Prior to the World Cup the hope was expressed that the Southern Hemisphere countries' hold on the trophy would be broken. If not that, at least a really vigorous challenge would be presented by the Five Nations teams. But it was France alone who managed to even get to the last four.

What the World Cup did was to give those involved in the game in these islands plenty of food for thought and some telling lessons were administered. It is not alone in Ireland that disappointment and frustration have followed. For the first time since the tournament's inauguration not one of the home countries managed to get beyond the quarter-final stage. As well, not one of the home countries managed a win against one of the major powers in the Southern Hemisphere.

Ireland lost to Australia, Wales to Australia and to Western Samoa as well, England to New Zealand and South Africa, Scotland to South Africa and New Zealand. That, surely, is the kind of record that should concentrate minds.

Clive Woodward has held off calls from some quarters to resign as England coach. A semi-final defeat at the hands of France was enough to see the end of New Zealand coach John Hart's reign. And Jean Claude Skrela, the French coach, has also resigned, despite the fact that his team kept the European flag flying.

As the analysis goes on, here and across the water, as to what went wrong and why, all sorts of reasons and alleged remedies are being put forward. Here rugby in the schools is being targeted as at least part of the problem and the structure of the game in this country is also being blamed. There is also a belief that not nearly enough is being done to encourage boys from non-rugby playing schools to take up the game.

Those are legitimate issues that will be addressed here in the very near future. But Ireland's problems at senior international level appear to be much more deep rooted than that and go well beyond the schools and under-age scenes. It will, however, be advantageous to look in depth at all aspects of the structure and coaching of the game in Ireland.

In the context of the Irish schools, it is, however, revealing to take a look at the composition of the Ireland team that lost to Argentina. Seven of the team never even played rugby in any Irish school. But here is another revealing element: 12 of those who played against Argentina were or still are playing in the Allied Dunbar League. This was the area that was allegedly going to be so good, and so competitive and the standards so high, that it would prove to be the cure to all our ills and England's ills and indeed those of Scotland and Wales too. Some cure.

Remember the famous, that should be infamous, quote of Sir John Hall. This, he told us, was the where the future of the game lay, not the internationals, just give it a few years. And where is Sir John Hall now? He is where a lot more of the England club owners of the time are - gone. They scarpered to leave others to clear up the mess they left behind. Great old clubs went bankrupt and into liquidation. Players discovered that the enrichment they had been promised and had envisaged did not materialise.

Some of the English first division clubs should be asking themselves some pertinent questions. Their attitude and activities leave a lot for which they should answer.

As we await the start of the European Cup this weekend, I wonder does it occur to those who boycotted the competition last season and indeed tried to wreck it - and let us remember the activities of Cardiff and Swansea in this area as well - what a great disservice they rendered the game in Europe? Do they feel contented and happy that in so doing they helped World Cup preparations?

THE English clubs, with whom Cardiff and Swansea threw in their lot, wanted changes in the European competitions. That was their entitlement, but as Fran Cotton, now a key figure in the England team set up, said at the time, boycotting was not the way to go about it. "Their proposals for a reformed Europe represent," he said, "the most dangerous and ill-advised proposals in the history of the game".

When here and elsewhere a good look is taken at the failure of the home countries in the World Cup, what happened in relation to the European Cup should be high on the agenda.

One of the purposes behind the inauguration of the European Cup and Conference (now the Shield) competitions was to give the top clubs in England and Wales, the provinces in Ireland and the regional teams in Scotland, a high level of representative rugby, just below the international tier as the Super 12 series does in the Southern Hemisphere. Yet in the season before the World Cup, what did we get? A boycott by the English clubs as well as Cardiff and Swansea.

This season the European Cup and Shield are bigger than ever before. Jean Pierre Lux, who has succeeded Tom Kiernan as chairman of European Rugby Cup (ERC), said on the eve of the start of the competitions: "They provide far and away the best foundation for our nations to keep challenging the Southern Hemisphere giants in the way France did in the World Cup final". Now there is a thought as we reflect on the fact than not one of the home countries reached a World Cup semi-final this season.