THE Celtic League - and regional rugby in Wales - is now two years old, but it has to be said there is still some way to go before stability is brought to the domestic game.

Wales are flying high on the international front, Grand Slam and Triple Crown winners and Six Nations champions for the first time while November games have been arranged with all three Southern Hemisphere giants, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.

And the Welsh Rugby Union coffers have taken a turn for the better with new repayment terms successfully negotiated and a revenue boost from the Grand Slam glory.

But at the very time when the Celtic League needs to settle down, when the Irish have come more on board by agreeing to make Heineken Cup qualification via the league, a spanner is thrown in the works, in Wales of all places.

For the WRU/regions are threatening the very stability they want in the Celtic League by trying to get into bed with England through the Powergen Cup.

There is a move for the four regions to compete with the England big boys in their competition which might sound all well and good, and what many fans want.

But it looks like a mealy mouthed arrangement to take part in a cup competition for the first month of the season only.

The returning British Lions players will not be involved because they will be resting and doing conditioning work for the first month of next season.

And a September Powergen Cup competition involving Welsh teams would mean a more congested season and would involve moving the Celtic League games from September to November when the internationals are being played.

That is precisely what has undermined the Celtic competition this season with teams being under strength and reducing the whole value of it.

But finally the Irish, who appeared to have little appetite for the Celtic League, have come on board by making qualification for the Heineken Cup competition dependent on league results.

That strengthened the competition at a stroke. Yet now Welsh teams are immediately jeopardising that by taking steps towards being involved in the Powergen Cup.

The Irish will be distinctly unhappy with such an arrangement and for once no-one could blame them.

The Powergen competition would last for only the first month of the season anyway and it could even mean just one game before being knocked out.

And for that the entire Celtic League programme could be put under threat. A suggested home or away league programme would have little credibility either.

What about a sponsor for the league as well? It's crying out for commercial support, but there would be even less opportunity if potential backers could see only fragmentation and still no settled pattern emerging.

Meanwhile, all kind of speculation persists about the make-up of Sir Clive Woodward's British Lions Test team in New Zealand this summer.

Welsh suspicion is not helped by suggestions from his Irish number two Eddie O'Sullivan that selection had to depend on experience and track record in New Zealand plus known pedigree.

That was a pretty clear swipe at Celtic rivals Wales who denied Ireland the Triple Crown when they got the better of Ireland in their Six Nations showdown last month.

It's obviously the way Woodward was thinking, and adds credence to the view that he will pack his Test side with players who have previously performed in New Zealand and will play it that same way instead of going for the fluid Welsh approach with plenty of movement and invention.

On that basis Wales will be lucky to have any more than three players in the Test team, maybe not that if Jonny Wilkinson maintains his recovery and gets on the plane as well.

There's plenty of criticism from fans in Wales so far, but it could reach a crescendo this summer.