Normal service will resume this weekend and, from a Welsh perspective, it will be interesting to note whether the success of the national team in the RBS Six Nations Championship will filter through to the regional sides. The Ospreys, Wales's sole remaining representative in the EDF Energy Cup, play Saracens in the semi-finals, a fixture that will be repeated in a fortnight's time in the Heineken Cup quarter-finals during the same weekend that Cardiff Blues travel to Toulouse. Will Welsh success be shared among the regions?

Like their counterparts from Scotland, Welsh teams have yet to make their mark on the Heineken Cup in the way that English, French and Irish teams have done. They have not been feared, there has been no hint of the trepidation, for instance, that the name of Munster brings.

This absence can partly be attributed to each region's failure to produce a solid and authoritative pack of forwards. They have been too light a presence, unable to throw their weight around when the occasion demanded.

This season, for the first time, the Ospreys and Cardiff have managed to exert pressure. The Ospreys did so in the pool stage against Ulster and Gloucester, the Blues against Stade Français and Bristol particularly. These were matches, played in less than ideal conditions, where they could command proceedings.

Such tenacity has not been so clearly in evidence in the past. To win big competitions, a team need the capacity to return to the coalface to restore stability, to give an opportunity to reassess the possibilities, to control and limit the flow, to lessen the capacity for error. So often it is the team's muscle and bone that do this. Welsh teams have been lacking in this department.

This season, at international level, Wales have confidently taken on the challenges of England, France and Ireland, all of whom in recent years have boasted a competitive and often dominant pack, so that they have consistently made an impression in the Heineken Cup and the Six Nations Championship. Scotland remain on the mending list in the way that Wales were a few years ago.

Of all the matches that Wales played this season, no moment held a greater significance than in the 65th minute of the game against France. Stephen Jones, the replacement fly half, failed to control the ball and it travelled backwards, Lee Byrne compounded the hazard and fumbled. This led to a scrum not far from Wales's tryline with a France put-in.

If the try by Shane Williams had put the grand slam within sight for Wales, this attacking scrum for France could have dimmed the vision. Past unsteadiness for Wales and known French solidity hinted strongly at France's advantage. Wales normally would have quailed at the dire prospect, but Ryan Jones, the captain, is made of sterner stuff and instead urged his men to put France to the sword with a mighty shove off the ball, which Wales claimed as their own.

This was not the turning point of the match for Wales, as some have suggested. They had done that with Williams's turn of speed and control of the ball for his record-breaking try. No. The scrum allowed Wales to make a statement and in this way put their confident signature on their game and to claim their victory outright. This was not the Wales of old, who might have turned over to have their soft underbelly tickled. This was the necessary stuff to command respect.

And so it is with the regions as they embark on their journeys of recognition and reputation. Have they the mettle, too, to take on the other teams and to prove that they are made of the right stuff?

As for turning points, only time will tell whether the season proves as much for Wales. After the grand slam in 2005, the whole promising edifice collapsed around everyone's ears amid acrimony and dissent. Are they, at last, of such stuff as champions are made?