Leinster's nomadic existence will become more clearly defined by the end of the year, with the RDS set to become home for at least two years while Donnybrook and Lansdowne Road are redeveloped.

With the work on Lansdowne and Donnybrook likely to overlap for a few years, Leinster need to secure a long-term arrangement for an alternative venue. A redeveloped RDS would have a capacity of 15,000, but it might be possible to increase that to 20,000 given the space at the Ballsbridge venue.

Judging by the 27,000 attendance for the Magners Celtic League game against Munster last Friday - with thousands frustrated in their attempts to gain access because too few stiles were in use - that would hardly satisfy demand.

"There are two issues here," commented Leinster Branch chief executive Mick Dawson yesterday. "We genuinely didn't expect a crowd of more than 27,000. We'd only sold 14,000 tickets and . . . expected a walk-up crowd of about five to 6,000. We just got caught out. The other factor is that most people want to get in at 7.25."

Eventually, they opened the big gates and the West Upper stand.

"It was never a health-and-safety issue," says Dawson. "But there was frustration there. We will have to examine what happened and make sure it doesn't happen again."

Leinster host Gloucester at Lansdowne Road in their opening Heineken European Cup match on Saturday week, when the capacity will be set at around 35,000 with the installation of bucket seats. While it is unlikely to be packed, to avoid a repeat of Friday, Leinster are considering making that game all-ticket.

"We will be making tickets as widely available as possible," says Dawson. "It is something we are considering."

In any event, Lansdowne won't be available until autumn 2009 at the earliest, which means the province will have to use the RDS for a minimum of two years. Leinster are hoping to agree a longer-term lease for the RDS, but one imagines a 50,000 all-seater Lansdowne Road will become a more viable option for the bigger European Cup games or even ones such as last Friday.

Dawson says he remains confident a deal can be agreed with the Royal Dublin Society: "We're negotiating a deal with the RDS which will hopefully be concluded by the end of December this year, which would mean that we would be able to play in the RDS from September 2007. The RDS are putting in a new pitch and building a new stadium, they have permission for their floodlights, they have €1 million off the Lotto and they intend to create a 15,000-capacity stadium with 13,500 seated and covered."

Dawson says "15,000 is probably about right for us at the moment," though this is highly questionable.

"We've spoken to the RDS and hopefully when we agree it all they would look at the possibility of moving it up to 20,000. They have the space, and space is what it's all about. It's a nice place to go to for that reason - people can take along their families."

The time-frame also seems tight, but Leinster are likely to benefit from being of secondary importance to the 2007 Horse Show, the pride and joy of the RDS, who will need to have their new stadium completed by then.

Meanwhile, the main stand at Donnybrook is due to be knocked down in May and a new stand built, to be completed by the middle of September. Donnybrook's redevelopment is complicated by there being six stakeholders on the site. Aside from Leinster, who own the ground, Bective Rangers, Old Wesley and Bective Tennis Club are tenants; Dublin City Council own the parking area to the back of Old Wesley, and ESB have a station adjoining the Old Wesley pavilion.

"The one planning permission which has still not been completed is behind the Old Wesley pavilion," explains Dawson. "That is with the planners at the moment and we're expecting news shortly. So that would mean we would have planning permission for apartments at both ends of the ground, and we would have our planning permission for redevelopment of the stadium. It's in situ but it will have to be carefully project-managed because with the two tenant clubs and the schools you wouldn't want the ground to be closed for too long, so hopefully most of the work will be conducted during the summer."

The cost of redeveloping Donnybrook is "in the ball-park of €25 million", which, it is intended, will be funded by the sale of apartments at both ends of the ground. As for a completion date, Dawson estimates 2010 or 2011.

"We can't start building apartments in Donnybrook until such time as Bective Rangers and the tennis club have been rehoused properly, because the area where the apartments are going to be built is the area where Bective's clubhouse is."

Even then, the potential capacity for a redeveloped Donnybrook is 11,500, of which just under 8,000 are standing, and Dawson accepts that this is insufficient for Leinster to remain in what is their spiritual home. That will suffice for Bective and Old Wesley games, for schools matches, some Celtic League games and perhaps even Ireland A games. But, alas, there is not the space to build the 20,000-seater stadium Leinster require for all their needs.

"It doesn't really equate to what you need for a modern stadium," admits Dawson. "When people were looking at this originally, six or seven years ago, nobody could envisage you could get 48,000 for a Leinster-Munster match."

"You're not going to get that every week, but we're a capital city, there's a lot of people out there, we're the only winter professional sport, so there's a lot of floating voters and we believe that if you provide the facilities, people will come. It's the opposite to supply and demand. The demand will be created by the supply to a certain extent. So, for the foreseeable future, the RDS is where we see ourselves."