Howley makes the big switch and leaves Welsh travails behind

Wasps' new scrum-half relishes challenge of Premiership after finally quitting troubled Principality

It has been removals week in the Howley household, with added trauma sprinkled over the operation like extra pepperoni on a takeaway pizza. Rob Howley is a wonderful scrum-half, up there alongside George Gregan and Joost van der Westhuizen as the finest of his generation, but he is fairly useless at handling changes of scenery. Having agonised for ever and a day before leaving the Bridgend club for Cardiff in 1996, a decision that did not even demand a change of address, he was always likely to regard a move to London with the kind of trepidation Wilfred Thesiger reserved for his lengthier explorations of Arabia's Empty Quarter.

"My family are on their way up the M4 as we speak," Howley said following a long training stint with his new Wasps muckers on a patch of urban green somewhere off the North Circular. "That will make it easier. My main reason, maybe the only real reason, for retiring from international rugby was to spend more time with my wife and daughters, so having them with me here is what it's about. Meanwhile, I'm decorating like crazy and fighting a small war with the gas people." Happy days.

Actually, Howley is happiness personified. He has bought a place in Windsor – not the castle, although some of the financial temptations dangled before him in the none-too-distant past might have put him in the market for a wing or two – and the location leaves him handily placed for both squad sessions in Acton and Premiership matches in High Wycombe. He is equally well positioned to help Wasps, heavyweight hitters who floated like bees and stung like butterflies last season, to rediscover some rugby ringcraft. With a world-class recruit in their corner, the Londoners look ready to punch their weight again.

Certainly, Warren Gatland is quietly confident of a top four finish and a decent cup run or two. It was the coach who finally convinced Howley that it was high time he crossed the Severn Bridge for a period of years rather than hours: "I had always rated Wasps, always got along well with people like Lawrence Dallaglio and Kenny Logan," the player said, "and one 15-minute phone chat with Warren clinched it for me."

The fruits of that brief conversation are already evident, four matches into the campaign. Wasps have created more scoring opportunities in 320 minutes than they managed in 30-odd matches last term.

Situated as he is between Dallaglio, still the most charismatically forceful loose forward in English rugby, and Alex King, that most subtle and sophisticated of Premiership outside-halves, Howley is part of a decision-making trinity bordering on the holy. Few, if any, of their rivals can match the wit and wisdom Wasps now boast in the key positions between Nos 8 and 10. When Gatland says his side "could" have a major say in who wins what this season, he means "should", not least because his prize summer signing will not be prey to international demands. Howley has left the mad, bad and positively dangerous world of the Red Dragonhood behind him, without regret.

"Okay, so Wales didn't win a World Cup," he said. "And Cardiff didn't win a European title, either. But looking at it now, I believe I fulfilled my more realistic ambitions, both at Test level and in the Welsh club game. I missed the first year of my daughter Megan's life because of international commitments [she was born during the 1999 World Cup], and I didn't want to go through the same thing with Rebecca [who was born in April]. Having decided I should start putting my family first, I felt it was legitimate to explore other options and seek new challenges that were more compatible with my situation.

"This is a massive upheaval for me, definitely, because I'm a home-town sort. I spent six years at Cardiff, but I never moved out of Bridgend and never wanted to. My parents lived less than a mile away, my parents-in-law less than two, and that familiar environment was important to me. I was very close to joining Leicester three or four years ago – I agreed the deal, more or less – but at the very last minute, we decided as a family that it wasn't right. I wasn't willing to move unless I was convinced everyone would be absolutely happy, so I stayed put.

"I fretted over this move, too, but the welcome has been awesome. And when I look at the fixture list and run my mind over the scrum-halves I'll be facing every weekend – Pichot, Bracken, Dawson, maybe Healey, if Leicester ever play him in the position – I know my competitive urge will be satisfied. The English Premiership is quite something, you know: some rugby people on this side of the bridge really don't appreciate the quality of what they have. This is the best league in the northern hemisphere, end of story. It is a pressure competition, and I'm excited by it."

More excited, clearly, than he was at the prospect of another three or four years at the coalface in Wales, where standards on the field are slipping as the politics off the field continues to mushroom. The other week, Howley suggested, ever so politely, that some of his countrymen might not be sufficiently dedicated in their approach to physical fitness and match preparation. His comments were both resented and rejected, not least by his former colleague at club and international level, Martyn Williams, who went public with a peppery response. Perhaps as a result, Howley is acutely sensitive to any question about the state of the game in his homeland.

"Welsh rugby was good to me for years and it has my complete support, so I don't want to have a go at the people back home in any way," he said. There again, he knows full well there are major issues on the Welsh agenda – one glance at the current Celtic League standings tells the story – and after much thought, he ventured an opinion or two. "Yes, we're struggling for results at club level at the moment, but it is essential that the people at the top end look at the bigger picture and start turning their thoughts to next year's World Cup, which is absolutely vital to Wales," he said.

"We are in a transition period, but transition periods have to end some time. For years, there was a hard core of players at the heart of the Test team: Scott Gibbs, Scott Quinnell, Neil Jenkins, myself I suppose. The moment has arrived for new people to put up their hands and take on the big responsibilities involved in driving forward a successful national side. And the clubs? It's fairly obvious that Welsh club rugby does not offer the week-in, week-out intensity you find in England, and that some hugely capable players struggle to perform without that buzz, that extra spice. Nobody peaks for every game, but a consistently high level of competition is of enormous benefit. That has to be the departure point for what happens next."

In other words, Welsh rugby needs what the businessmen call a flight to quality – a concentration of resources in the areas of greatest value, in the hope that an upping of performance at the summit will result in a general improvement lower down the hillside.

There are those who will say Howley might have helped that process by staying with Cardiff, or at least continuing to play his rugby west of the Severn. But he has done his bit for the cause, has Rob, and earned the right to graze new pastures of his own choosing. His conscience, unlike some others in the Principality, is as clear as crystal.