We Welsh are an emotionally complicated people, prone to melancholy certainly, appearing to be perpetually sat on an emotional see-saw.

Roller coasters do not even come close to giving us the ride that following our national rugby team provide.

My great gran always had a hankie in hand to wipe away the tears from her eyes, tears created by sadness or laughter, there never seemed to be a halfway house of emotion.

Nothing embodies these characteristics more than being a Wales supporter.

There is a school of thought that being an All Blacks fan must be the most boring sporting role on earth, they hardly ever play badly and defeat is even more of a rarity.

There are some of us Welsh, who wouldn’t mind a few years of “boredom”

So why the melancholy ? Ok the weather doesn’t help, west maybe best, but sadly it also nearer the Atlantic, those beautiful green hills of Carmarthenshire don’t get to be that shade of green without the assistance of the weather systems brewed up in the bay of biscay.

At the moment a deep depression has settled in the west and has spread eastwards covering the whole country.

The long range forecast does not look promising, with the potential for a group of death even further east in 2019, at the rugby World Cup in Japan, although in the land of the rising sun maybe the weather will improve.

If Wales were caught between two stools in the autumn then they now find themselves caught between three stools, a kitchen table and a fridge freezer.

Young exciting rugby talents riddled with splinters, from sitting on the bench since last autumn, anxiously await a call up to national service, as many of the the old guard, both players and management, perform below par in an ever changing game in which Wales appear to be falling further and further behind.      

The 2017 six nations is lost, but there is an added ingredient this year, as the 2019 rugby World Cup draw is due to take place in May, based on team rankings at the the end of the tournament.

Wales are currently seventh in the world rugby rankings, and if they beat either Ireland or France in the coming weeks they will maintain that ranking.

If Wales lose both their remaining matches against Ireland and France, they will drop out of the top eight, and will get a tougher World Cup pool, with two top eight teams in their group, as happened in 2015.

By all accounts the Welsh camp is not a happy place, that Welsh melancholia has taken hold, there appears to be very little joy on the field, the fear of failure suffocating every move, every decision every waking moment.

As spectators and fans you feel for them, no Welsh team has worked harder or been braver.

For the next three weeks the pressure will be even greater to get that important win, but after that Wales really need to sort things out, sadly with Gatland and Howley on Lions duty, there will be a considerable delay in the much needed reformation.

So for the foreseeable future I suggest you hold on to your hankie.