RUGBY: John O'Sullivan suggests that Krasnoyarsk may be a bridge too far for Irish supporters

A familiar refrain among Ireland rugby supporters in discerning a pecking order of patriotism is those who claim not to have missed a rugby international since the year dot. Looming on the horizon, September 21st, to be precise, is the ultimate challenge. On that day Ireland take on Russia in Krasnoyarsk, eastern Siberia, in a World Cup qualifier.

How many Irish supporters will have an unblemished track record of travel after that date? It is one thing heading to Edinburgh, Paris, Auckland or Sydney - but Siberia and a trip by scheduled flights that could take 19 hours including transfers for a single match, that's different.

Next Monday, the IRFU's Martin Murphy becomes the union's man in Krasnoyarsk, undertaking a two-day scouting mission to examine suitable hotels, training locations and other minutiae in preparation for the World Cup match. He flies from Shannon to Moscow, changes airports in the Russian capital (a two and a half hour journey) and then boards a Krasair plane, the regional airline, for Krasnoyarsk, a city that is seven hours ahead of GMT. During his time there he has been invited to take in a local championship match.

The IRFU is researching the probability of chartering a plane that will fly directly from Dublin to Krasnoyarsk, a flight time of about eight hours.

Krasnoyarsk is the capital city of a region that is four and a half times the size of France and extends to the Arctic circle. The city has about 900,000 inhabitants and has shaken off the shackles of the late 1980s when it was a "closed" city because of its secret military factories and prison camps.

Conor O'Clery of The Irish Times became the first Western journalist allowed to visit Krasnoyarsk without supervision, returning to stay with the same family a couple of times since. He observed: "I found that the riverside Siberian city of one million people, founded by Russian traders in 1628, had undergone an astonishing transformation in the past few years, emerging from its Soviet past to adopt European-style ways.

"The once-crumbling 19th century buildings on the main street, the Avenue of Peace, have been renovated and painted in light pastel shades of blue, yellow and brown. Dingy stores have been replaced with bright, cheerful shops and high-class restaurants with names such as Picasso. People laugh out loud on the street now. Before, they hurried about their business in silence, or 'in irritation', as the popular Siberian author, Viktor Astafiev, who died last December, told me on my first visit.

"Businessmen shouting into mobile phones and kids wearing digital head-sets manoeuvre round outdoor cafes on Japanese bicycles and American roller-blades. In Krasnoyarsk today vsyo yest -- there is everything. There are pastry shops, butchers, music stores, perfumeries, supermarkets and mini-malls.

"Fashion shops advertise haute couture for 'madam'. Toyotas and Volkswagens compete for space with Russian Ladas. Spiderman is showing in the new three-screen cinema. You still need cash to buy most things, even a ticket from the regional airline, Krasair, but there are ATMs which accept Irish bank cards."

Crime is more of a problem since the break up of the old Soviet Union, drugs being prevalent among the east-side apartment tenements, controlled by the Russian mafia.

Krasnoyarsk has been likened to the Limerick of Irish rugby, a stronghold of a sport that was first played in the city back in the early 20th century. The World Cup qualifier is likely to be played in the soccer stadium situated on an island in the mighty Yeneisey river. A crowd in excess of 30,000 is expected to watch the game.

The area is rich in forestry and minerals and boasts a national park, Stolby, famous for its unusual rock formations. Given that there will be minimal interest among Irish supporters to undertake the trip, none of the travel agents that we contacted were able to offer any price structure.

Ireland's first Eastern European assignment is a 10-day training camp in Poland to where they fly out on July 20th.