For the vast majority of those who play rugby, and let us not forget that most who play do so for recreational purposes and not for a living, it is a game of charm and pleasure. The same goes for those who watch it on a regular basis. Of course every player and every team wants to win, as must be the case in anything based on a competitive premise.

How you win of course, is, or should be, as important as if you win. The advent of professionalism and the World Cup, the biggest stage of all, have, understandably, elevated the competitive nature of the game and the stakes considerably and heightened the appetite for victory.

Former All Black Alex Wylie, the coach to Argentina, has made that point and is correct. The win bonus, it must be remembered, goes with the glory.

But there is no doubt that the technical proficiency, team work and skill levels now, certainly in the team context, have improved a great deal. Every generation has produced its great players, but I think it true to say the strategy and execution are more adept today in the game.

The full-time play and coaching and the indepth analysis that can be made of performances and your own mistakes can now be studied in detail on the video. So, too, can opponents' strengths - team and individual.

Like most innovations, the World Cup suffered from growing pains as was inevitable, but it is now a much more streamlined and well organised competition than at the outset in 1987. The organisation of the 1995 tournament and the current one bear little comparison to the inaugural event 12 years ago.

Among the many major changes that have taken place has been the method by which referees are appointed. Furthermore, the back-up now available in relation to discipline and the methods put in place to deal with it mean that those players who kick, punch and rake opponents and who resort to the despicable act of eye-gouging will not get away with it.

The fact that a referee takes action against a player for foul play will not necessarily mean the end of the matter. One must give support to the new method whereby the citing commissioner can take action. We have already seen the by-product of it with the suspension of players. It will lead to a better and a cleaner World Cup.

But on the subject of referees, how times have changed. A very strenuous case can be argued that previously the best referees were not all appointed to officiate in the World Cup. There was a time, too, in the Five Nations series when the best referees were appointed but then there was a system that obtained for a time in the International Championship whereby the best referees were not being appointed. It was a method that offered incentive to and protection for mediocrity. The system was flawed and seen to be flawed.

Some of the appointments in the knockout stages of the inaugural World Cup, were, to say the least, incredible. They owed more to country affinity and political manoeuvring than to ability. Nor was the method right subsequently.

For this World Cup the International Board's (IRB) "merit-based referee committee" named 16 referees to officiate in the finals. They are drawn from eight countries. Certainly the current system is infinitely better than anything that obtained in the past. Have we, therefore, got the 16 best referees in the game? Is it significant that the spread between Europe and the Southern Hemisphere is eight each? A nice balance one may say.

I HAVE never been a great admirer of most referees from the Southern Hemisphere and have seen decisions that have been hard to understand. I could give many examples, but will be content to cite one of recent vintage that cost the Lions the first Test in the 1993 series against New Zealand and subsequently the series.

The last-minute penalty against Dean Richards was a truly remarkable decision. Richards was incensed and so were his team-mates, and rightly so. The match was refereed by Brian Kinsey of Australia. Mind you, France had reason to feel hard done by with the performance of Derek Bevan of Wales in the 1995 World Cup semi-final against South Africa.

Four Australians, three New Zealanders and one from South Africa make up the Southern Hemisphere contingent currently in operation. There are three from England, two from from Wales, and one each from France, Scotland and Ireland.

Dave McHugh is Ireland's only representative. I have no argument with the fact that just one Irishman is included. This country produced a succession of great referees, but right now McHugh is by some way the best in this country and we do not have the quality that once obtained in this demanding role. One of the IRB referees' selectors is David Burnett of Ireland, the other is Dick Byers from Australia. Alan Lewis is Ireland's sole representative among the touch judges.

There is a team of five referee assessors and five "notational" analysts operating. That number is aimed at ensuring neutrality in the assessment process during the tournament. That procedure and the presence of citing commissioners are a welcome advance from times gone by. But some of the refereeing performances to date have not been of the highest order, certainly not that given by Paddy O'Brien from New Zealand in the first match of the tournament

All the countries have now been in the field and the huge gulf that exists between the major rugby-playing nations and some of the rest has, as anticipated, already been emphasised. As pointed out before, we should have four groups of four teams and not five in the finals. We should have four quarter-finals and not quarter-final qualifying matches after the group stages. The organisers must look at this situation for the next tournament.

The best match I have seen to date was easily the Scotland-South Africa encounter at Murrayfield and the best individual display that by Keith Wood for Ireland in his four-try blitz against the US. By scoring four tries Wood equalled the four-try Irish record achieved by Brian Robinson against Zimbabwe in the World Cup in 1991. But Wood broke an Irish record of much longer standing in that match.

In 1930 against Scotland at Murrayfield Eugene Davy scored three tries for Ireland in a 20-minute period. Wood scored his first try last Saturday after 29 minutes, but his three tries in the second half came in a period of under 10 minutes. They came in the 69th, 74th and 78th minutes. That tour de force could withstand the test of time.