Club versus province crux must be sorted

THE AIB League has its knockers but it also has its adherents and without it one is left to wonder just where club rugby in this country would be.

Not that the clubs themselves are happy with the situation, indeed far from it. Dr Noel Walsh, president of Cork Constitution, spoke for just about everybody on Saturday when he criticised the IRFU for fixing interprovincial matches which may or not be competitive for the weekends of league matches, thus depriving them of key players At the same time, Gerry O’Loughlin, chairman of Shannon, lauded AIB for their support of the league while wishing the IRFU might do the same. Just as attendances at the games themselves have fallen drastically, so, too, have the number of companies prepared to fork out for a table at these corporate functions. They see the public interest in the event waning with almost every series of matches and react accordingly.

As a consequence, club finances are parlous in the extreme even if most are keeping their heads above water and somehow continuing to run thriving under-age sections. Should that ever collapse, however, one wonders where the players of the future will come from It is difficult in the extreme to see any way the league could be restored even close to the eminence it enjoyed through the 1990s. Things have changed, changed utterly, with the advent of the professional game and a three-tier structure that works extremely well at international and provincial level but is something of a disaster where the clubs are concerned.

The near certainty is that none of the national panel will be seen in their clubs jerseys over the coming months, excepting perhaps those coming back from long-term injury. The clubs, by and large, have accepted this situation. What frustrates Noel Walsh and Gerry O’Loughlin, to name but two, is the manner in which almost unthinkingly the union foists interprovincial games on them at a time when they desperately need the provincial players to either boost their bid for a place in the top four or ever more essentially, to avoid relegation.

If these games are not afforded championship status, they are to all intents and purposes Mickey Mouse affairs which on the face of it will be of little or no benefit to the players. However, lest the clubs themselves feel they are completely blame free, such is not the case.

Shannon, for instance, are up in arms with UCD for refusing to defer the AIL game between the sides from Saturday to Sunday week because of the number of Shannon players likely to be involved for Munster against Perpignan on the Saturday.

“It will give some of our youngsters a chance to show their paces but we’re not happy,” said coach Geoff Moylan. “They claim it’s because they are involved in a seconds league game but we know the reason. The Munster management wants to get some rugby into the players on the bench and now they’re being denied it for the Ulster match. They won’t be involved against Perpignan a week later but they would be back for the AIL match against UCD if it took place on the Sunday.

“The following week, they won’t be involved against Gloucester and we have no game. The Munster management are really worried that their bench won’t get games.

“We’re talking here about James Blaney, Eddie Halvey, Mossy Lawler, Mick Galwey, maybe Colm McMahon. Munster want the guys to get a game and we want them to get a game.

“We’re looking for this game and indeed all the games to be moved back to the Sunday on the weekend of the Heineken Cup. For now, you need the two clubs to agree and if they don’t, it goes to arbitration at the IRFU. They have ruled against us and now it’s gone to appeal.”

There are, of course, two sides to every story. However, this kind of thing and several other similar spats all seem so petty and unnecessary, especially when things are so difficult for every club in the country.