THERE'S always a beaming smile on Roger Lewis' face when cameras are around but there are plenty in Welsh rugby that are used to wearing frowns.

The regions aren't happy, the Principality Premiership is a jumbled mess, some clubs in levels as high as the Swalec Championship genuinely fear being unable to fulfil fixtures and there are grassroots grumbles.

Even when the national team enjoys success there are moans about the style in which it has been achieved while plenty of folk that watch their rugby between August and May no longer feel they have a connection with the Test scene.

Of course it is unfair to pin all the blame on Lewis, whose spell as chief executive of the Welsh Rugby Union will end after the World Cup in October.

But he has been a figure who has divided opinion with his band of supporters pointing to his decision to axe Gareth Jenkins in a car park and bring in Warren Gatland along with the way that he has reduced Millennium Stadium debt while his critics emphasise that the preoccupation with international rugby has been to the detriment of everything else.

Lewis' legacy will certainly be dominated by the WRU's spat with the regions that led to Gerald Davies, a highly respected figure, stating at last summer's EGM that the governing body was "not held in high regard" by those outside Wales.

The WRU played the negotiations with the quartet poorly, which no doubt infuriated their fellow Celtic Unions given the way that Europe and the Heineken Cup rumpus played out. The regions were brought closer together and were allies for the English at a time when it looked like they were going to be cut adrift.

It seemed that the tactic was to push the regions to the brink to see if they cracked but when a fresh participation agreement was signed in August it looked pretty similar to everything that the quartet had been arguing for all along.

And it was clear from the moment that Newport Gwent Dragons chief executive Gareth Davies usurped David Pickering as chairman of the governing body that Lewis' time was up.

His departure presents an opportunity for somebody to bring unity to the game and ensure it's not just those inside the Millennium Stadium that are joyous.