Bedrock stuck in a hard place

All-Ireland League: Yesterday the Division-Three champions, Bruff, stepped on to the team bus and started off on their journey to Derry. Connemara will be making a comparable odyssey later in the campaign when they leave Monastery Field bound for Ards.

Bruff are full of optimism for the new season. Their bus left Limerick at 2pm on a trip that would take upwards of six hours and cost the club around 3,500.

Bruff don't complain about the sport they love to play. It is one of the quirks that teams have to endure in the AIL campaign. But they are also among the clubs that don't pay their players.

When the game went open, Bruff enshrined the concept of amateurism in their constitution. Some clubs pay their players; some don't. Some clubs say they don't but do. Bruff don't.

There are clubs around the country that will sleep less easily than the honorary secretary of Bruff; for those clubs that do pay players, generating finance is an enduring headache.

With small crowds and the rugby euro going mainly toward international, Heineken European Cup and Magners Celtic League games, there has been much talk about where the AIL goes. The IRFU has little doubt about the importance of the clubs, and this week the president, Der Healy, expressed support for all 48 participating.

"The club game remains our bedrock and we will continue to support the AIB League, as well as the AIB Cup and AIB Junior Cups, as the top club competitions in Ireland," he said.

"The game has seen many changes over the lifetime of the league and although the advent of professionalism has shifted the rugby landscape, we must always remember that the club remains an important and unique element of the social fabric of our game."

The former Highfield player also underlined the long-term commitment of the IRFU: "We are . . . formulating a new strategic plan for the development of the game in Ireland over the next four years, and the wellbeing of the grassroots game at club and schools level will be a priority."

The clubs will welcome Healy's remarks. Money and the time are issues, and even the structure whereby teams top the league and then enter playoffs does not find universal support.

"It's a hard slog, especially the way the provincial set-up is going and the international stuff that the crowds seem to be going to, the Heineken Cup and so on," says the Garryowen captain, Paul Neville. "It's up to each club about how they go about their business. Garryowen are progressive in that way but I could see that the junior clubs would find it that more difficult.

"I don't know what the answer is to the club set-up. I think maybe if it was broken into a two-tier system and the top two go through as a semi-final. Currently it doesn't make sense. If . . . you top the league, then you deserve to win it . . . I just think if it was two-tier with a semi-final and final it would be better."

There has been talk too of playing summer rugby and of a North-South divide of the island that would limit the travelling and time commitments. That would require massive cultural shifts and a total rethink of how the season is organised, especially if clubs were to play, as Irish soccer does, into July.

"Summer rugby makes sense," says Neville. "It would be nicer to watch as well. If the younger guys were coming through and playing in drier conditions, better conditions, they would go on to play better rugby. I'm not saying to play it all summer because the ground is harder and injuries will be picked up. But surely there's a happy medium.

"Sure, it would be hard to fit that in with the traditional times in that pre-season stuff is done for the academies and full-time players, the tie to the Heineken Cup and everything. But if you are using the AIL for bringing guys through . . . I just think it would be better rugby and a better standard of play if you could finish later in the season."

Shannon playing Garryowen in the league used to attract up to 7,000 punters. Now it's more like 700. The unavoidable conclusion is that the format is tired and interest is declining.

"Finance is definitely a problem and the suggestion of dividing the country would definitely cut expenses," says the Bruff captain, Cathal O'Regan. "Something has to be done. The standard isn't what it should be."

Players will never tire of playing and it can be argued rugby is continuing to go through a transition. Amateur players in a professional world is a concept that requires juggling, as is the idea of what the IRFU call the game's "bedrock", the clubs, being fourth in the pecking order. In that world €3,500 euro and two days out of the week for one match is a big commitment.

The clubs will be watching Healy's next moves with interest.