IRELAND v CANADA: It's no mean feat to keep rugby alive in a nation that thrives on winter games and where distance and even Nature are eternal obstacles, writes Keith Duggan

ALTHOUGH THE gentleman's game was brought from the Old World by immigrants and army officers, it ought to have been killed off years ago by the frozen seasons, the sheer size of Canada and the fierce devotion to winter sports, among which ice hockey reigns supreme.

The one thing that can be said of the Canadian lads who run out in Thomond Park this afternoon is that they share an uncommon spirit for the game along with an ability to play it.

"There comes a time," says Morgan Williams, the distinguished scrumhalf who has been called out of retirement for this tour, "when you have to decide that you really want to pursue rugby. In my case, I felt I had to be in British Columbia in order to play the game after school.

"In Canada, we have a system akin to the provinces here. But it takes a couple of hours to travel between Munster and Leinster. It takes a four-and-a-half-hour plane ride just to move between Ontario and BC. And some rugby players just decide they can't afford to go on these trips. A lot of good players just stop after school. The reality is that, in order to play, you have to be out west. And you have to really want to play."

Williams is one of several former professionals who have decided to try to give something back to Canadian rugby. He is one of the great successes of the Canucks game, having enjoyed a fine career that included three years at Stade Français and Saracens. He was capped 39 times and includes the draw against Ireland in 2000 as one of his international highlights.

"Ronan O'Gara kicked a late penalty to tie the match," he grins. "And we beat Scotland in Canada at that time also."

Since returning home, Williams and his family are living in British Columbia, where the Canadian rugby training camp is based. Most of the Canadian players are operating as assisted amateurs in the professional era. The IRB funds Rugby Canada as a tier two nation. But support for players is limited to a government "carding" system that provides living grants and tuition fees for players trying to balance international rugby with college commitments.

"The financial consideration is huge and, the thing is, we need a bigger roster and we need to play as a team in the league. When I started, the national team was playing in the league, but we got no money. We just got plane tickets. Now, the help is much better, but we still need more. We are with these players from seven in the morning until noon, and then two nights a week they train with their clubs.

"College on top of that is a lot to endure. It is a big commitment for the players and for the coaches. Before Kieran (Crowley, Canada's head coach) was given the job, he came over and looked at what he had to deal with it. If you look at a map of Canada, you don't get a sense of how big it is.

"But he has been everywhere checking out players. He believes in it. I obviously believe in it. John Tait, another professional, feels the same. So we feel we are getting there."

However, it is an inch-by-inch process. Perhaps the next generation of Canadian internationals will be selected through under-age coaching programmes, but there is a sense that most of today's players were drawn to the game on some inexplicable instinct.

Williams agrees that hockey remains a huge part of his cultural life and struggles to explain precisely why he chose to chase rugby. He had a clear talent for it, but was gifted at hockey too. Pat Riordan, the team hooker, also began playing the game at his school without any real clue what it was about - he just knew that he enjoyed it - and it was affordable. "Playing American football and even ice hockey can be expensive. For rugby, you just needed boots."

In his school, they knew the rules and how to pass, but had no concept of what elite rugby was like to watch. It was only when a teacher managed to secure a video cassette copy of a match between New Zealand and Ireland that he understood that this game was a major deal, a "proper" sport elsewhere in the world.

That sense of elsewhere also attracted Kevin Tkachuk. The Glasgow Warriors prop is a familiar face now in the Celtic League, but if he had followed a more conventional route he might still be farming in the plains of Saskatchewan.

Formidably strong and athletic, Tkachuk had the opportunity to take up college scholarships in either American football or wrestling, but he opted for the more obscure path of club rugby in British Columbia in return for having his university tuition paid.

"Rugby had just gone professional and I felt there were more opportunities out there," he explains. "Who knows, I might have played pro football in the Canadian leagues, but you never know how things work out. And I felt that it would have been a limited experience. I mean, coming from where I came in the heartland of North America, if you like, I hadn't seen all that much.

"And to be honest, there was one major point when I was 17 - a fellow by the name of Karl Fix took the Saskatchewan Under-17 team to Germany for a two-week tour. And that trip, suddenly seeing what was out there, completely changed my opinions on, well, life, essentially."

After graduating, Tkachuk went to Oxford to study for a Masters in History. He smiles now when he is asked about the extreme change from adolescence in the vast North American interior to early adulthood in the city of dreaming spires.

"Going to Oxford was daunting. The first two weeks were just so different to anything I had experienced that I still struggle to put it into words. The place I grew up wasn't even a province until 1907! Few of the buildings were over 60 years old.

