PUT the champagne on ice, blow up the black balloons and get ready to light the candles on the birthday cake — the Ospreys are ten years old tomorrow.
On April 10, 2003, they were incorporated when Neath and Swansea rugby clubs joined forces to form a region. It was called a shotgun marriage and the forecast was it wouldn't work. One chap even said it was akin to the Serbs and the Croats teaming up.
But four league titles and an Anglo- Welsh cup success act as an emphatic riposte to those who, a decade ago, queued up to predict doom for the game in the area. Australia were beaten in 2006, and 13 Ospreys featured in the Wales starting line-up that defeated England at Twickenham in 2008. Make no mistake, the Liberty Stadium-based region are in a position to machine-gun their detractors with solid achievements if the argument gets heated.
Forty-five thousand replica shirts were sold in one season, underlining the potential that exists for the Ospreys concept, even if the job of translating that into week-in, week-out support has proved more of a challenge.
Nonetheless, the region have been a colourful addition to the rugby scene in Wales, mixing defiance with quality, at one point lubricated with copious quantities of fake tan. They had their galacticos incarnation, which they were never comfortable with, but these days they appear to have found themselves, with a ferociously hard-working squad largely made up of homegrown players, blue collars to the fore, egos left outside the door.
In many ways what has been achieved from a standing start has been remarkable. Rewind a decade to the Revolution Bar in Swansea and a turbulent meeting of fans and the Ospreys' hierarchy to address concerns about the new region. Much of the fretting probably would have been eased that night had someone been on hand to read the tea leaves and flag up a future that involved five pieces of silverware in ten years.
Roger Blyth has been on board for the whole journey. He is asked to imagine he is an exam room, with a paper in front of him that contains the question: "The Ospreys — a success or not?" How would he answer it?
"In many respects, it has been an outstanding success," said Blyth. "The trophies are the most obvious indication of that, but we are also proud of our record for developing players and coaches.
"In addition, we have established the Ospreys as a brand, are playing out of a state-of-the-art stadium and are doing all we can to forge ties to the community.
"Of course, there have been problems, not least related to finance at various points. In that respect, I guess people might talk about us as being a qualified success. That is fair enough. But we are working our way through those issues and many other rugby organisations have similar concerns."
On the subject of problems, let's not forget those that afflict the clubs below the regional structure. Try convincing everyone at Maesteg RFC that life is great as they battle to make headway in division two west, for instance. "The game isn't well below the national team, full stop," said former Neath team secretary Dai Shaw. "The regions are finding it tough but so are the clubs.
"Something needs to be done to revive the club scene, perhaps through the regions making more players available to play in the Premiership throughout the season. That would improve standards and increase interest.
"The Ospreys have been a success and there is no going back to the old system. But away from the national team, the game in Wales has problems."
Blyth's view? "The regional system is only ten years old, so you wouldn't expect everything to be perfect. But the old structure was unsustainable. Our aim is to build on what we have achieved, and we want the clubs in the area to be as strong as possible. But regional rugby is the way forward. It has been turbulent at times, but it had to happen."
