By Nick J Jones

There has to be a serious concern about the lack of leadership within Welsh rugby.

At the very top Ryan Jones is a great leader, inspirational, comfortable with the role and good with the press. Rightly he is being touted as a potential leader for the British Lions tour of South Africa in 2009.

But a look below that level gives us a lot more to be worried about.

At regional level the Ospreys have Ryan Jones as their captain as well, but outside of that the other 3 regions all have foreigners at the helm. The Scarlets have long term captain Simon Easterby while both the Blues and the Dragons have appointed foreigners in the shape of kiwi's Paul Tito and Tom Willis respectively.

So what does that say about the state of on field leadership in Wales? When Ryan Jones took over his main rivals were, according to many in the press, Alun Wyn Jones, Duncan Jones and Gethin Jenkins.

Again Ospreys have been monopolising Welsh talent, but it is disappointing to see that Gethin isn't considered the right man for the Blues job, especially as he will presumably be playing more rugby now that Yapp is being moved across to the tight head.

I can understand it from the region's perspective, they want leaders who will lead the whole team... and if the players are disappearing off for a good proportion of the season to play and train for Wales then it makes sense for non-international playing foreigners to take the role on as they will be with the region for far longer.

But what is right for the regions is, yet again, not necessarily right for Wales. So where will our next leaders come from?

Nick (sometimes known as Rugby Nick) is a devouted Welsh rugby fan, and a obsessive about the sport in all other countries as well. His rants and rambles can be found on a daily basis over on his Welsh Rugby blog

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