Gerry Thornley ponders the complexities of a competition still finding its place in the calendar.

Perhaps partly in a bid to appease their Celtic cousins, as well as the Irish provinces, the IRFU this week modified their stance that all of the frontline Irish players would be unavailable en bloc for the first four weeks of the campaign due to their extended pre-season.

Within the small print though, it's clear that this only extends to a select few and in consultation with the Irish management.

Hence, for example, Frankie Sheahan, David Wallace and, surprisingly, the trojan John Hayes will apparently be free to play for Munster in rounds three and four, though the other seven involved in pre-season training won't be.

And it's because of the frontliners' lack of contact team sessions that not all of the provincial coaches will be inclined to avail of this olive branch. Sheahan, for one, could come back in Munster's second match, at home to Connacht, but Alan Gaffney feels it would be unfair to the player.

For the most part, Leinster and Munster especially will have to trundle on without the nucleus of their first-choice teams for the first month; Ulster's injury toll puts them in a similar category.

Although the Welsh management have raised concerns about the involvement of their test players from the off, the fact is the Welsh have been at full tilt throughout their pre-seasons, and they look set to get a jump start on their Irish rivals.

Trimmed down from five to four teams, the surviving quartet should theoretically all be stronger.

The Gwent Dragons and Neath-Swansea Ospreys especially have availed of the unseemly Celtic Warriors cattle sale (by all accounts, it wasn't much more edifying than that, with players wheeled into a room in turn like so much meat).

In the first two years of the Celtic League, when the Welsh were spread out amongst seven teams, with Caerphilly and Ebbw Vale gamely making up the numbers, the Welsh could hardly buy a win over the Irish provinces, as Leinster and Munster in turn took off with the title.

The gap has narrowed, though at full strength Munster and Leinster especially should remain stronger and ought still remain more credible challengers to the Anglo-French duopoly in Europe.

But by last year, when the World Cup dug further into the Irish provinces' reserves and everyone had to delve into their back-up "clubs", it became abundantly clear that Wales possess far greater strength in depth.

As for the poor Scots, well, "poor" is the operative word. Their full-time personnel have been slashed to 27, as the SRFU wait with fingers crossed for some private interest in buying into their three franchises, leaving them even less equipped to cope with the autumnal and Six Nations test call-ups than they were last season.

And last season they occupied the bottom three places.

Despite the IRFU's non-committal commitment to the Celtic League (by applying it as a ranking event for the Heineken European Cup, but excluding Connacht unless they happen to qualify via the play-offs) the Welsh also have a more genuine scrap for European Cup qualification.

Are Munster and Leinster any better equipped to cope with the inevitable disruptions to their personnel this season? The impending arrival of Tom Bowman in addition to the Storeys and Paul Burke looks to have made Munster stronger, and with Declan Kidney on board, Leinster should be as well. But a real tilt at the title would be quite an achievement.

With fewer Ireland call-ups for the time being, Ulster again look best equipped to maintain Irish interest in that. The end-of-season Cup knock-out for the top eight will also maintain more interest farther down the table, and although the odds are again stacked against Connacht, their togetherness and the shrewdness of Michael Bradley could help to ensure all four Irish sides qualify.

Yet the possibility of all four provinces qualifying for the European Cup, which would happen if the fourth Irish team finished above the lowest-ranked Welsh and Scottish sides before then beating the third-ranked Italians in a one-off play-off, seems hardly to have crossed the IRFU's minds.

Were Connacht to finish as one of the highest three Irish sides, yet be denied even a tilt at that play-off because one of their fellow provinces finished below the fourth-ranked Welsh side, it really would be a ridiculous price to pay for ring-fencing the other three.

Meanwhile, the IRFU has informed Rugby World Cup Ltd and the French Rugby Federation that it will not be in a position to host a pool qualifying series as part of Rugby World Cup 2007, owing to the reconstruction of Lansdowne Road.

The 2007 World Cup is being hosted by France, but Scotland, Ireland and Wales had been scheduled to host three pool matches each.

"As we plan to commence the rebuilding of Lansdowne Road in 2006, and that programme will continue into 2008, we would not be in a position to stage the World Cup games in Ireland," said IRFU Chief Executive Philip Browne yesterday.