Ireland coach Eddie O'Sullivan has leapt to the defence of the under-fire Six Nations A internationals.
Wales have scrapped their A team as part of a cost-cutting drive while England and France are thought to be in favour of scrapping the shadow matches played on the eve of the main Six Nations Championship games.
The Ireland coach is arguing for their retention and underlined his belief in the system by naming an A side packed with senior internationals to face Scotland A in Stirling on Saturday.
O'Sullivan said: "I've always believed the As are crucially important to us.
"It's the next level down and I know the Heineken Cup is a very high standard but I think the A games are still the bridge to the international game.
"I also feel, with the structure of the tournament, that if we don't have any A internationals we could be calling players up going into the last couple of matches who haven't played first-class rugby for five or six weeks and then throwing them into a full-blown international.
"It doesn't matter how good a player is, that's not going to be a good template for a good performance.
"We need these internationals bubbling under the senior games so there's a decent chance for players to come out of the As and into the national side at the tail end of the tournament and be fit to play at that level."
A case in point is in Leinster wing Gordon D'Arcy, whom O'Sullivan is trying out at outside centre against Scotland A as part of his bid to groom a long-term understudy to Brian O'Driscoll.
"We need to find an outside centre," O'Sullivan said.
"We've quite a few players around who are very good footballers - another guy is Jeremy Staunton, who can play full-back or outside centre. Gordon can play wing, full-back or outside centre. It's a chance to give a guy a run there and see what happens and what a fist he makes of it.
"I don't think there is any real pressure on him. Gordon's a very good rugby player and he might get that latitude and space and more ball in his hand than he might get on the wing".
PA