• Pool 4: Northampton 28-12 Cardiff

• Saints claim first win for Prem side at eighth time of asking

At 7.16pm, just around the time those Sunday night blues kick in, England’s Champions Cup cohort finally had something to cheer about. It was not pretty but after seven of their Prem rivals had failed to claim victory in the opening round of the competition, Saints survived a sizeable scare from Cardiff to put one on the board for the Prem, thanks in no small part to the excellent George Hendy.

It might be harsh on some of the performances this weekend – Gloucester were immense in drawing with Bordeaux, Exeter mightily unlucky to be beaten in Toulouse – but zero wins would have been a crushing embarrassment for a league that has been feted for its attacking exploits so far this season. One out of eight is not a lot to shout about as it is.

• Doubt over regions is fast escalating into a civil war

• Six Nations squad announcement overshadowed

The prevailing mood in Welsh rugby has been frequently dark, but rarely this bible black. Once upon a time a Six Nations squad announcement would have topped the agenda across the country; on Tuesday it felt like a semicolon in a much bigger narrative. Even Wales have never selected seven players whose club is in imminent danger of being axed by their own union.

The bare facts of the situation are increasingly stark for all involved. The existing owners of Ospreys, Wales’s most successful region of the past two decades, have just been nominated controversially as the preferred bidders for Cardiff, potentially clearing the way to reduce the number of Welsh professional sides from four to three. The internecine politics have become so increasingly toxic that Steve Tandy, the national head coach, had to plead for rugby‑related questions at his lunchtime squad announcement.