IT’S often the hardest decisions that are the easiest to make. It can be empowering when you’ve been in a situation where you have to make a call that, from the outside at least, is tough.

I find myself in that position, I don’t expect I’ll ever have to make a decision as ‘tough’ as the one I was involved in a few years back.

In a rare moment where my guard is lowered, I will tell you that it was giving the consent not to resuscitate our little boy in a neonatal intensive care unit.

In a way there was no decision to be made as it was blindingly obvious what the right one was, but such a choice has the potential to make you glib about others who are umming and ahhing over relatively trivial matters.

But when you have had to make a big decision, probably the biggest, it gives you a blueprint to follow whatever the circumstances, whatever the size of the call that is to be made.

Listen to the evidence, soak up the information, weigh it up and made the decision that you can live with. If things turns pear-shaped, so be it, as long as you’ve been true to yourself at the time then that doesn’t matter.

That may be a touch preachy but I think it’s apt as passions run high over the Welsh Rugby Union’s proposed deal for Newport Gwent Dragons and Rodney Parade.

It is the shareholders of Newport RFC that hold the power and as a columnist you might expect me to be urging shareholders to vote one way or the other, but I don’t think that’s my place… nor do I honestly know which direction I’d go in if I did have a say.

This may seem like terrible fence-sitting but my approach throughout the saga has been to try to provide the relevant information to help those with a decision to make.

I won’t paint the No camp as evil – they aren’t the creators of this mess – even though the decision on the night of May 9 will impact on me personally.

Do I want to cover professional rugby? Yes.

Do I love covering rugby at Rodney Parade? Yes.

Do I have sympathy with the staff who face uncertain futures regardless of the vote? Yes.

Do understand the concerns of many Newport supporters over the deal that will see them lose their home? Yes.

It is a tricky situation and this is no simple deal. There has been a fair amount of information released but there is still a lack of clarity.

That is partly down to the mess that is Welsh rugby with all levels down the pyramid hindered by a lack of money and a Rugby Services Agreement that expires in 2020.

Essentially this is a proposal with very few, if any, long-term guarantees.

When the agreement was announced in the Ray Gravell media room at Principality Stadium on March 22, WRU chief executive Martyn Phillips told me that it boiled down to trust.

That remains the same despite Rodney Parade bosses released a glut of financial figures on April 13. There is just under a fortnight until decision night and very little will change now.

I can only reiterate my sentiments from above to voters: digest the available details, weight it up, make a call that you can live with.

Some paint this as a no-brainer, and for a portion of voters that may well be the case, but the very fact that so many questions remain shows that is quite a simplistic stance for such an emotional subject.

The shareholders are not the architects of this desperate situation; they won’t be the ones taking the acclaim if things work out in the long term so they shouldn’t be the ones condemned if it doesn’t.

All they can do is follow their hearts and whether it’s a Yes or a No there is just one certainty – on May 10 there will be an awful lot of pieces to be picked up and very few winners.

South Wales Argus:

ON a night of fond black and amber memories, some blue and black words struck a chord at Rodney Parade.

The Newport RFC team that triumphed in the 1977 Welsh Cup final was reunited at Rodney Parade last Friday to mark the 40th anniversary of their triumph against Cardiff in the capital.

It was a terrific night book-ended by warm words by captain Colin Smart and featuring memories from what the records show was a terrific season.

I wasn’t born in 1977 and, since I’ve only lived in Wales since 2006, the Pilkington Cup was the trophy that I grew up knowing.

My first final memory is a young Martin Johnson, with D on his back, galloping over for Tigers against Harlequins in 1993 but that didn’t matter while sat in the Bisley Suite at Rodney Parade.

It was a night of wonderful recollections – as Smart acknowledged, many of which were wrong until the highlights were shown – and touching friendship from a group who had a magical time together.

But in these troubling, uncertain times at Rodney Parade it was telling that the speech of guest Ian Tabor, a figure many will know well from the Arms Park, went down a treat.

Cardiff RFC’s representative was an outsider but spoke wonderfully about the clubs being the greatest enemies yet the greatest friends.

The following afternoon Newbridge showed that Newport County aren’t the only ones capable of a great escape.

The Pigs beat second-placed Narberth – a fifth win from six – to avoid relegation from the Championship, a feat that earned congratulations on social media from many Gwent neighbours.

We all enjoy a bit of schadenfreude every now and then but sport is nothing without our fiercest and traditional rivals.

(Picture of Newport's 1977 side courtesy of Ron Sutcliffe)