"Then you go to a university that is a thousand years old. And the history attached to the rugby and the varsity game was also very new and a great privilege to be part of. It was just completely removed from anything I had known growing up.

"That old joke about watching your dog run away for three days definitely applies to where I am from. When we started playing rugby in Regina, just going to another city meant a seven-hour bus ride. And they were fun, but it was long. Big distances. I mean, I can stand at the front door of my family's farm and for 360 degrees you can see the horizon. And it is beautiful. Particularly if you are from there - if you are not, it can probably get boring quite quickly. But there is nothing quite like the feeling of going back."

After graduating, Tkachuk swapped Oxford for the grittier charms of Glasgow, where he has been playing professionally for five years. His exile may well be voluntary, but, even if he wanted to, he could not return home. It is a weakness in the budding Canadian system that the best graduate to European clubs.

Ideally, they would play closer to home. Of course, in the second biggest country in the world, distance is relative. Des Lynch, the team manager, is an Irish man who left for Canada in 1986.

When he arrived, he helped to form a rugby club in Thunder Bay in Ontario, but because temperatures plummeted to -500F ("on a good day"), they were reduced to a two-month season which meant travelling to places like Minneapolis to get games. It was a big change from lining out with Garda or Blackrock.

Lynch's involvement with Canadian rugby has deepened since. In a previous life, he worked as a Garda in Donnybrook station and was often on duty in Lansdowne Road on rugby international afternoons.

Returning now as a member of the Canadian squad has brought his long relationship with the game full circle. "This has been humbling, coming back here now. You know, Canada and Canadian rugby has been good to me."

But Lynch's experience is indicative of the fact the Canadian game takes all the help it can get. When Crowley accepted the position as coach, travel was the biggest demand. He still finds it mind-boggling to consider that it takes nine hours to fly the Canadian coasts.

And although the west is the rugby stronghold, Crowley had trawled the interior scouting for up-and-coming players, and also made the long trek east - there is a rich rugby culture in Newfoundland, which survives almost as an independent entity.

Crowley's lifetime of rugby experience at the highest levels in New Zealand means he is far from starry-eyed about the immediate prospects of his team. But he does share the fundamental sense of optimism that provides the foundation for Canadian rugby.

"We are ranked 16th in the world now and we need to get a winning culture, to start playing those countries that are around us and get some wins. It will take time. The one area now that we need to work on is in the depth of cover available. You know, we have a few injuries for this tour in half-back and we have to bring Morgan (Williams) out to fill in those positions."

Williams is half amused at his sudden return to international rugby - he decided to retire after the last World Cup so he could pour his energy into helping the new wave of Canadian players.

He sighs as he recalls the Canadian visit to New Zealand in preparation for the last World Cup. "How do you get up for a game like that?" he asks. "It finished 67-13. As it turned out, we did better than France did against them.

"But look. We are not naïve. We know that the Irish are preparing for their game against the All Blacks. We know what to expect. We won't go out thinking - let's show the Irish what we are made of.

"We have things we want to do. We are developing. That is what we are trying to do. And we know the Irish are preparing for the All Blacks. They are 15 people just like us - they may be more skilled, but we will give it everything."

Either way, Canada's national pride is not going to hinge on the result. When Kevin Tkachuk goes home in the summer, he still meets the friends he went to school with and he admits they regard his lifestyle as exotic.

"It seems quite strange, but a lot of them have still never left the country," he says. "Some have never left the province. And they are curious, they want to know about things over here and about the experiences I have had. To them, the whole concept of playing professional rugby is just so foreign because many of them have never seen a match."

And that is the reality for many Canadians. The game is still new and trying to find its voice. French flanker Jean Pierre Rives once said: "The whole point of rugby is that it is, first and foremost, a state of mind, a spirit."

But in the professional age, it is first and foremost a business. Perhaps Canada are one of the last nations who still thrive on that traditional rugby spirit.

For that alone, Canada deserve a warm welcome when they hit the green turf of Thomond Park.

• The first official game of rugby took place in Montreal in 1864 between teams serving in the artillery. In the same year, Trinity College in Ontario published the first rugby rule book in Canada.

• In 1876, the first game in British Columbia took place between the Royal Navy and a local team on Vancouver Island. It was a further 10 years before the game was played on the mainland.

• Canada made their official international debut in 1932, touring Japan. The team lost both matches, 9-8 and 38-5.

• Canada have participated in every World Cup. Among their significant victories was a 26-24 win over Wales in the Cardiff Arms Park in 1993 and an 18-16 win over France in Ontario the following summer. In 2000, they drew 27-27 with Ireland at Markham, Ontario.

• Famous past players include Gareth Rees, who is the Canucks' all-time top scorer on 487 Test points.