Analysis – Gareth Rhys Owen, Scrum V commentator<\/p>\n
There is nothing new about elite Welsh players leaving at the peak of their powers. <\/p>\n
Jonathan Davies was 25 when he moved to Clermont, James Hook the same age when he joined Perpignan and Dan Lydiate 25 when he left for Racing. <\/p>\n
Morgan, now 25, and Lake, 26, fit that same pattern. The best Welsh players, once they reach their prime, will often look beyond Wales. <\/p>\n
In that sense, their decision to move on is neither surprising nor unprecedented – even if Gloucester are not a European superpower or the rugby equivalent of a ‘galactico’ destination.<\/p>\n
What makes these departures different is the context in which they are happening. <\/p>\n
The WRU is openly considering cutting a region and it is no secret that the Ospreys are among those facing an uncertain future. <\/p>\n
In that climate, no player – particularly those at the top of the game – would be blamed for securing their future elsewhere. That acceptance is the key point. <\/p>\n
When senior players leave amid ongoing structural uncertainty, it reflects the fragility of the system and the position Welsh rugby now finds itself in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Analysis – Gareth Rhys Owen, Scrum V commentator There is nothing new about elite Welsh players leaving at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":350631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-350630","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/350631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}