Warren Gatland has named his Six Nations squad and will have fingers crossed this weekend as his players go into battle in Europe. Geraint Powell believes the squad reflects the impact of four key issues.

The selection of any Welsh Test squad is always instructive of many of the key issues in Welsh rugby and the announcement this week of the 2018 Six Nations squad was no different.

It was an extended squad of 39 players, given the current list of short-term injuries.

There are four themes of particular note.

• Regional dominance

If anybody had ever forgotten this point, they were reminded that domestic dominance usually translates into Test selection dominance.

Warren Gatland has accepted this from the outset. Remmber his initial selection for the England match at Twickenham in 2008?  A winning team, with familiar combinations, can fast track coaching work.

The Scarlets are currently well ahead of the other three Welsh professional regions.

Wayne Pivac, on a limited budget relative to non-Welsh opposition, has built a fine dry paddock rugby team. Given his coaching history with the Auckland province and the Fijian Test team, there has been a focus on skills and aerobics as well as instilling a good culture. Academy development has been strong, reinforced by astute recruitment from outside Wales.

There are undoubtedly challenges ahead, from the business balance sheet to replacing the departing Tadhg Beirne and John Barclay, but the Scarlets have laid excellent foundations on the rugby side of the business as they demonstrated in their recent demolition of Bath at The Rec.

A total of 13 Scarlets players have been selected by Wales on the back of this success, even with Jake Ball and Jonathan Davies injured and with Liam Williams leaving them over the summer. They include James Davies, who has been in ferocious competition with injured captain Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric, Ollie Griffiths, Ellis Jenkins and Thomas Young for the seven jersey.

• Play in Wales to play for Wales

With the significant tightening in October of the rules for playing for Wales – “play in Wales to play for Wales” – until 60 caps and with a dual central contract pot of money to focus on those players beyond that milestone, it was always going to be interesting to see the practical evolution following the policy decision. The legal risk of this policy has also lowered with structural developments,

Eligible exiled stalwarts such as Jamie Roberts and Luke Charteris find themselves out in the cold.  If either have a hunger to still play Test rugby, and both should have the legs to comfortably reach the 2019 World Cup, they would be well advised to extricate themselves from their current contracts and return to the shop window of the Welsh regions. They may be eligible under their current contracts, but out of sight will increasingly mean out of mind.

The Dragons, under WRU ownership, have focussed heavily upon acquiring or reclaiming Welsh qualified players in England for next season, including Ross Moriarty, Richard Hibbard and Rhodri Williams. This has strengthened the Dragons without competing for out of contract players at other regions.

Josh Adams, in scintillating form for low-lying Worcester, is included in the Welsh squad. He will have to return to Wales in 2019 to continue his Test rugby aspirations, and it would probably be a prudent career move to ask to be released and head back across the Severn this summer.

• Warren Gatland

Gatland has had his critics in Welsh rugby, from the romantics over his Test playing style and particularly in recent seasons, but nobody can deny that he has always been his own man.

Unlike with some previous Welsh coaching regimes, there is no doubt over who is in charge and who are taking orders. There is no competing cabal of senior players.

It was no secret, and it was no surprise, that Gatland did not like the previous version of the Welsh Rugby Union’s Senior Player Selection Policy being erroneously called “Gatland’s Law”.

A national head coach wants as much control over player access as possible, in Wales through agreement with the domestic regional supply chain, but seldom to the extent that he cannot select his best players when they have been lost to exile by others.

So it was notable that, whilst Joe Schmidt omitted the France-bound Simon Zebo next season, Gatland included the France-bound Rhys Webb and the rumoured to be England-bound Alex Cuthbert in his squad.

Both Welsh players will be ineligible for selection from next season under the new policy, unless they change their minds and can still extricate themselves from anything legally binding.

Is Gatland fully reconciled to the new selection policy of his employers, as the Welsh rugby public increasingly turn their attention to the matter of next year’s World Cup?

• Player depth

Whilst we may be blessed in certain positions, e.g. openside flanker, recent Welsh squads have highlighted the weaknesses in certain other positions through the crash course measures to counter them and particularly in relation to the front five where the cupboard is not well stocked.

We were once well blessed with a production of front row players, with Huw Bennett, Matthew Rees, Richard Hibbard, Adam Jones, Duncan Jones and Gethin Jenkins all being born within five years of each other.  We are now chronically short of candidates for these positions in the peak 27-32 years age range.

We then saw a golden generation at lock with Luke Charteris (born 1983), Ian Evans (born 1984), Alun Wyn Jones (born 1985) and Bradley Davies (born 1987), but the supply of equivalent talent then also dried-up.

At lock, Seb Davies and Adam Beard have been identified and their development towards Test rugby is clearly being strategically expedited.

Hooker Elliot Dee, with perhaps a better balance between tight and loose play than some of his rivals, is also clearly one with a Test future.

Whilst Wales took a good look at the highly promising Leon Brown in November, his concussion now allows Wales to look at another promising tight head prop in Dillon Lewis.

If strategic player succession planning is usually part of a strategic regional or provincial rugby model, the catch-up being played highlights the limitations of our implemented model.

The key for Wales, notorious slow starters, in this campaign is beating a reinvigorated but injury weakened Scotland at home on the opening day of the tournament. Lose that one, with trips to London and Dublin to follow, and it could be a hard campaign.