where the future is at best uncertain and at worst a nightmare. Project Reset – which was supposed to be the new deal between the Welsh Rugby Union and the regions – has yet to be signed. The players are increasingly anxious about their future, contracts can’t be finalised, and nobody knows where they stand.

By Harri Morgan After his prolonged lay-off, the rugby masses will breathe a sigh of relief when Leigh Halfpenny returns to business this afternoon. He is just one of the blokes that exudes the values of which followers of the sport readily boast. He will do so in the Scarlet of his region on a Sunday, rather than the red of his nation on Saturday evening. The correct decision. The talk of him returning straight into the main mix, the Six Nations cauldron, seemed devoid of logic.

Leigh Halfpenny’s return to rugby looks entirely uncertain again after the decision to abandon any idea of a Scarlets comeback this weekend. The Wales full-back had been released back to Scarlets this week, but has not been considered for Saturday’s Guinness Pro14 trip to Benetton. Halfpenny has returned to full training but has not tasted match action since November owing to concussion issues.

Allen Clarke has admitted his Ospreys team were simply not up to the mark as realistic Welsh interest in the knockout stages of European rugby came to an end. The Ospreys head coach watched his side stumble to a 20-18 home defeat to a Worcester team that showed 13 changes to their regular Gallagher Premiership side. It means the region need a mathematical miracle to make the last eight of the European Challenge Cup, while the Dragons had long since ruled out that possibility.

Scarlets captain Ken Owens has claimed there have been of voices of dissent towards him and his team from within the region. The Wales hooker gave a combative interview to broadcasters Premier Sports after his side had beaten the Dragons 22-13 at Parc Y Scarlets to end a run of five successive defeats. Owens and his team were roundly booed after their home defeat to Cardiff Blues, but he suggested the friction of recent weeks has also been internal.