THE road that rugby union has travelled from being an amateur pursuit to a professional commercial enterprise has been a rocky one. Pay for play, or pay for coaching, imposes its own specific demands and brings its casualties.

The days when Irish players paid for a jersey, or for a phone call, are long gone. Now, in addition to getting well paid for playing, the current Irish squad of professional rugby players has had the very best of facilities and has been given more opportunities in every possible respect than any other Ireland side in history.

The squad has fitness advisers, regular weekend training sessions, winter heat training. There was a time, in the not so distant past, when fitness was deemed to be a primary problem for Ireland. Now we hear about the level of fitness, about bleep tests. We can no longer seek refuge in the excuse that limited time for preparation puts Ireland at a distinct disadvantage. It seems the more that is given, the less the return we are seeing, and Ireland manager Pat Whelan was correct when he said: "There is not a consistent or discernible pattern of play".

The option is always open to manager, coach and selectors to drop players who are not performing and the Irish players are not performing individually or collectively.

Of course, the entire management team has an overall level of responsibility. But the coach carries the burden of devising the tactics and it is up to him to get his message across.

Indeed, those who attended the press conference following the appointment of Murray Kidd heard that very message delivered.

Like the players, he is a full time professional and like the players, he can be dropped. Not that he alone, by any means, bears total culpability. But when he took the job he knew the hazards and the expectations. He is also responsible for the work on the training ground and he fashions the tactics.

Quite obviously, there is a tactical fall down, especially in the back line, and Kidd is primarily a backs coach. Nobody can blame a coach if a player misses a tackle, but Ireland's problems go way beyond that. Professionalism carries its responsibilities and imposes its hardships. The current Ireland coach has had access to a back up team and structure that not one of his predecessors had at his disposal. The end product has been recurring failure and recourse to the past is not a valid argument or justification for that.

After the match last Saturday, the Ireland captain Keith Wood said that the players were "gutted". Well, they have ongoing reasons to be gutted. l wonder, too, if the players really feel hurt enough after these defeats, or if they are putting them behind them too readily, without the proper level of concentration and reflection.

Gutted though the players allegedly were, several of them seem to have been available to be interviewed by their ghost writers after the match to give their "explanations" for the defeat. If the current trend continues, they won't have to change the script very much.

Through the years, Irish rugby has had to endure many defeats and obviously suffers because of lack of numbers, compared to most of the rugby nations. But everything has to be put in context. The old amateur days are gone. Millions of pounds are now being spent on the Ireland side and the game in this country is not getting a return for the investment.

Last season, Ireland got the wooden spoon in the championship, that too has happened before. But what has occurred recently cannot be ignored in the current climate.

The president of the IRFU, Bobby Deacy, quite correctly stated on Sunday: "There is now grave concern at Ireland's performances". It would be criminal negligence if the union were not concerned. The results of Ireland's last four matches, all played at Lansdowne Road, has to concentrate the minds. The Irish XV was devastated 70-38 by a Barbarians team brought together on the eve of the match and which did not even include a full quota of international players.

There followed the humiliation against Western Samoa, a team minus some of its best players, when Ireland conceded 40 points. There was some merit, but tactical failings, against Australia and then last Saturday, Italy, a team that has never defeated a major rugby nation, not alone wins, but outscores Ireland by four tries to one.

By scoring 37 points the Italians notched up a total never previously conceded by Ireland in Dublin against any of the countries in the International Championship in well over 100 years. Not even the French, who scored a record 45-16 win over Ireland in Paris last season, have ever managed to score more than 26 points in Dublin.

And all this from a collection of players who are highly paid. Players who are getting £3,000 for putting on the national jersey, some of whom are also getting a basic £30,000 and others, based outside Ireland, who are being paid £800 for squad training weekends. These are players who are being coached by a full time professional who also has professional assistance.

That is why what has happened recently differs so very significantly from anything that went before. If all that is not a cause for grave concern, then I do not know what is. It is imperative that the IRFU addresses the issue and that something concrete is done about it.

Some will see Murray Kidd as the sacrificial lamb, but as coach he carries the ultimate responsibility. The whole Ireland management team is implicated, but they are not the paid officials who do the coaching. In a professional game, that is the price that must be paid. We have seen that in soccer and we are seeing it now in rugby.

Wood also made the point last Saturday that the Ireland side played without any passion and that this is an essential ingredient for all Irish teams. He is right on both counts. Pride and passion will not in themselves be enough to win matches, but Ireland's best performances have all embraced those characteristics. They have been displayed many times in the past and have enabled Ireland to overcome superior force. Many very limited Ireland teams have gone out in the past and had little else to sustain them.

You talk to any player from any country and invariably they make the point about Ireland's fighting qualities. All Black captain Sean Fitzpatrick has made that point several times. "It is the thing you fear most about the Irish," he said.

Last Thursday, the Italian captain Marcello Cuttitta also stressed that it was a factor that worried them. Former Ireland coach Mick Doyle has often referred to it as the "Paddy factor".

The Leinster and Ireland sides he coached all had it. Leinster manager Jim Glennon also made reference to it at the weekend. Lions manager Fran Cotton said after last Saturday's match that he never saw an Ireland team win so much possession and do so little with it. "You always feared the Irish spirit, especially at Lansdowne Road," he said. It seems as if, like much else in the game, that characteristic is being lost. Irish rugby is the poorer for it.