REFLECTING on the year that is about to go into history, one cannot escape the conclusion that for much of it, the game was cast in a dark and forbidding shadow.
It was the year when clubs in England no longer belonged to their members when money ruled over morality and loyalty yielded to the lure of the pound.
Rugby turned from being a game, to a commercial enterprise at a rapid pace. The game, in so many respects, mirrored the unfortunate attitudes of the society in which it operated - expediency prevailing over principle.
Ireland, Wales and Scotland were invited to be minor partners after a price-fixing conspiracy between the English Rugby Union (RFU) and Rupert Murdoch's Sky Television. The attempt at a clandestine deal threatened the oldest of all international competitions - the International Championship. Mistrust had replaced longstanding friendship.
That it did not succeed was due to the honour and resolution of men such as Vernon Pugh, Tom Kiernan, Alan Hosie and Syd Millar. Rugby had, in them, men to face the challenge of the hour. The game is in their debt.
England finally stepped back from the brink, so we can now look forward to the early months of the New Year and a championship that has graced the scene for over a century.
England had put a price on tradition and lost. It would be nice to think that the outcome of the television deal was a celebration and appreciation of rugby heritage. But that was not the case. The threat of expulsion from the championship and the commercial effects that would have had were the factors that brought Twickenham to its knees and, eventually, to its senses.
That contentious issue out of the way, the RFU had to indulge in more trench warfare, this time on the domestic front.
The owners of some of the big clubs fought a dubious battle with the RFU and issued decrees and warnings as though they had taken possession of all the green fields - and the game itself. Eventually, the two extremes reached an accommodation and some semblance of peace was restored.
In 1996, events in some areas of the game were a monument to the greed, the vanity and the pride of the few who sought control over the many. Sadly, they were aided by some journalists across channel who jumped to the crack of their masters' whips and to hell with the morality and the majority.
Money poured into the game in England - however dubious some of its sources - so players sought to cash in. They came from near and far, the young, the old and the short-term contract players from Rugby League.
The colour of the currency was the motivating factor. Ireland lost a host of international players and on the home front, we witnessed the Ireland squad refusing to train at the behest of their agents. And, to think we had been told that playing standards had induced the rush to put pen to paper.
There was an unedifying quarrel about the release of those English-based players whose services were required by their provinces in the European Cup. It was then that players realised the difference between being owned and belonging to a club.
In the midst of all the turmoil, the game went on. One thing that did not change was the dominance of the southern hemisphere. That dominance has been asserted, fairly convincingly, in these parts in recent weeks.
Australia came and defeated all in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The South Africans came and won the ones that mattered in France and Wales. The New Zealand Barbarians saw off the white tornadoes at Twickenham and Argentina, the country that has refused to follow the professional trail, took England to the brink, with a team severely depleted by the exodus of so many of their players who have gone elsewhere in pursuit of the loot.
But while South Africa hold the World Cup, the dominant country was New Zealand. They won the test series in South Africa, they won the Tri Nations Championship and, for good measure, Auckland, or as they are now called, the Auckland Blues, defeated the Natal Sharks to win the Super 12 series.
The IRFU contracted their international squad players with the incentive of a basic £30,000 a year plus a car being given to the home-based contingent. Match fees of £3,000 and a £1,000 win bonus would be paid to all.
Unfortunately, the win bonus has not had to be paid so far this season. Ireland gave an appalling display against Western Samoa and then played infinitely better, but not well enough to beat Australia.
Prior to the championship, Ireland travelled to Atlanta for winter heat training and ran into a blizzard after playing the USA on a flooded pitch. Ireland won that match 25-18.
The start of the championship was marked, once again, by a disappointment as Ireland lost to Scotland at Lansdowne Road and then travelled to Paris and suffered a record 45-10 defeat.
The best performance was given against Wales - a match won 30-17 by Ireland, who then went to Twickenham and gave England a severe-enough test, before losing 28-15.
Ireland competed in the Students' World Cup in South Africa and France struck a blow for Europe by winning it. In May we had a "peace" international between an Irish XV and the Barbarians.
The IRFU has now set itself the task of contracting up to 100 players - putting in place contracts sufficiently attractive to keep the best Irish players at home and to attract those in England back to this country.
That will have a tiered structure, with seven tiers in operation. The details have yet to be finalised, the concept is good, we must wait and see if the reality bears fruit. The union is also providing finance for each province to appoint a director of rugby.
On the European front, after much debate and, again, with threats hanging over the scene, the European Cup was extended to include 20 teams and the European Conference began.
No Irish province managed to make it to the knock-out stages. Leinster, Munster and Ulster were all unable to call on the full depth of their resources, as some English, clubs blocked their players release.
There were some good performances, none better than the manner in which Munster overwhelmed the multi-national Wasps side. But Toulouse and Cardiff proved too strong.
Leinster could have, but did not defeat Leicester and that, allied to a defeat by Llanelli, cost Leinster a quarter-final place. The Ulster side was extremely unlucky to lose to both Harlequins and Neath. Connacht defeated both Padova and Orrell in the European Conference.
WHILE Munster regained the interprovincial on the representative scene there is no doubt that the real encouragement came from the outstanding performances given by the Ireland Schools' team and by the achievement of the Under-21 team in winning the Triple Crown. The schools then went to Australia and won nine matches out of nine, including the test - a superb achievement.
Domestically, Shannon proved the undisputed team of the year as they retained the Insurance Corporation All Ireland League and also won the Munster Senior and Junior Cups. Ballynahinch, Creggs, Richmond and Suttonians all won promotion from junior ranks to the AIL.
The departure of so many players left some clubs with gaps to fill as they prepared for the league this season, and the structure and timing of the league was the subject of ongoing debate between the clubs and the IRFU. But following a meeting on November 17th between the clubs and officers of the union, the present structure will stay in place for two seasons and the timing of the competition, with its December start, will also continue.
The IRFU is also faced with the task of either reconstructing Lansdowne Road or building a new stadium. That decision will not be taken for quite some time, but the fact that Ireland will host World Cup matches in 1999 will not pressurise the IRFU into rushing to a judgement on this crucial issue. The World Cup can, and almost assuredly will, go ahead in the stadium as it now stands.
So we come to the end of a year when rugby was constantly in the headlines, not because of great matches and great deeds, but because of an ongoing wrangle over money, mistrust and division.
Money is now more important than glory. In our hearts, we know that the day of the romantic traditionalist is over. The portents suggest more acrimony to come, even if the revolution is over.
