ON RUGBY:If the IRFU's foreign player regulations come into existence, then from 2014 onwards the provinces can forget about winning the Heineken Cup again, writes GERRY THORNLEY

ISA NACEWA put a ball out on the full in the Sportsground on Sunday. It actually led, indirectly, to Connacht’s one successful three-pointer of the game. Tut-tut, and it’s worth putting on record that the God-like one does make mistakes too.

It was also notable how Connacht’s tactical kicking game tended to target the wingers rather than Nacewa, though in a benchmark early moment Nacewa came from deep to claim the ball and counter thrillingly. Behind such a callow threequarter line, on such a capricious evening in Galway, Nacewa’s presence and experience, not to mention his five from five kicking haul, were invaluable.

But then again, his match-winning also applies to the marquee games.

Nacewa’s 40-metre sashay through four befuddled Leicester defenders in last season’s Heineken Cup quarter-final remains arguably the try of the season.

It was the difference between the sides on the day and, allied to his general excellence, no less than the one-season-wonder that was Rocky, it’s doubtful Leinster would have reached Europe’s promised land without Nacewa.

Of course, if the IRFU’s proposed new guidelines on foreign players from 2014 onwards had been applied a few seasons ago, Nacewa would not have been allowed to join Leinster in the first place, or at any rate not unless he was decreed “position specific”. What a laugh.

It was Nacewa’s ability to play anywhere from numbers 10 to 15 which enabled Leinster to most adroitly fill in the gaps when the galacticos were away on Irish duty and which could keep each of them on their toes when Michael Cheika had a full hand to select from.

This is true of all the versatile players – Paul Warwick, Felipe Contepomi et al – without whom all the Heineken Cups and league titles would probably have never been possible. As it is, five foreign players (plus one who can become Irish qualified through residency) is being reduced to four plus one from next season onwards. These regulations are stricter than for any of the Irish teams’ European rivals, which makes it all the more preferable that foreign players become part of the fabric of their provincial set-ups for extended periods, à la Nacewa, Contepomi, Howlett. It also means they become iconic figures for the supporters.

Furthermore though, Leinster would not have been permitted to re-sign Nacewa from last season onwards as, in their wisdom, the IRFU’s Professional Contracts Review Group have decreed that no foreign players’ contracts can be renewed.

This has to be considered discriminatory toward their own employees and, aside from the fact that signing foreign players comes with loads of IRFU-imposed caveats, it’s also worth noting that Nacewa wants to stay on and, also akin to Doug Howlett (without whom Munster would never have beaten Northampton), has Irish-born children.

Also, decreeing that foreign players must each be position-specific, so that the 15 of them will never be duplicated on any given weekend, ignores the fact that no team on the planet is ever picked on such a linear basis.

But then again this is perhaps not so surprising as no one on the review group, which is comprised of chairman Martin O’Sullivan (formerly chairman of the Munster Professional Games’ Board), Pat Whelan (one of the IRFU’s two representatives on the International Rugby Board), Tom Grace (honorary treasurer), Philip Browne (chief executive) and Eddie Wigglesworth (director of rugby), has ever been a frontline coach. The same is also true of the management committee which voted by 13-8 to ratify the review group’s proposals.

Perhaps the PCRG will permit more flexibility than suggested by these rigid new edicts. The IRFU hierarchy were all in attendance at the World Cup and, undoubtedly with the future competitiveness of Irish teams in mind, were as alarmed as Declan Kidney was as to the consequences should anything have befallen Mike Ross.

With BJ Botha and John Afoa starting for Munster and Ulster on Heineken Cup weekends, this remains a valid concern, but the PCRG had the power to refuse Munster permission to sign Botha in the first place, or Ulster to sign Afoa (or indeed Peter Borlase as Munster’s special project).

One can even set aside the slightly alarming lack of clarity as to how the IRFU’s new guidelines will apply to those players already under contract beyond 2014, or how it will be decided which of the three provinces can have first pick on, say, a tighthead, or how any of the coaches might or might not be given permission to move a player such as Nacewa from his “specific position” to another position on any given week.

Heretofore, the coaches have tended to deal with Wigglesworth, who last week pointed out that unlike Joe Schmidt and the other provincial coaches, the IRFU has been around for the last 130 years and will be for the next 130. No, Eddie, no less than the rest of us, not even IRFU committee men last for 130 years, much less 260. They too are passing through, perhaps a little longer, but they are temporary custodians.

It’s true the IRFU can reflect on the Noughties as the best decade in Irish rugby history (albeit conveniently ignoring the mostly under-achieving previous dozen decades!). But in many ways they stumbled upon the current system of centrally contracted players attached to four conveniently placed provinces and much of the credit is due to the vision of men such as Tom Kiernan and Syd Millar in the mid to late 90s.

As temporary custodians they could apply some Kiernan and Millar-like vision by backing Connacht into a genuine fourth force rather than drip-feed them to ensure the continuing presence in the Heineken Cup of the other three. Instead, Connacht are deemed “external to this process” for the time being. Sounds like time for Connacht to be afraid again, eh? Very afraid.

It takes a lot for Schmidt or Brian McLaughlin to break ranks and actually point out the errors of the IRFU’s ways in public. For both, last week was a first, and with good reason. If the IRFU’s linear and ill-conceived guidelines do come into existence, then from 2014 onwards the provinces can, quite simply, forget about ever winning the Heineken Cup again.