Wales are looking to capitalise on the explosion of interest in rugby after the World Cup and develop the next generation, writes The Guardian's Paul Rees.
"Wales may be saying farewell to their long-serving wing Shane Williams on Saturday but their focus is on the future. It is some while since the World Cup semi-finalists enjoyed sustained success and after a campaign in New Zealand that fired the public imagination in one of the few nations in the world where rugby union can claim to be the national sport, the Welsh Rugby Union is wasting no time in ensuring there is a legacy for the game to build on.
"The governing body appointed an extra 18 development officers throughout the country last month to exploit the explosion in interest generated by Wales's World Cup exploits: there was a bigger crowd in the Millennium Stadium to watch the semi-final against France on a big screen than there was at the ground staging the game, Auckland's Eden Park, and a fervour rarely seen since Welsh rugby's golden era in the 1970s.
"The WRU, which too often in the past has preferred to bask in the glory of success rather than attempt to harness it, has initiated a project called Heart of the Nation – Join the Beat, which is designed to bottle the spirit of the World Cup and ferment something even stronger that will sustain the game well beyond the next two World Cups."
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