ON RUGBY/Edmund Van Esbeck: Time and tide do not indeed wait for any man and circumstances impose their own demands and strictures. This weekly column first appeared in this newspaper in 1968 and has been on-going during the rugby season for the last 34 years. Today it appears for the last time. It has been a long journey, but one that has been wonderfully rewarding and enjoyable.

I owe this newspaper, with which I have had so long and fruitful an association, a great debt of gratitude. I am equally indebted to so many people involved in the game at all levels, players, officials, administrators. Without them all I would not have had the great privilege of being able to write about a game which I have been in love with since childhood and one that has been an integral part of my life. Like many a love affair, it has had its turbulent times. Criticism, praise and disagreements in both directions on occasions and add in the spice of controversy.

So be it, that, in so many ways is how it should have been. Those were, in so many respects, the disagreements of equals who cared about the game but saw things differently yet most of whose objectives were the welfare and propagation of rugby in this country. It has been my good fortune to have formed friendships that will endure with many of those players and officials and with some splendid colleagues. And I remember today some of those who are no longer with us, but I will always cherish the memories I have of them.

Irish rugby has not always been great, or even good - we have known the dark days. But I have always believed that it has, and continues to have, a unity of purpose and level of will and dedication that saw us through the bad times and hopefully always will when the storm clouds gather, as they invariably do on occasions.

How the game has changed over those last 34 years. Back in 1968 the Ireland team did not have a coach, we played internationally at one level, senior. There was no Leinster Senior League, no All-Ireland League. The thought of advertisements appearing on a rugby ground was anathema to those who administered the game. For so long, sponsorship was deemed akin to the game going professional. The very mention of money was deemed an obscenity. But that was the currency of the age and what had obtained through the years. And we do owe a debt to those who handed the game down to us. They must be judged in the context of their time.

Sponsorship is now a central plank in financing the game. We play internationally at every level from schools, youths, under-19, under-21, development, A and senior levels. We have an All-Ireland League for over a decade and, of course, since 1995, we have had a European Cup, a superb competition.

Let us remember what has been embraced in those changes, administratively and in other respects. Rugby does not run itself, it is administered by a host of dedicated people at every strand of the game. We have been blessed with men who have left a profound impact not alone on the game here but internationally and some players who are worthy to be categorised with the greatest the game has known.

As we reflect on the evolution, what happened in the autumn of 1995 made the most profound impact of all. Amateurism and the ethic it embraced was sacrosanct since rugby went its own defined way as a separate and defined art form of football well over 100 years previously.

THE cracks in amateurism began to open with the advent of another competition that had been strenuously resisted initially - the inaugural World Cup in 1987. There was strong evidence that even before the World Cup that the amateur ethic was being breached and not just in the Southern Hemisphere. Yet when the game went "open" in the autumn of 1995, professionalism came with a rush and led initially to a great deal of instability. Money came in the window, morality went out the door. At the start, rugby officials at every level were unable to put it and all it involved into a coherent context.

Immediately we had a game fuelled by money, and driven by a cast of characters, notably in England, who knew little and cared less about rugby. Infinite damage was done to clubs, this country was stripped of some of its best players. Money dominated the headlines, long standing international friendships were sundered. Mistakes were made here and elsewhere before eventually stability was achieved. And so we arrived at the scene we have here now and let justice be done and credit given to those who managed those drastic and dramatic changes.

Now as I look back I relive again the joy I have had from my association with rugby. I see again the magic of my boyhood hero Jack Kyle, feel again the exhilaration of my first visit to Lansdowne Road well over half a century ago. I relive the great days of Ireland's "Golden era", of our championship win in 1974 ending 23 years without the title, of the Triple Crown triumphs of 1982 and 1985 and other great Irish wins.

It was on Munster rugby that I was nurtured, it has a very special place in my heart. One of the best days of my life was when Munster beat the All Blacks in October 1978. I rejoiced at Munster's wins over Australia but also at Ulster's great triumph in the European Cup in 1999 and over the last three years the hours of glory the Munster team has given us in Europe.

Leinster has made a huge contribution to Irish rugby on and off the field and the indications are firm that the current side may well go on to European glory. And let us remember the men who kept the game alive in the West in the face of bigotry and prejudice and the great players who have come from Connacht. The schools' and the universities' contributions to Irish rugby have been magnificent.

I have had the good fortune to cover 18 overseas tours with Ireland and the Lions, of seeing Ireland win both Tests in Australia in 1979, of seeing the Lions triumph in South Africa in 1974, and 1997 and in Australia in 1989.

My romance with Irish rugby started in childhood, it has never wilted through the years nor will it as long as my memory holds. And I cannot think of a better way to express my feelings of what has gone and my implicit faith and confidence that Irish rugby will always prosper than to quote W B Yeats. Cast your mind on other days that we, in coming days may be still the indomitable Irishry.