The first Test of this year's International Rules series ran the danger of becoming an embarrassment for the GAA. The well-documented calamity of the replayed All-Ireland football final was always going to take a toll both on and off the field. Despite a sustained and vigorous advertising and promotional campaign, Galway-Kerry diffused the focus in the lead-up to last Sunday's international.

We won't revisit the arguments about settling All-Ireland finals beyond noting that if the international project is to be taken seriously its place in the calendar has to be safeguarded beyond hoping for the best that the All-Ireland won't go to a replay.

In the end, the GAA had reason to be satisfied with how the match went. A crowd of 38,000 was in line with revised expectations but there is now pressure to deliver something in the region of 50,000 next Sunday in order to maintain the momentum that the series has picked up over the past two years.

So far the revived game has gone from strength to strength in terms of public engagement but each step of the way brings new challenges.

Two years ago the series had to recover interest in a series mothballed for eight years. That was achieved, with a record Irish attendance logged for the second Test in 1998. Then attention switched the following year to Australia where the idea had always been regarded with more scepticism.

The doubts were fully answered with the big turnouts in Melbourne and Adelaide. That 110,000 people had turned out to watch the two Tests considerably raised the ante for Croke Park - hence the advertising campaign. The replayed All-Ireland got in the way of a public relations blitz but otherwise the event was projected to an interested audience and beyond.

One problem which hasn't been entirely resolved is the extent to which 35,000 to 40,000 represents the maximum engagement of the Irish public, with or without advertising. This Sunday will answer that for us.

Although the matter of public interest is vital to the long-term prospects of the series, there is the more fundamental concern about the state of the game itself. That still teeters on the brink a bit. There have been great improvements. The game is now taken seriously in both hemispheres and is given as much preparation as is practicable given the tight nature of the Australian close season.

The matter of discipline has also been important. So far so good. But there were times on Sunday when the restraint so visible since the resumption two years ago appeared in danger. At the start there were a couple of fistic interfaces taking place on Ireland's full-forward line.

Jason Akermanis and Peter Canavan had a history after last year. Canavan had been identified as the Irish dangerman from 1998 and Akermanis was detailed to defuse that danger. He did the job so efficiently that he was deemed the Australian Player of the Series - somewhat to the surprise of Irish observers who would have considered Nathan Buckley the more obvious choice.

Akermanis's exploits weren't, however, entirely free from the taint of physical intimidation and Irish officials were sufficiently concerned to raise the issue diplomatically and privately before this year's series. Yet the Brisbane player doesn't appear to have mellowed and even found time for some warm-up action with Ben Kelly of St Mary's, Saggart, in the practice match with a Dublin selection last week.

It's fair to say that Canavan has, throughout his career, been a lot more sinned against than a sinner but he also has a short fuse. Ditto Graham Geraghty, so it wasn't surprising that these two appear to have been targeted for a bit of probing.

Fortunately proceedings never degenerated into the sort of scatter which marred the third quarter of the first Test two years ago (and was largely caused by the Irish) but at times the pot simmered menacingly.

Although both countries have played with discipline over recent years, there is still a hazy margin where problems can fester.

Leigh Matthews, who coached Australia in 1998, drew attention in his first press conference to the differing concepts of violence in either code. It was meant humorously but also intended to make a point.

There is no interpretation of the rules that condones spreading someone's nose around his face - as happened Canavan - but there are degrees of tolerance of more ambiguous conduct. It was therefore heartening to see that the referees worked so well together. For the first time in an International Rules Test, there was a sense of two officials, Pat McEnaney and Brett Allen, working in harmony rather than pursuing their own interpretations.

A number of players also played a role in breaking up any potentially nasty situations. But there'll still be a slight concern about the second Test given that it's so evenly poised and given that a couple of vendettas may surface. It is now likely that the Australians will be very disappointed now if they don't go on to win their first series since resumption.

Their eight-point lead is the same as the one Ireland successfully defended last year in Adelaide and unless the home side improve considerably they are likely to find that the extra week's acclimatisation has brought the Australians to a point beyond which they can be caught.

As against that, the potential return of Seamus Moynihan, Sean de Paor and Michael Donnellan - all veterans of both series - will strengthen Ireland. And the visitors' now traditional disinclination to over-train when "sight seeing" in Galway and Clare means that they won't maximise the opportunity for improving their touch with the round ball.

One way or another the stakes will be high in the second test and both the GAA and the Australian Football League will be anxious that the steady progress made in establishing the international series on their respective calendars isn't ruined by an ill-tempered descent into atavism.