European Cup: Three years ago the IRFU recommended that backs play no more than 35 competitive matches a year and boiler-room forwards five games fewer.Even then, as the professional game was still evolving, the increasing physicality, and its influence on the effectiveness of teams and player longevity, was obvious.

The days when players like Donal Spring were told they had to gain weight and tip 15 stone or else they wouldn't be selected for the Irish second row now seemed quaintly amateur.

Now, when centres exceed 15 stone and are expected to take the sort of battering the treble 20 does when Phil 'The Power' Taylor is at the oche, when a player such as the slightly built French international Thomas Castaignede declares his children won't play rugby unless they are 6 foot 3 inches tall, there is, at work, a less forgiving order.

Where Leinster come into the order is pretty high up and before this year's European Cup, they were looking like a side that might set the pace.

They may still play their way back to top-form, but Leinster, at this point, may also fall through the Pool trap door.

There are a number of reasons that, so far, the talented team have not quite added up to the European Cup winning side many believed they would be and if there is a trend then perhaps Munster, Leicester and Stade Français are following similar patterns - a World Cup effect, disrupted preparation, below-par performances, injury and minor illness.

When Gary Ella took up the Leinster job - following Matt Williams departure to national level in Scotland - he saw names like Brian O'Driscoll and Denis Hickie illuminating his team.

O'Driscoll has started four Leinster matches this season, finished three. Hickie, having limped out of Australia with a ruptured Achilles tendon, has played in none.

Leo Cullen is a long-term injury victim as is Niall Treston and Kieran Lewis, while James Norton and John Lyne are just back in training. At one point, the retired Peter McKenna was asked to cover.

Last week, after Ulster had humiliated Leicester 33-0, Tiger's coach, Dean Richards, was asked for an explanation.

"I think a number of factors come into it," he said. "There is the World Cup issue and we've been unlucky with injuries. We've been unfortunate in certain areas."

Ulster and Irish winger Tyrone Howe was asked the same question. "For some players last year was about the World Cup. That was their aim.

"Possibly it is difficult to come back with your best after that because you peak for the World Cup. Certainly the teams that lost fewer players suffered less disruptions."

Leicester had seven World Cup winners and none of the fit ones, led by Neil Back, showed at Ravenhill. Martin Johnson went into the game from the bench with a heavy cold and a bad back.

Tomorrow, Gary Ella is forced to become inventive to try and prolong the European season and has asked Gordon D'Arcy to recreate O'Driscoll's menace in the midfield. Around him Brendan Burke, Christian Warner, Girvan Dempsey, Shane Horgan, Eric Miller and Keith Gleeson have recently missed time through injury or illness.

"It is not so much guys being unavailable or pulling out late. It's the fact that we can't train as a team," says Ella. "That is the hardest part we have to deal with.

"It has just been so unusual that some of the injuries we've had have been so severe and not even in the contact area, guys just getting their feet in the wrong positions.

"You also get to the stage where you wind them up to a certain level and minor things can push them over the edge.

"You have to be continually aware that you cannot push the players into the ground. With the injuries and illnesses that have been coming up, that is sometimes difficult to do.

"I think there is also a definite hangover from the World Cup. When you haven't had players for as long as they were away, you get to the stage that when they come back you've almost got to start from scratch again.

"The defence and attacking patterns, your rucks and maul structures. . . so you have to keep them on the field longer. And these guys are coming from a hard campaign."

While Ireland clearly didn't have as long a run in Australia as the Leicester players did and were not subsequently beggared to do a lap of honour around the country on their return, Ella has faced as many personel problems as he could ever have expected.

"Minor illnesses become symptoms of people who have been run down," says Ella. "You come to that balance of how hard you can push players.

"We're suffering a little more because we've had more players involved (internationally). If you have a look at Munster, Leicester, maybe Stade and us, it is not a case of players coming back so the team performance will lift. It doesn't happen like that."

Maybe Leinster, even without some of their match-breaking players, will pull it off. Unlike Ulster, whose regeneration with unsung players has been a triumph, the Dublin experience thus far has been largely one of frustration and flux.

Ella isn't looking for excuses. Four years with the NSW Waratahs has taught him one thing. You leap the hurdles and move on.