Former South African coach Nick Mallett believes there is no hope of the Six Nations tournament ever becoming competitive again.
Mallett, who guided the Springboks to a record equaling 17 successive test victories, believes England and France are too strong for the other nations and doubts that Wales, Scotland or Italy could ever win the northern hemisphere's top tournament again.
"France and England are just going to get stronger and stronger," said Malett.
"Their club championships are so competitive and rising in quality that I could even see their premier teams ending up splitting away from the European Cup and playing against the best from the southern hemisphere in five or six years time.
"Welsh and Italian rugby are a shambles while Scotland just can't compete."
Mallett, who took the South Africans to the 1999 World Cup semi-finals, said there were radical measures needed to be taken if the Welsh were to recover.
"The Welsh should take a lesson from the Irish, who are the third best team by some margin in the Six Nations.
"They revamped their championship and now they are reaping the benefits both at European Cup level and internationally," he said.
However he could see little hope for the Italians, who have failed to win a Six Nations match since beating Scotland on their debut in the competition in 2000.
"They have not improved and there is no hope for them whatsoever."
While Mallett said the Irish had come on in leaps and bounds and conceivably could have grounds for landing the Grand Slam this time round, as they host both England and France, he felt it was a long shot.
"They still shipped over 40 points against France last season so it is hard to see that sort of difference being redressed," he said.