IRFU CONSULTATIVE PROCESS: Keith Duggan was in the Galway Radisson last night to observe an encouraging rapprochement.

A full moon hung over Galway Bay last night as the IRFU came to address the people of Connacht rugby on the state of the game. It was appropriate, given that last January, it seemed that Connacht was the werewolf of the Irish game and the IRFU was going hunting with a silver bullet.

Magnanimity was restored at last night's gathering, with linen table clothes and bowls on mints and fizzy water providing the backdrop for an open forum on the IRFU Strategic Planning Group's document, "Taking Irish Rugby Forward".

"I think that communications were not great," said IRFU chief executive Philip Browne, recalling the stand-off between the union and all of Connacht over the idea of axing the province's professional set-up.

"And we learned from that. We have to communicate with our stakeholders, and this is what the current process is about.

"Equally, I don't think there was an understanding of the issues facing Irish rugby. Inevitably, the issues surrounding the hullabaloo last January means that a lot of people sitting here have concerns about the professional game here. But we are all in this together."

The core of Browne's message to the Connacht forum was stark.

"The bottom line is that the union's financial position is unsustainable."

It is the message he has been communicating on a whistle-stop tour of rugby's outposts. In tandem with the ubiquitous experts from Genesis, represented here by two sprightly Scots who warmed up the crowd and supervised a series of forums involving crayons and charts and sketched smiley faces of approval, the public's opinion on all aspects of Irish rugby were drawn out.

"This is no gesture," promised Alastair Gray from Genesis. "This is the most open consultative process that we have seen in any sport around the world."

Taking place on the eve of the World Cup, its timing seems curious. Browne remarked that there was literally no time to delay the process; it is hoped that the engagements will culminate in a definitive report by late January.

The main concern is the "commercial imperative". The IRFU received €3.75 million from the Government last year and €3.5 million this year. As a consequence, the State will demand to have some sort of say in the direction of the game.

Browne's key point was that the "interdependencies" of the various strands of the game must be realised; that it was impossible "to deal with one aspect of the game without understanding the consequences for other aspects."

The specific worries recurring at the meetings have been: the stadium; declining numbers of volunteers; the drain on resources of professionalism; the playing base (the IRFU has 15,700 players, 123 of whom are full professionals and 40 of whom are "imported"); the decline of coaching in the domestic game, the spiralling costs and the fact that the same 10 to 15 schools produce virtually all the top players.

Those concerns were evidently of importance to the Connacht contingent also, but there remains the localised worry about the IRFU's intentions for the provincial pride, currently on a rich vein of form.

"I think people want to hear that the Connacht problem is safe and that it is put to bed. And maybe to be fair, the IRFU are not in a position to do so at this stage in the process," said Connacht team manager John Fallon yesterday evening.

"From a players' perspective, we just don't want it to get drawn out again, because it killed us last year, it became such a major issue. Ideally, we would like it to disappear off the agenda."

But Browne's agenda is weighted by the burden of professionalism in general.

"I'm concerned. I'm not gravely worried, but I am concerned. The reality is that professional rugby across the world is based on three or four broadcast contracts. And that market is flat and declining. All you have to do is look at the Nationwide league in England. And that concerns me.

"So what we have to try and do is make ourselves as shockproof as possible. And that means looking within ourselves, raising revenues locally and enticing more volunteers and boxing a bit more cleverly."

Last night's coming together between Connacht and the faces of the IRFU seemed light years away from the frosty impasse of last winter. But until rugby people in the west hear the golden words, there will be reservations.

As someone remarked on the way in, "I hope this isn't just a posh way of killing Connacht."