Intensive care still needed for Irish game

With the final examination of the Irish in the European Cup due this Saturday, sadly it's not too premature to deliver a final health report on the 1997 campaign. The prognosis had been dire at the outset. At times though, the Irish patient showed signs of kicking away the crutches and springing vibrantly off its sickbed. But, ultimately, while there's a pulse beating, it still hasn't made it out of the emergency ward.

The brutal truth is that in the European Cup at any rate, the Irish have won four out of 15, in comparison to five out of 12 last season. The Scots, with five out of 12, and even the Italians (three out of 10) have caught up with the Irish. Meanwhile, the Irish provinces remain roughly as far behind the Welsh, and by extension the French and English, as they were last season.

Thus, for the second year running, it looks as if none of the three Irish provinces will reach the knockout stages. Munster are the one Irish side definitely eliminated, that first Euro defeat on home soil against Cardiff rendering their Pool D denouement against Keith Wood's Harlequins academic - even if it may not always seem like that at Thomond Park next Sunday.

Vis-a-vis Mr Wood and his old, er, sparring partner Mick Galwey, Limerick wags are billing it Judgement Day Two.

Ulster and Leinster retain only the flimsiest mathematical hopes of qualification. The former would need to beat Glasgow away next Sunday by at least 18 points, while Wasps beat Swansea simultaneously - and furthermore, the combined margins of victory would have to come to 83 points.

Leinster, mathematically, still have the best third-place spot, and, with it, the play-offs in their sights. Realistically though, this also requires the minor consideration of victory away to Toulouse on Saturday - coupled with Bath beating Pontypridd and a few other results around Europe going their way.

So then, it could have been worse, but it could have been a good deal better. It may be significant that the two provinces with full-time directors of rugby have accumulated six wins, while Munster and Ulster have just two wins between them. Whatever about that, the need for full-time squads is palpable.

All of the four provincial coaches and managers have been repeating this message mantra-like, and they know better than anyone what they're talking about. With squads of 30 or so, most have, at best, one-third of players who are full professionals, coupled with two-thirds who are semi-professionals.

Leaving aside how the current system fails to stem the haemorrhage of talent to England, this still means that the Irish provinces are not competing on a level footing, never mind with the English or French, but even the Welsh or Scots.

Nor is it simply a question of coaches having more time to work with their players. There are distinct signs of fatigue setting in with some of the Irish teams. For practically all of the players involved have been performing at a level of intensity they have never encountered before.

Some 22 of their players are part-time and so still have the day job to take care of, during which time they are recovering from injuries, along with general wear and tear - and maybe even undergoing physiotherapy on their lunch breaks. This is not professionalism.

If there's one thing the fledgling professional era has taught rugby, it is that quality rest is as important as improved levels of fitness. It was instructive to note the comment by Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger on Saturday concerning the current form of the best player in English football at the moment, namely Dennis Bergkamp. "All his energy is put into what he achieves on the field. He gets plenty of rest."

Significantly, tacit acceptance of this is the decision by one Dublin club to give their Leinster-based players a fortnight off when their involvement in the European Cup ceases.

Now I know money doesn't grow on the leafy trees of Lansdowne Road, and that the days of annual £2 million-plus profits are probably a thing of the past. Even if the English may be creating a somewhat false economic climate at the moment - with, for some at any rate, the path to financial ruin ahead - this does seem like a case of having to speculate to accumulate.

Clearly, the European Cup results shows that Ireland only has scope for four sub-international squads to compete at this level. Given better performances, and even occasional appearances in the knockout stages, the provinces' marketability is under-sold. The 7,000 at Ravenhill last Friday night and, even more so, the remarkable 5,500 attendance at Donnybrook for the visit of Milan shows what's possible.

With the advent of some separate terrestrial television coverage, floodlights, an expanded Interprovincial series and a Celtic Cup, the provinces could be even more viable. However, there are still strong reasons for believing that four super clubs (formed by franchises from the existing clubs along existing provincial lines) would be far more viable. That said, the marketability of the European Cup itself hasn't been nearly fulfilled. The ERC board must be concerned at the way the competition hasn't really captured the public imagination. The average attendance for the third and fourth rounds was approximately 5,500.

Here, I feel, Sky is a problem. They do a good job, and in both their coverage of the entire Lions' tour and the Tri-Nations and the Super 12, have broadened the coverage of the game hereabouts. But, for a fledgling tournament, the basic problem is the limited audience Sky reaches out to. Even ITV's mere highlights' package reached parts satellite television cannot. Such coverage as there is on Sky is selective. There were no cameras at either of the Leinster-Milan games for example, and others besides. Just a sample of tries are shown from some games, as Sky focuses almost exclusively on the English, French and Welsh.

This facilitates demands by the English, retaining their innate superiority complex, for an Anglo-French carve-up, not realising that it would diminish the very nature of the European Cup.

The ERC again showed a lack of foresight in allowing next weekend's final round to be scattered over two days. Kicking off after all the other games have finished could, for example, have left Munster knowing exactly what was required of them against Harlequins. It may still place some teams at an unfair advantage.

Meantime, the poor old neglected Conference, rugby's UEFA Cup, carries on without a sponsor or any television coverage. And what do the ERC do? They ordain that only pool winners go through. Thus, 10 of the 16 ties next weekend are utterly meaningless and of the others, only Northampton-Connacht is a head-to-head group decider.

Manuel, in Fawlty Towers, had a phrase for it. "Eees crazee."