Interprovincials can usher in new dawn

The pitches are lush green and freshly painted, and yet vying with the crack of willow and the plop of balls off tennis racquets comes the thud of bone-crunching tackles. Mid-August and cue the rugby season? This morning the rugby public may not be jumping from their beds and shouting "yippee, it's the interpros", but the old game's traditions are fast being shredded, and no harm in that.

Basking in hot sunshine yesterday, the Donnybrook pitch (venue for the Leinster-Ulster opener at 2.30; Connacht play host to Munster at the Sportsground) was a picturesque billiard top. With the hoped-for, clean, dry ball and the sun on their backs, conditions could hardly be more favourable for today's new dawn.

Yes, at the risk of yet another false dawn, this year's interprovincial series should be more relevant to what the international team are striving to do than ever before. Sure, it's about more tangible things, such as which province reigns as champions, and which three qualify for next season's European Cup. For arguably the first time, however, there should also be some correlation between the style of the international team as ordained by Brian Ashton and those of his provincial lieutenants.

This is how it should be, for the international team are the flagshipof the game. As much as anything, Irish rugby needs to see the beginnings of some uniform pattern of play, with the emphasis on a fast-running game as is being developed at breakneck speed around the world, from New Zealand down through every level. There is much to look for: fitter, faster, stronger, more mobile players; improvement in body contact situations; quick-witted, positive decision-making from numbers one to 15; more judicious use of that old Irish standard bearer, the kick; fewer set-pieces and more loose phase play and, too, referees who encourage continuity.

It'll take time to fine-tune, plenty of time, allowing for in-built obstacles in the make-up of the Irish game. More stringent tests lie ahead in the European competitions, which will make today the first of nine competitive weeks in succession for the provinces. The acid test will be the peerless All Blacks at Lansdowne Road on November 15th. But it's got to start somewhere.

So far, the auguries are encouraging. Ashton - on board from the start of this season unlike last year - watched three of the provinces (bar Ulster) in action last week in England and liked what he saw.

"The games that I've seen have been reasonably encouraging certainly. I mean, sides seem to have taken on board the way the game is now being played in other parts of the world.

"The one that possibly surprised me - whether it should have or not I don't know but going on past reputation - was the Munster performance in Edinburgh. Because they were probably the most ambitious of the three Irish sides I've seen so far, and it paid dividends in the end. With a bit more execution in the finish they could easily have won by 20 points or more. So that was encouraging."

This is the beginning of a sort of cultural revolution in our rugby.

"There's still a fair way to go obviously, because players are having to come to terms with different techniques and a different tactical approach to the game. And of course the other area that we all know is that the fitness levels have to be that much higher.

"We're not competing on an equal playing field at the moment with sides competing in the European Cup, given the likes of Leicester and Bath and what not have got squads of 35-plus, most of whom are full-time."

Ashton will see Ulster for the first time today, and will then see them against Connacht and Leinster as a way of ensuring the most even spread.

"I'd like to see the development of a game that we tried to operate in New Zealand, and I've seen sides attempt to put that into operation already. I want to see a high level of technical skill and a much higher level of decisionmaking - I want all players to be decision-makers, not just those with certain numbers on their back."

Loath as he is to single out individuals, the Munster out-half Ronan O'Gara impressed him with "some very, very good tactical kicking, a la rugby league where it gained them a lot of yardage and the line-out throw."

So too Declan O'Brien, Leinster's intriguing new 23-year-old, heretofore a Wexford Gaelic footballer who Mike Ruddock has converted to lock after one season in the game as a number six with DLSP. "He was outstanding, won his own line-out ball with ease and was very prominent around the pitch and looked a very good footballer in the making," said Ashton.

Munster's joint coach, Niall O'Donovan, is optimistic. "I think the interpros will be very good," he says. "I think conditions will be excellent for them and that you'll see a lot of open and expansive rugby. Hopefully we will anyway, and we'll prove that there are still players left in Ireland worth watching."