A fallow Six Nations weekend left the Welsh regions centre stage but all three who took the field fell to defeats.
Disappointment, then, for the coaches of the Ospreys, Scarlets and Dragons.
Toby Booth's Ospreys slipped to a 29-7 loss against Leinster in Dublin, while the Scarlets succumbed at home to Connacht, with the Dragons defeated 12-0 in Newport by Ulster.
But there were positives to go with the negatives.
MARK ORDERS looks at the winners and losers.
WINNERS
Dan Baker
Maybe the most welcome sight of the weekend was Dan Baker powering through would-be tacklers in the wind and rain at Rodney Parade.
Remember him?
Turn the clock back a long way and the Ystradgynlais product was being spoken of as a potential Wales regular. He’d outshone Jamie Heaslip for the Ospreys against Leinster and some at his home region were calling him “mesmeric”.
The then 21-year-old No. 8 could beat defenders through a combination of speed, power and quick feet.
But injuries hit him hard, at one stage costing him almost 700 days out of rugby, and one of the sport’s genuinely nice guys still has only three Wales caps in the locker.
He’s 29 now, older and wiser but still with the raw ability that he’s always had.
On Sunday, he showed he could still do it with a rampaging show for the Dragons which saw him make 67 metres from 14 carries, beat five defenders and put in a dozen tackles without missing. So impressive was he that Sean Holley later mentioned him in the same sentence as Scott Quinnell - "bustling with quite quick feet".
The worry with Baker has long been over whether he could stay fit.
But if he can tick that particular box and hold his form, it’s not too late for him to make fresh headlines.
For the Dragons, he could be an important player.
Ashley Beck
Here’s another figure who won Wales caps earlier in his career, only to slip from view, not helped by injuries.
On Friday evening, Beck led Worcester Warriors to victory over Bristol Bears, with a try crowning his effort. He still has the touch of class that marked him out a decade or so ago and he can also take the ball forward.
He’s off limits to Wayne Pivac under the 60-cap rule but he has creativity that hasn’t always been a feature of Welsh performances in recent years.
However the rest of the 31-year-old’s career unfolds, he’s still a joy to watch.
Connacht
They are the least wealthy of the Irish provinces but they are impressively coached by Andy Friend and play a lovely brand of rugby.
The team from the west of Ireland also have rare spirit about them.
But maybe their biggest asset is fly-half Jack Carty.
He barely put a foot wrong against the Scarlets in Llanelli on Saturday evening, with his kicking, passing, running and decision-making all first rate.
The Scarlets could have won the game had they been more clinical, but that would have been cruel on Carty, who was imperious in everything he did.
Darren Edwards
He’s only just come in as defence coach at the Ospreys but he’s wasted no time making a mark, with the Welsh region making a remarkable 195 tackles out of 204 attempts in the United Rugby Championship game against Leinster in Dublin.
That’s a 96 percent completion rate.
Fair play.
It reflected particularly well on Edwards in helping to achieve buy-in from the likes of Harri Deaves (25 tackles, three misses), Will Griffiths (17-0), Michael Collins (16-0), Ethan Roots (16-2), Morgan Morris (12-0), Sam Parry (15-1), Keelan Giles (10-0), Bradley Davies (9-0) and Dan Lydiate (9-0, off the bench).
Lacking creativity in key areas, the Ospreys have much work to do with their attack.
But there’s not much wrong with them on the other side of the ball.
Scott Williams and Johnny Williams
The pair at least offered a flicker of hope for the Scarlets during the loss to Connacht.
Scott Williams set up a try for his midfield partner with a beautifully judged short kick and Johnny Williams showed glimpses of quality.
The latter's challenge is to stay fit.
The other Williams' goal will be to remind Wayne Pivac he’s still around.
Don't back against the twosome making it onto the coach's radar in the not-too-distant future.
Rhys Webb and Harri Deaves
It says a lot for Rhys Webb’s pluck that he has been one of regional rugby’s players of the campaign despite being overlooked by Wales.
Maybe another Test opportunity won’t come his way.
Wayne Pivac doesn’t seem in any hurry to give him one.
But Webb scored a superb individual try for the Ospreys against Leinster and gamely led from the front again. His overall effort may not have been perfect, but it was still impressive.
Deaves made 25 tackles and 40 metres with ball in hand.
He isn’t the biggest, but as is often said, it’s not so much the size of the dog in the fight that matters as the size of the fight in the dog.
The youngster from Pontyclun’s a terrier.
LOSERS
Mike Brown
A lot of coaches enjoy talking up the opposition’s chances ahead of a significant match.
It kills them with kindness, the thinking runs.
Not a lifetime ago an England management team spoke so glowingly about the Wales team they were about to face that some wondered if their passion for all things Welsh extended to the whole lot of them taking their holidays in Trecco Bay that summer.
Before Eddie Jones took over, of course.
Anyway, we can’t even be sure if Eddie would have been overly chuffed about the contribution of one Michael Noel Brown to the match build-up this week, what with his effort making it unnecessary for Wayne Pivac, Dan Biggar or anyone else in the Wales set-up to spend too long searching for the right words for a pre-game team-talk.
In a column for MailOnline Brown named his combined England-Wales XV. It reads thus: Freddie Steward; Jack Nowell, Henry Slade, Manu Tuilagi, Joe Marchant; Marcus Smith, Ben Youngs; Ellis Genge, Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Tom Curry, Alex Dombrandt.
See what he did there?
Not a single Welsh player makes the cut.
Maybe some would suggest that’s harsh on a number of individuals, among them Lions Test men Liam Williams, Josh Adams, Dan Biggar, Wyn Jones, Adam Beard and Taulupe Faletau, while others, including Louis Rees-Zammit, Tomos Williams, Tomas Francis and Ross Moriarty, may not be especially impressed by Mike Brown’s prowess as a selector as well.
No matter.
It’s all about opinions.
Just maybe, though, Pivac will be pleased Brown has shared his thoughts with us all.
In a contest that’s traditionally involves fine margins, such matters can count.
Dan Jones
He is usually the embodiment of steadiness for the Scarlets.
The fly-half is good at guiding his team around the field, has a clever short kicking game, is normally calm and doesn’t often err.
But on Saturday evening it all went a bit haywire for Jones.
Not only did he gift Connacht a try with a cross-field kick so risky Indiana Jones in his rugby-playing youth may have thought twice about attempting it, he also gave away a couple of penalties, seemed to fall out with referee Craig Evans and was subbed early in the second half.
Call that a challenging day at the office.
If it’s any consolation for Jones, we all have ’em.
Welsh Rugby Union
Another weekend, another round of defeats for the regions.
Is there anyone out there who’ll do something serious to rectify the situation?
There is no miracle solution but a flicker of acknowledgement from the WRU that all isn’t right and they are working hard to correct the situation would at least encourage a dot of hope.
Many people are just getting frustrated with the whole business.
Dragons’ director of rugby Dean Ryan told The Rugby Paper there seemed no strategy in place to finding an answer to the issue surrounding the needs of the Wales team and the regions.
“You can only talk for so long and then somebody needs to lead and tell us what is going to happen. That’s not happening at the moment,” said Ryan.
“We can sit behind what agreements and funding models are in place, but the reality is they are not working.
“Somebody needs to take us out of this space.”
Let’s all agree on that.
The streaker at the Scarlets v Connacht game
What of the pitch invader during the match at Parc y Scarlets on Saturday evening?
He was called a streaker although he did keep his pants on, thankfully.
One final word: streaking had its moment but that was back in 1974.
The middle of a rugby match 48 years on, in between Storms Eunice and Franklin, isn’t the time to try to spark a revival.
