Here we go again. For those of us who have always believed that an Anglo-Welsh league would fix so many of rugby union’s ills on the west side of the Severn, the revelation that there have been discussions about two regions joining the Prem has lured us in again and brought back cruel memories.

It is more than a quarter of a century since the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU), that laughable governing body, turned down the chance for five of its clubs to play the new professional English domestic structure, announcing that it was not enough.

Within a few years, the WRU was only presiding over five professional outfits anyway and within a couple more years, only four. At that point, it was grimly apparent that the WRU was so toothless that it was maybe only fit enough to oversee the World Gurning Championship.

The English offer was a pivotal moment in the sense that Welsh rugby proceeded to get caught in the mechanics of a pigheaded mistake which has threatened ever since to decapitate it.

Trapped in a United Rugby Championship in which the regions struggle to be competitive on the field and flop dismally at being successful off it, the mood has never felt either as low or as vitriolic.

In the last year, to try to fix the mess, the WRU has declared the intention to cut either Ospreys or the Scarlets – Swansea and Llanelli, in lay terms – and the scene has descended into something that, at times, has resembled anarchy.

After years of somehow managing to mask the cracks under Warren Gatland, the Welsh national side now represents the dire state of the national game and the Land of My Fathers has morphed into the Land of My Failures.

The talented Welsh players – Jac Morgan, Dewi Lake, Louis Rees-Zammit, Tomos Williams – are earning their corn in England and who can blame them with what has been occurring in the homeland? Something needs to change and all the toxicity caused by the plan to go from four to three suggests that even the WRU is realising that arbitrary slaughter might not be the solution. So what would?

Enter Lyndon Faulkner, the new chairman, and reenter the Anglo-Welsh fantasy. Faulkner, a multi-millionaire who played in the great Pontypool side of the Eighties, has arrived promising to “review everything”. It is now clear that includes the possibility of relaunching that dusty old attempt to gain representation in an Anglo-Welsh competition.

With the WRU recently announcing a record £18m loss in the last financial year, with lawsuits in motion and with the spectre of the visits of New Zealand and Australia – not to mention Japan – to the Principality Stadium in the next month, the timing of this positive story does seem convenient. And for many in Wales, it seems too convenient.

Since the reports of possible Prem inclusion, the cynics have accused the WRU of using this as a smoke shield to distract from the shambles at home. Inevitably, they have held up the joint-statement released by Prem Rugby and the Rugby Football Union on Wednesday, which ventured that while the Prem is looking to expand, the priority is to focus on English clubs to fill out the numbers.

In truth, the statement could not have said anything else. If it had stipulated, that yes, the priority was to invite say Cardiff and the Ospreys to the negotiating table, such as Worcester Warriors would have gone berserk. Just like the WRU’s statement issued on the same day, there was no out-and-out denial and that is why the Anglo-Welsh dream of finally, after all these decades, becoming a feasible reality is making so many of us misty-eyed.

Cross-border skirmishes are box office, they attract fans and viewers and gain exposure. Surely nobody can disagree that if the WRU had accepted the original offer, Welsh rugby would be in a far, far better place than this current chaos. It is ridiculous that there are clubs such as Bath and Cardiff who are only 60 miles apart but do not play each other annually.

Instead, Cardiff travel to places such as Johannesburg to play league fixtures. It is ridiculous in a competitive sense and even more from a commercial standpoint. Rivalry sells and there is no more passionate rugby union conflict than England vs Wales. The Prem clubs know that it would raise its competition across the board. Everyone would be happy – the fans, the TV execs, the ticket-sellers, the accountants, the sponsors, the owners.

Granted, this should have happened in a different century and maybe the detractors are right in insisting that not only has this particular horse bolted, but has since been pulled up in five Grand Nationals and has long been retired in a pasture. But as Faulkner surveys the calamity that is Welsh rugby and sets out a recovery plan, he is right to attempt to secure a lifeline that could save the game in his country.