RUGBY/ 2002 - 2003 SEASON: Gerry Thornley looks ahead to another season and wonders whether it's all got a bit too congested and demanding for everbody concerned. Already, an expanded Irish squad have been up to their necks in Polish ice chambers and will assemble in Limerick tomorrow for the next fortnight

So here we go again. Already, an expanded Irish squad have been up to their necks in Polish ice chambers and will assemble in Limerick tomorrow for the next fortnight. Meantime, a spate of pre-season friendlies for the provinces kicks off the season next week. There follows 11 international weekends, six to nine more in the Heineken Cup and a minimum of seven in the Celtic League rising to a potential 10, with the clubs picking up the crumbs. Summer is over, ha ha.

Last season it was the after effects of the foot-and-mouth epidemic which rippled through the Irish season. This season it's the Lens effect which has caused the unwanted congestion. The ramifications of Ireland's defeat to Argentina in the World Cup quarter-final play-off means that, unlike the other Six Nations, once more there is a September start - ridiculously early to be playing Test rugby - as Ireland are obliged to qualify for next year's finals in Australia.

Romania provide warm-up opposition in readiness for an arduous trip to Siberia to play Russia in the first qualifier, followed by the Georgians a week later in Lansdowne Road. The now customary three autumnal internationals and a full championship programme ensures 11 Test matches this season, a figure which rises to 14 when one includes next summer's tour to Australia, Tonga and Fiji; outstripping the dozen Tests last season.

Remembering how France were sending home players in body bags after a tour of the polynesian islands in advance of a two-Test series in New Zealand on a kamikaze tour a few summers ago, you have to wonder if Ireland really need next summer's tour - especially bearing in mind the October 2003 World Cup in Australia.

Due to the relatively streamlined, centrally contracted player structures here, Irish rugby is perhaps better able to cope than most European nations. Just about. That the bulk of the Leinster and Munster squads carried such a load in the Celtic League and Heineken Cup, as well as the international campaign, took its toll last season.

With the exception of England's Lions who were rested from their tour of Argentina in June, Europe's leading players don't appear to have been given a long enough lay-off. The game's ruling global body, the International Board, are supposedly meant to give the lead on the vexed issue of player burn-out and accordingly recently conducted a seminar on the matter.

Yet this season they also have the nerve to foist an inaugural Northern Hemisphere v Southern Hemisphere fixture on an over-crowded itinerary - an unwanted jamboree/junket (dilute to taste) with little or no relevance attached to the result.

Once more, too, the game's rulers have risked tampering with the European game's one true golden goose - the Six Nations. Already it been moved back in the calendar, not to mention more fractured TV coverage, the advent of Sunday games and the arrival of the Italians. Now, largely at the behest of the English clubs and to some extent the French - this season it has been shrunk from a 10-week window to seven weeks.

Some players, such as Fabien Galthie, maintain that compressing the championship like this is a good thing. Others reckon it could be excessively demanding on the players. Of course, it could be argued that the southern hemisphere big three play four Tri-Nations' games in a six-week time frame.

The Six Nations' fixture list won't be ratified until next week but the signs are that Ireland will kick-off with games in Murrayfield and Rome just six days' apart. It could be that the Irish squad might fly on direct to Rome from Edinburgh. In any case, this cannot be what Eddie O'Sullivan and the Irish players desire, while it will intensify the demands on non-contracted players at under-21 level.

Nor, for that matter, will it suit the supporters. Contrary to the cliched images of rugby folk, not all of them have bottomless pockets. Away trips will lose their appeal when compressed into a shorter timespan. With the Scottish game likely to fall on the preceding Sunday, it's likely that this popular Six Nations' trip will lose out to some extent in preference to Rome.

That the September internationals will clash with the bulk of the group stages in the Celtic League may be a blessing in disguise, even if the provincial coaches might beg to differ. At last the likes of Donnacha O'Callaghan, Jeremy Staunton, Gavin Hickie, Kieran Lewis and others will be given a window of opportunity.

Leinster, who could be deprived of seven of their first-choice pack, and 11 of their ideal starting team for five or six Celtic League matches, cannot be expected to retain their title. Nor can too much be expected of Munster, with only marginally less demands, and the triple whammy incurred by long-term injuries to David Wallace, Paul O'Connell and Anthony Horgan.

Connacht, at last being used correctly as a breeding ground for indigenous Irish talent, will be interesting. Ulster, significantly strengthened, now has more southern hemisphere accents bouncing off their dressing-room walls. After Alan Solomons' bedding-in season, and with less Test call-ups, they might be the best equipped of the provinces to mount a sustained challenge in the Celtic League.

It serves Irish interests that the Celtic League has no midweek rounds this time, and that the semi-finals and final have been put back to the new year. Last season the pre-Christmas half of the campaign was too top heavy. Likewise, it's good to see the Heineken Cup quarter-finals have been put back to April rather than being run-off with indecent haste the week after the final series of pool games in January.

The AIL first division kick-off has also been put back to October, and thankfully not on the same weekend as the Heineken Cup starts. They do still have some weekends all to themselves, though when they clash with European weekends Munster's continuing preference for Saturday afternoon games (in part to suit television) doesn't help the clubs' cause.

This season, alas, does mark the demise of the Irish Students, as the IRFU (mindful of these penurious times, witness the unexceptional Six Nations deal-in-the-making with the BBC) found it impractical to sustain them on the same Fridays as the under-21s' were playing. Inevitably, some things have to give.