In truth, it's a love affair like no other nation's

ON RUGBY:Not even Tom Kiernan could have envisaged a day such as next Saturday when a first all-Irish Heineken Cup final will ensure a fifth Irish triumph in seven years

OUT OF little acorns and all that. Back in the summer of 1995, visionaries amongst the then Five Nations committee such as Tom Kiernan and the late Vernon Pugh ploughed on with the concept of a European Cup despite the initial campaign being given the cold shoulder by the English and Scottish. But not even Kiernan or anyone involved in Irish rugby in those early years could have envisaged a day such as next Saturday when a first all-Irish final will ensure a fifth Irish triumph in seven years.

In the 1998-99 season, when the English clubs boycotted the tournament and Heineken’s sponsorship was withdrawn for a year, Ulster won the trophy on a memorable day out in Lansdowne Road and so began a love affair with the tournament which, in truth, is like no other nation’s.

It’s hard to credit that in the preceding two seasons, 1996-97 and ’97-98, Leinster, Munster and Ulster played 30 matches, winning 10 and losing 20. Advancement to the knockout stages was almost a pipe dream. Fast forward to this season, and in addition to three teams in the knockout stages for the first time, with Connacht’s entry the 15 games in Ireland were watched by almost 330,000 supporters, at an average of 22,000 per match.

Last season Leinster actually returned a few hundred of their final allocation of 7,500 but not this time – with demand exceeding supply by two to one. Only time will tell but the expectation is that Ulster, with an additional 24 hours to purchase tickets on line due to their semi-final taking place a day before Leinster’s, are likely to match the holders’ support of 25,000 or so at Twickenham. It’s an historic day and history is in the making. London is the most accessible final destination, despite rip-off air ticketing, and it will be some celebration of Irish rugby.

There were virtually no foreign players in the provinces in those ’96-97 and ’97-98 seasons and in both of the ensuing Five Nations campaigns, Ireland finished with the wooden spoon. The IRFU have since overseen a very good balance between mixing foreign and domestic players, so they should beware tampering too much with the system now.

The select infusion of overseas players was underlined by Leinster’s initial success in 2009 on the back of signing Rocky Elsom, Isa Nacewa and CJ van der Linde. David Humphreys took that as a template and with the union’s financial support, an elite sprinkling of World Cup winners were brought in to support a core of frontline Irish internationals. Without them, they would not be in Saturday’s final and Ulster rugby would not be the rejuvenated force it is now.

This infusion has also enabled the union to manage the Irish front-liners, who are thus still able to pitch up for a three-Test summer tour away to the newly-crowned world champions. And in a season that began with four Tests in August, they are also still going strong for their provinces.

Effectively, Irish front-liners could have played up to 36 matches out of 47 if one takes away the 11 League matches which clashed with the World Cup and Six Nations windows. Yet not one Irish player named in the squad to tour New Zealand next Monday will have started more than 28 matches this season.

The most used players to date in the Leinster and Ulster squad, taking in international commitments as well, have started a maximum of 26 matches, with Isa Nacewa, Mike Ross (who also had three appearances off the bench), Andrew Trimble (26+4R), Craig Gilroy (26+2) and Dan Tuohy (26+1R) all falling into that category. Next up are Gordon D’Arcy (25+1), Isaac Boss, Rob Kearney (24+1), followed by Cian Healy (23+4R), Chris Henry (23+2R), Rory Best (23+1R) and Stephen Ferris (23+1R). Jonathan Sexton, for example, despite being fully fit pretty much all season, has only started 22 games, and of his 27 appearances this season 13 have been for Ireland and 14 for Leinster.

Michael Cheika once observed that the Irish front-liners are treated like Persian cats, and the benefits of this careful husbandry – along with the strength and conditioning coaching and medical back-up – are further underlined by the remarkably low injury profile of next Saturday’s finalists (if less so the comparatively ravaged Munster). Presuming, touch wood, Brian O’Driscoll and the rest of the walking wounded recover in time for the Twickenham showdown, Joe Schmidt and Brian McLaughlin will effectively be picking full-strength starting XVs.

There might even be a feeling in the upper echelons of the IRFU that an all-Irish Heineken Cup final is further evidence that the provinces are becoming too big, but in any case one can be sure the English and French green-eyed monsters will be even more jealous come Saturday. Cue one of the English mouthpieces for the voluble Mark McCaffrey of English Premiership Rugby any day now, and perhaps ditto Serge Blanco in France.

The current format for the ERC competitions was agreed on the morning of the 2007 final in Twickenham, and has another two years to run, but with submissions regarding any proposed changes required by this week. Both the English and French have submitted theirs. The English are proposing a merit-based qualification format across the Aviva Premiership, the Top 14 and the Pro 12, with the top eight from each progressing to the following season’s Heineken Cup.

Although several clubs are against an expansion of the Top 14 – including Toulouse, Clermont and Blanco’s Biarritz – other voluble benefactors-cum-presidents argue that the issue is not just about front-line French players. Toulon’s Mourad Boudjellal, Racing Metro’s Jacky Lorenzetti and Perpignan’s Paul Joze fall into this category, and want an expansion to a Top 16 so as to generate income from two more home matches.

To facilitate these demands on the already bloated French Championship – a team has to play 28 or 29 matches to win the Bouclier du Brennus – the Ligue Nationale de Rugby are believed to have submitted a proposal to reduce the Heineken Cup from 24 to 20 clubs

The English proposal flies in the face of a truly European Cup guaranteeing participation across all six stakeholder unions. If applied now, there would be no Italian sides in next season’s Heineken Cup.

What odds the threat of more boycotts come the 2014-15 season? It was ever thus and we have, of course, been here before.