WITH the Insurance Corporation All Ireland League due to start today with matches in all four divisions there has been one match in the third division as the Colours Match last Friday was also for league points by agreement between UCD and Trinity - it is opportune in the light of the current controversy about its structure and place in the calendar, to reflect on the six years tenure of the competition.

The prelude to the start of the league was marked by some contentious debate and unedifying happenings, not least opposition to the concept that was well organised and orchestrated. As events have subsequently proved, it was ill conceived opposition. A few years before the start of the competition the IRFU had suggested that such a league based on merit take place in the best interest of the game in Ireland. While a majority of the senior clubs supported the proposal the union did not feel that the majority was such that it constituted a proper mandate. Accordingly the IRFU decided that they would start a two division national league in the 1990-91 season, with invitations going to clubs to participate being based on finishing positions in the provincial leagues.

The league brought to the club scene and the game in this country a new and very welcome dimension. It was important to Irish rugby then and is no less important now. It is true that professionalism and all it embraces has brought in its wake the imposition of factors that most certainly have not helped Irish rugby.

The European Cup and European Conference have also had their effect in relation to the timing of the start of the league and thus we now have the league beginning in December, three months after the competition has started in the past.

Many clubs have expressed the understandable view that this is too late, and that they have suffered great financial loss through gates receipts and bar takings in the initial half of the season. Those are very valid points, but the clubs have been compensated, the first division clubs getting £20,000 each. Yet it should be pointed out that some of the most vociferous of the clubs were also at the forefront of the opposition to the very concept of a national league six years ago.

With European and Interprovincial competition now placed in the early months of the season, and if the league was to start early would clubs be prepared to play in the league without their representative players? The answer is a definite no. The alternative would be to play the Interprovincials in midweek as well as the group matches in the European competitions. Last season the group matches in the European Cup were played in midweek as were a few this season.

Those are all matters that must be considered and are relevant to the league. But whatever the formula, it is absolutely imperative that the AIL continues to be the basic element of the senior club game in this country as are national leagues in the other home countries and France.

Since the league was started it has produced some great matches and memorable finishes, none more so than the climax to Division One in the inaugural season. Then there was the St Mary's College Young Munster finale in 1992-93 and last season when it seemed that Garryowen would take the title, the win by Young Munster deprived Garryowen of winning the championship for a third time and enabled Shannon to win back to back titles. That happening gave the lie to the argument that we had heard that clubs would not be competitive once they were out of contention and safe from relegation. Such an argument was an injustice to the competitive instincts that I believe runs through every club.

After the success of the first and second divisions in the initial three seasons, the decision to extend the league to four divisions gave every senior club in the land the opportunity to reach the summit. And last season the decision to provide for the promotion of four junior clubs opened up another avenue of opportunity.

Whatever flaws still exist in the structure of the competition must be rectified. In view of the traumatic and dramatic developments in the game, it was inevitable that domestic competitions here and elsewhere would feel the knock on effects. No doubt as the game settles into some sort of concerted pattern and the disputes here and elsewhere - and the happenings here are minute by comparison to what has happened in England and Wales - will all be resolved.

There are those who believe that the AIL at least to some extent has lost its appeal as attendances fell, if not dramatically, at least to some extent last season in some areas. That, however, does not in any way diminish its crucial importance. Quite simply there is no club competition that would replace it that would be anything as relevant. Unless, of course, we want to go back to the days of provincial leagues and elaboration on the futility of that is scarcely necessary.

The departure of so many players for the financially more fertile pastures of the English League is unfortunate and of course does not help standards. Yet there is, an air great anticipation now that the league is upon us. The departure of the emigrant brigade means that some youngsters will be getting exposure to a level of the game they have not previously experienced. That should hasten their development. This season there is, too, a new structure with 14 clubs in the first division, 14 in the second, 10 in the third and 11 in the fourth. Four clubs will be competing in the league for the first time, Ballynahinch, Richmond, Creggs and Suttonians, all of whom qualified through the provincial leagues last season.

Two of the 14 clubs in the first division will be competing in the top sphere for the first time, Old Crescent and Terenure College. The dominance of the Munster clubs in the first division comes under challenge yet again. Four clubs have won the title, Cork Constitution, Young Munster, Garryowen twice and Shannon twice. Six wins out of six by Munster clubs is a tremendous testimony to the competitive spirit that runs through the clubs in the province.

Indeed last season Munster clubs filled the top four places in the first division and Old Crescent won the second division.

Munster clubs finished first and second on five occasions, the exception being 1994-95 when Blackrock finished runners up. That season Shannon won the title with six points to spare over Blackrock and St Mary's College.

With six representatives in the top division, the Leinster clubs have the opportunity this season to offer a real challenge. Not the least beneficial aspect of that is the fact that they will not have to travel out of Dublin in well over half their matches. Limerick have four clubs in the top division for the first time with Old Crescent joining Shannon, Garryowen and Young Munster and we can look forward to some stirring local derbies in Limerick. Constitution again carry the Cork banner and Ulster have three representatives, Instonians, Ballymena and Dungannon.

In conclusion, there was no relegation last season, this time there is a very fundamental change. Two clubs go down from the first to the second and two from the second to the third and from the third to the fourth. There will be only one junior club promoted to the fourth division from the provincial qualifying leagues. There will be a round robin tournament to determine the winner and the club that finishes bottom of division four will be relegated.