Syd Millar must ensure the tournament makes money to support rugbyglobally, as well as providing a spectacle that will encourage its growth, writes Dominic Coyle.

Ireland kick off their 2003 Rugby World Cup campaign a week tomorrow, seeking finally to consign to history the ignominious defeat to Argentina in Lens at the second-round stage of the last competition.

But no matter how well they play and how successful the team is in Australia, they will hardly match the achievements of the man behind the competition. As head of the International Rugby Board (IRB), Irish rugby legend Syd Millar has been charged with ensuring the success of the Rugby World Cup and the game at large. In the era of professional rugby, he must ensure that the tournament delivers the wherewithal to support the game globally, as well as providing a spectacle that will encourage its growth.

"It's the only cash cow we have, the only means we have of generating the necessary income to finance the game worldwide and it is vitally important that the Rugby World Cup is successful," he says.

From uncertain beginnings in 1987, the competition has grown to become the third largest international sporting event after the Olympics and the soccer World Cup.

Sixteen countries participated in the original event, which attracted total commercial revenue of £3.3 million sterling. More than 600,000 people attended the games, which were held in Australia and New Zealand, with a further 300 million viewing the event on television. Last time around, the IRB brought in £70 million in commercial revenue on an event that was seen by around 1.7 million people at venues across France, Ireland, England, Wales and Scotland and a further three billion people on television.

Total revenue at Rugby World Cup 1999 came to £125 million once gate receipts were taken into account and Dr Millar expects that to rise to £150 million this year. Organisers are projecting a final surplus of £50 million on the 2003 tournament.

But he won't be resting on his laurels. "We have to continue to examine how we run the Rugby World Cup and after this one we will certainly have a very good look at how we will run the next one in France.

He is aware, despite the phenomenal growth of the tournament, that there are limits to what can be achieved simply through gate receipts and television sponsorship, especially at a time when television revenues are falling. "Revenues from television deals in soccer are down 30 to 60 per cent in some cases," he says. "We are conscious we need to develop additional revenue streams." At least the board has time on its side, having tied up TV deals both for this world cup and the 2007 contest in France before the current economic downturn kicked in. But Dr Millar insists there is no room for complacency in an organisation with a small traditional core but a growing membership.

"We are trying to make rugby football a global game and we have 96 countries now, so it is global in that sense. We are in every part of the globe but it is not global in numbers and I would be a fool to suggest we will even overtake soccer," he says.

"That won't happen but we intend to close the gap and so we have to be more strategically minded when we are spending money." The judicious use of scarce resources is a recurring theme with the former Ballymena prop who won glory with his country and the Lions but still finds time to help out at his local club while running the game internationally.

He stresses the importance of developing the game in newer member unions but not at the expense of the bigger powers. "Basically, we want a tournament that can be won by more than four or five teams," he says. "So if, for instance, we were to say that Team A, given the money, would be able to compete with the big boys in five or 10 years' time, then we should put money into that area in bigger quantities. It is important to identify the next layer.

"Then again, you have to say: 'Hang on, what about existing countries.' There is no use in having, say, Argentina, Samoa and Romania getting the funds and coming through if countries like Wales, Scotland, or Ireland cease to be competitive." Having coached the Lions to what remains their most successful tour, in 1974, Dr Millar was selected to manage the Irish team in the first Rugby World Cup in 1987. The contest had few friends in the northern hemisphere at the outset and was a creation designed essentially to provide competitive rugby for the southern hemisphere countries.

The Five Nations, as it then was, feared the competition would undermine what was seen as the sport's premier tournament. Those fears have proved unfounded. While Rugby World Cup has come to be seen as a leading tournament in the game, the Six Nations as it is now has retained its cachet and its ability to generate money for the development of the game.

In 1993, Dr Millar joined the International Rugby Board just as the issue of professionalism loomed. By 1995, it became clear that Australian media barons Kerry Packer and Robert Murdoch were actively working to sign up southern hemisphere players to a professional league and it was a case of pre-empting the move or lose the game in key areas.

"If we had not done something then, Packer and Murdoch would have taken it over," says Dr Millar. "The board had no option. It was go professional or lose the game." The irony is that the initial money to fund the professional game came through a deal with Mr Murdoch.

At the time, the Irish contingent on the board - Dr Millar and Tom Kiernan - were wary of the move. Dr Millar, who became president of the Irish Rugby Football Union at the same time, says no member countries anticipated or catered for the consequences of the professional era.

"I would not have changed the decision to go professional but I would have said we should do this when we have the right structures in place," he says.

He said then that it would take time to settle down and believes now that it still has some way to go. Ireland, he believes, was lucky. "We took the necessary steps to stay competitive in the new climate earlier than most because we are fairly small and therefore we can be a bit more efficient. We can make things happen quickly," he says, chuckling at the image sometimes held by others of a stuffy collection of individuals paralysed by tradition and indecision.

Not that he mentions it, but Dr Millar was instrumental in that. It was he, in his term as IRFU president, who masterminded the introduction of professional contracts for home-based players - a move on which the current success of the Irish squad is based.

With Tom Kiernan, he was also pivotal in creating the provincial structure for the European Rugby Cup that has proved an invaluable proving ground for young players, provided consistent high-class opposition for our international squad members and delivered a steady stream of revenue.

Dr Millar believes the professional game still has some way to go before it settles down - just look at the agonising in Wales over the necessity of a move to provincial teams which has blighted the game there. "There are still a lot of problems to be resolved," he says.

Ireland, he says, has traditionally punched above its weight in the game. He points to the presence of the International Rugby Board headquarters in Dublin and his position as its chairman and also to the influence of Tom Kiernan in setting up the European Rugby Cup. But he preaches the need for continuing vigilance and review if we are to continue to thrive.

"Like the IRB, we are examining our structures," he said. The IRFU has produced a consultative document, Taking Irish Rugby Forward, which is being discussed with those involved in rugby around the country. It is up to everyone involved in the game to have their say, he says. The future of Connacht is a part of this review but not the only issue and it is one on which he says there have been no decisions.

"No decision has been made on Connacht or anything about the representative structure," he insists. "I mean, in my opinion, there has to be discussion about the league structure as well. I am a stakeholder and I have said that, others disagree and want to retain three All-Ireland League divisions." The need for a new national stadium and development of the game at grass roots are other important issues.

"We have a limited amount of money and have to make decisions on how to use it," Dr Millar stresses. "Every major union is losing money and that cannot go on. People need to choose. If we put money into this and into that, then the price may be that we lose Brian O'Driscoll or others from the domestic game." One way or another, the IRFU intends to have the uncertainty that has hung over the game in Ireland for the past two seasons out of the way by the time the 2004 domestic season kicks off.

For now, though, the priority is the World Cup which opens next Friday. The IRB is disappointed that some teams will not be at their strongest because players have opted to stay with the clubs who pay them rather than the country they represent and acknowledges the rules will have to be looked at in this regard, conceding that some of the club versus country tactics of soccer have spilled over into the new professional rugby game.

It will, Dr Millar believes, be the best world cup yet but he won't be drawn on a likely winner.