RUGBY:NEXT YEAR'S restructured All Ireland League of four groupings will remain in place for at least five years. Following a briefing on the domestic game by the IRFU yesterday in Aviva Stadium, it was the stated desire of the clubs that the competition next season should remain an all-Ireland event with no provincial or regional groups.

Beginning in 2011-12, Division 1a and Division 1b will each have 10 teams playing on a home and way basis. Division 2a and Division 2b will have 16 teams, who will play 15 matches.

Promotion and relegation will occur between all four divisions and also from a qualifying league.

Importantly, there will be no championship play-off in divisions one and two; the champions will be the club which wins a straight league battle.

The new structure comes with some other constraints regarding who can take part. Just two IRFU contracted players can play in any team in division one and only one of those can be a forward, while no provincially contracted foreign players will be allowed to participate. The competition is seen as an environment for domestic players to play in and improve. There will be no restrictions on the participation of either Academy or Development players.

Another issue domestic clubs should begin to think about is the idea of rolling substitutions. Following the guidelines of an IRB directive, rolling subs are already being played in various lower level competitions. The same number of subs will be available to teams, with a limited number – 10 to 12 – exchanges permitted.

While the AIL is seen as the domestic flagship, it was acknowledged it will never reach the levels seen in the 1990s.

“We will never again get to a point where 14,000 to 15,000 attend a ‘normal’ AIL match,” said Stephen Hilditch, chairman of the domestic game committee. “Things have moved from that and many of the people who now attend Ulster, Munster and Leinster games are not even members of clubs.”

Eighty-three per cent of players supported the idea of Friday night games. From 4,178 responses to a survey, a majority of players also sought a break mid season, which would extend the competition into the spring, while a majority were also prepared to travel up to two hours for a game.

What also emerged was that Irish rugby struggled to cope with the numbers of players attracted to the game in the wake of Ireland’s unprecedented success in the 2008-09 season. Following that year when Ireland won the Grand Slam, there was a huge influx of players into school development programmes.

Those numbers rose from 37,783 to 49,362 over 12 months, but for various reasons, including club and school structures unable to deal with the numbers and limited playing facilities and coaches, levels have fallen back this year.

Overall, however, there was a positive voice from the IRFU. Apart from the fall in participation after 2009, numbers throughout the game have generally been increasing since 2007 as have the number of clubs playing the game.

In 1999 there were 202 clubs affiliated to the IRFU; in 2010 the number had risen to 221, three of them in Gaeltacht areas in Galway, Mayo and Kerry.