Warren Gatland is worried at the growing number of Welsh players moving overseas but he cannot see a way to stop the exodus to France.
Gethin Jenkins will leave Cardiff Blues at the end of the season to join Top 14 side Toulon and in doing so he will join Mike Phillips, James Hook, Lee Byrne who are already in France.
Jenkins is unlikely to be the last player to make the switch to France with Huw Bennett, Luke Charteris and Aled Brew all linked with moves in the summer and Gatland has admitted he does not know how he can prevent Welsh internationals heading to France.
"It is difficult to compete with the money the players are being offered overseas, given the financial pressures our regions are under at the moment," Gatland said.
"It is difficult for the regions and difficult for the players when they are being offered significantly more money overseas.
"I don't know what the answer is. My stance has always been ideally we would love them to stay here, and we will do everything we can to try to keep them here, but players have a very short career in terms of playing at this level."
From next season the four Welsh regions will have a £3.5million-a-squad salary cap and the limited resources means more and more players are likely to seek moves abroad.
Former Wales captain Matthew Rees is concerned by the exodus and he has warned that the Welsh Rugby Union will have to do something to address the issue sooner rather than later.
"We are working well at international level, but the regions are an issue at the moment, especially when you start seeing your best players in Wales leaving," Rees said shortly before Jenkins confirmed his Toulon move. "I think something needs to be done sooner rather than later to stop this from happening.
"At the end of the day, the supporters want to be seeing the best Welsh players playing in Wales. You don't want to be seeing them leaving to go elsewhere. We've put the building blocks in place in terms of the international scene and Wales as a team.
"But that is only as strong as your regions are, and we've got to make sure that is sorted sooner rather than later."