IT MIGHT seem an odd weekend to dwell on the subject of what the GAA terms Competing sports, but a couple of distant drumbeats bring it to mind.

Consideration of this appears inappropriate, because Sunday saw another brace of well-attended big occasions. Crowds of around 50.000 have rolled in on five afternoons already this season, and most of the big provincial matches have yet to be played.

The capacity of football and hurling to engage public attention has been further enhanced by television coverage, corroborating the evidence available from other sports that television adversely affects the less- important events but magnifies the big ones and increases the demand for them.

A live broadcast of the Munster hurling final might thin the crowd at a first-round match in another province, but it evidently had no impact on the followers of Meath and Kildare.

Less dominant, but quite pervasive, was the youth world cup. The relationship between soccer and Gaelic games is complicated by all sorts of agendas, but soccer is the one sport that threatens the GAA's domination of the national sporting consciousness.

There was an assumption that the most profound impact of the sport had been felt in the aftermath of the 1990 senior World Cup, the first for which Ireland qualified. Thereafter it was expected that such success as the national team enjoyed would be of decreasing effect as the public grew accustomed to the experience.

The subject causes a good deal of futile hand-wringing. There's nothing that can be done about international competition and the huge interest levels it inspires, and the GAA should largely be happy with the trade-off that ensures a steady support for the championships each year, a support largely unaffected by external trends which can't trouble such a self- contained sport.

This isn't to say that Gaelic games don't suffer at all. The acknowledged lack of an international dimension means the sports can never inspire that sense of national community where everything grinds to a halt and an overwhelming feeling of anticipation settles on the country.

Big GAA occasions celebrate sport in a partisan manner. Amongst the large numbers interested in an All-Ireland final, nearly all will support one side or another and there will be a winner and a loser. This is a different sensation to the unanimous urgings that attend an important international soccer match.

In marketing terms, the youth world cup would have had deeper implications in that the young players were nearly all home-grown, and their efforts created in their neighbourhoods the sort of community recognition on which the GAA traditionally thrives.

The sight of young players from their locality bringing such distinction on the country will have inspired children in a way that is sometimes lost to the senior soccer team because of the remoteness of many of the players.

Inasmuch as the GAA has managed to tap into this national mood, it was the final test in the 1986 International Rules series which attracted a large, early-morning television audience to watch Ireland beat Australia.

As an avenue for international recognition, the International Rules series was worthwhile and popular with players, but it will remain in abeyance until it attracts a more wholehearted interest at the Australian end.

The other international link is with the Camanacht association in Scotland and the annual shinty-hurling internationals, which are splendid cultural occasions on which each code can admire the other's skills - although the Irish tend to be more impressed by their opponents' striking skills than the Scots by the pace and exuberance of hurlers.

Coincidentally, both indigenous games with which the GAA have forged links find certain aspects of the Irish sports anathema. The Australians regard anything played with a round ball as effeminate, whereas the Scots find playing the ball to hand a barbaric dilution of the purity of stick games.

If the youth world cup prompts merely wistful thoughts about the lack of an international dimension in football and hurling, there are more disturbing implications in the Lions rugby tour which has just ended.

On the face of it this seems absurd. Rugby has never been much more than a minority sport with a narrow, restrictive social base, although again the international stage has given it a wider appeal than the game in general enjoys.

The late Breandan O hEithir once said that the atmosphere after the Ireland-England triple crown decider in 1985 was the nearest he had experienced outside of Croke Park to that of an All-Ireland final. But generally rugby hasn't exactly touched the hearts of the people.

THERE are two facts, however, to be borne in mind when considering the future interaction between that sport and the GAA.

Firstly, footballers have a considerable aptitude for rugby. It hasn't escaped the notice of sharp rugby people that footballers frequently exhibit that combination of physical hardness and athleticism that is much prized - and, in Ireland at any rate, little in evidence - in the oval ball game.

It has been remarked that the Lions tour was a considerable promotional opportunity lost to rugby in Ireland. The distinction of its four representatives' contributions showed that with full-time training, Ireland can produce quality players. But the decision to sell the rights to satellite television meant that the achievements of the Irish quartet was a closely guarded secret as far as the non-rugby public was concerned.

Whereas that is true, the second fact to be remembered about rugby is that it is now professional. Commercial imperatives will speed up considerably the metabolism of the game - even here. Sweeping changes, unthinkable a couple of years ago, are being initiated as the game in Ireland tries to stay afloat in the new world.

When - it's no longer a question of if - rugby streamlines itself into a more seriously administered sport, there is going to be competition for footballers. The prospect of international sport never really got a chance to entice footballers - with exceptions like Moss Keane, a Sigerson Cup winner with UCC - because rugby never seemed that interested in evangelising.

That is certain to change. Already, one first-division AIL club routinely checks out potentially adaptable footballers, and it's a resource that is likely to come under further scrutiny. Now the motivation isn't merely the lure of representative sport at international level, but also the chance to earn a living from sport.

The prospect of this proselytisation might seem remote at present, but the speed with which rugby is changing should caution against any drift into complacency.