The last threads of the rugby season are about to be tied up, with three of the four regions still having key matches remaining. The Dragons, though, are already under pressure to deliver from the opening week of next season, says Robin Davey. A runners-up finish for Wales in the Six Nations, with three of the four regions still left with something to play for in the closing weeks of the season – not exactly vintage, perhaps, but reasonably successful all the same. A Wales squad, minus many leading players who have been rested, head off to North America where they face South Africa in a fairly odd arrangement, then travel to Argentina where they will play two Tests.

Scott Williams admits he will have a tear in his eye when he plays his final match at Parc Y Scarlets on Saturday. The Wales centre will line up for his region in Llanelli for a final time when the champions host the Cheetahs in their Guinness Pro 14 play-off quarter-final. Williams, 27, has spent a decade at the region but is moving down the road to join the Ospreys in the summer.

Gareth Davies called the Dragons “average” on Saturday night and then spent Sunday morning writing out an apology, the Scarlets announced this week. Quite right, too, says Robin Davey. I’m not one bit surprised Scarlets scrum half Gareth Davies has been forced to issue an apology to the Dragons after the way he has slagged them off. The Wales scrum-half was speaking after another one-sided performance by the Scarlets against their East Wales opponents on Judgement Day when the result was never in doubt.

Judgement Day weekend has arrived, a near end-of-season stock take and accounting both on and off the pitch. Geraint Powell casts his eye over the form of the four teams and the issue of geography in an expanding league. The geographical horizon of Welsh professional regional rugby suddenly contracts this weekend. The regular fans of the four southern Rugby Service Agreement regional franchises, together with occasional fans, neutrals from across the club game, and occasion eventers, will converge on the Principality Stadium in Cardiff for Judgement Day VI’s domestic double-header and the conclusion of the Guinness Pro14 regular season.

Tom Prydie has already started the superstar endorsement rush for his old club Porthcawl RFC ahead of their WRU National Bowl final at the Principality Stadium this weekend. The Welsh international wing got Scarlets team mates Rob Evans and Steff Evans to send some ‘Good Luck’ messages to the Seaweeds ahead of the biggest game in the club’s 138-year history against Pembroke RFC. But club treasurer Kevin McCarthy has got his sights set on some even bigger names in the race for social media support.

Departing Scarlets forward Tadhg Beirne has admitted Leinster marginalised him from the action during their 38-16 hammering in Dublin on Saturday. Beirne has arguably been the player of the season for the Scarlets, but the Irishman admitted he was a peripheral figure during the one-sided European Champions semi-final where Scarlets hopes were crushed. The second row had hoped to be part of a Scarlets unit who would boss the breakdown, but he confessed they came nowhere near as Leinster eased to a comfortable five tries to one victory at the Aviva Stadium.

Wayne Pivac is happy for the Scarlets to be the underdogs when they aim to bare their attacking teeth in Dublin on Saturday in their biggest game for over a decade. Pivac has no doubt that the Scarlets will require a complete performance in their quest for a first European Champions Cup final appearance. Pivac’s team tackle tournament favourites Leinster at the Aviva Stadium after ending an 11-year wait to be European semi-finalists. No Welsh team has been crowned

Europe is often a Welsh-free zone at this time of the rugby season. Not this year, with the Scarlets and Cardiff Blues appearing in high-profile semi-finals. Robin Davey finds reasons why both should go through to their respective finals. We are reaching the business end of the season and it’s great to see Welsh rugby still has deals to clinch. Two of the regions will be battling it out on Saturday in their efforts to reach the final of a European competition.

Rhys Patchell has promised the Scarlets will play without fear when they face the might of Leinster in Dublin on Saturday. The Wales outside-half insists the region’s best chance of upsetting the odds is to stay bold as they seek to make the European Champions Cup final in Bilbao next month. Patchell was an instrumental part of the tactical approach that brushed aside both Bath and Toulon earlier in the campaign and paid handsome dividends this time last year when both Leinster and Munster were overwhelmed in Ireland by the verve and adventure of the men in red.

Scarlets and Wales hooker Emyr Phillips announced he will retire at the end of the season at the age of 31. It comes just a day after his teammate Tom Grabham, 26, also revealed he was finishing playing due to a knee injury. Phillips has also suffered more than his fair share of injuries, but intends to concentrate as coaching.

George North is heading back to Wales and will wear scarlet, black, blue, or black and red next season. No-one seems to know yet, least of all those marketing folk aiming to shift some extra replica jerseys this summer. Robin Davey says it’s time for George to put his finger on the map. The season has little more than a month to run, yet we still don’t know where star winger George North is heading on his return to Wales this summer. Even more to the point, does North himself know? It’s now five months since the Welsh Rugby Union announced that North would be coming back to Wales on a national dual contract after spending the last five years at Northampton.

There was a time when any Welsh region would tremble at the prospect of having to travel to play away in Ireland. But the Scarlets will be able to approach their Champions Cup semi-final against three-times champions Leinster with a fair degree of hope given they went to Dublin last season and beat them at the RDS in the semi-finals of the Guinness PRO12 with 14 men.