THE curtain comes down on Wales' season on Saturday when they face France, but it will be curtain-up as the trouble which has been threatened for weeks starts to rain down on the Welsh Rugby Union.

The gathering clouds will become a complete storm as the rank-and-file, just waiting for the Six Nations to end, flex their muscles and call the Welsh Rugby Union chiefs to account.

There promises to be a whole sequence of events which will further rock Welsh rugby to its foundations. Already we have had the shock resignation of coach Mike Ruddock less than halfway through the season after he had guided Wales to their first Grand Slam for 27 years.

Allegations of player power were made as Ruddock went straightaway when he had asked to continue for the rest of the Six Nations before handing in his resignation.

Assistant Scott Johnson was put in charge but Wales then lost their captain Gareth Thomas after a controversial appearance on the BBC Wales Scrum V programme after he had suffered a damaged artery in his neck playing for Toulouse, which was possibly exacerbated by his rage on TV.

WRU chief executive Steve Lewis and chairman David Pickering have been under heavy fire for their handling of the affair and they have embarked on a series of Red Zone Roadshows around the districts to explain their side of the story, the series ending in Swansea tomorrow night.

But the storm shows no sign of abating and, in fact, is set to gather in intensity over the next few weeks. This is how the story could unfold once Saturday's game against France is over:

Next week - the worst kept secret in Welsh rugby is out when Johnson officially announces he is returning to Australia for family reasons.

The Welsh Rugby Union board appoint at their meeting a week on Thursday a special five-man group to begin the search for a new coach. That group could be made up of Lewis, Pickering, board member and former Wales star Gerald Davies, director of development Mostyn Richards and the chairman of the WRU game policy committee, Alan Jones.

The necessary ten clubs submit the names needed to call an extraordinary meeting of all WRU clubs at which they will request the attendance of Ruddock and may well call for a vote of no confidence in Lewis and Pickering, which, if carried, means they would have to resign. The whole WRU board could follow under collective responsibility guidelines.

The 10 clubs could easily have been 110 as there is such disquiet about the top men who, clubs believe, should at least have agreed to Ruddock's request to stay until the end of the Six Nations.

They were unhappy even before 'Ruddockgate' over the non-appointment of a successor to David Moffett as group chief executive and the way some clubs were exposed in the media for selling international tickets illegally when they claimed they were innocent.

The WRU appoint a caretaker coach from within (as they did with Alex Evans for the 1995 World Cup) to take Wales to Argentina in June.

The WRU board, already angry at alleged player power over the removal of Ruddock, insist they do not want captain Gareth Thomas or the players to have any say in the appointment of a new coach.

Thomas could even be removed as captain, assuming he recovers from his neck problem, and asked to concentrate simply on playing.

A new Wales coach, who could be Gareth Jenkins if Lewis and Pickering are removed, or a figure like New Zealander Warren Gatland, appointed in time for the Autumn series in November.