Why is there a need for win bonuses in the modern era of professional sport? We have seen with the only recently resolved row between the IRFU and the IRUPA over the fee for the South African tour that appearance money and win bonuses are an important part of a player's income.

But what does it say about mentalities when financial incentives for winning are seen as a necessary component of any contractual agreements?

Surely at international level the intention is to win every time. Surely as a professional player you want to win every time. Surely as a team the aim is to win every time. So why the need for win bonuses?

In the IRFU's Strategic Plan for 2004-2008, one of the stated aims was to be one of the top four rugby nations in the world and yet two of the nations we aspire to join do not employ win bonuses.

The elite in England and Australia recognise that winning is an automatic choice, not something to be dangled in front of players noses as a means of going that extra one per cent. And it is to this level that we as a rugby nation should aspire.

In terms of player empowerment, IRUPA is still relatively young and in an evolutionary process. The row over the South African tour fee was a chance for Niall Woods to flex the muscle of the players' association.

As the players fly out with the current dispute settled and an estimated €5,000 deal under their belts, there are still more battles to be fought and much public-relations ground to be won as well. People will ask why such well-paid players seek win bonuses when playing for Ireland and even why appearance money is such an issue with them.

But, it seems, Irish rugby is not yet at the stage where the IRUPA can seek a flat appearance fee win, lose or draw, not when tour money can still cause a row such as we have just witnessed.

So while people may point questioning fingers at the Irish rugby players and their financial packages, people might also want to look at the IRFU and ask why the powers that be are not doing more to propagate a culture that accepts and expects winning as the norm.

In England, the Players' Rugby Association get a cut of central revenue and sponsorship as well as a guaranteed £6,500 match fee. In Australia, players receive 10,500 Australian dollars win, lose or draw but do get a further 10,000 Australian dollars each if they win the Tri-Nations or Bledisloe Cup.

Fintan Drury, of Drury Sports Management, who represents leading Irish rugby players such as Gordon D'Arcy and Denis Hickie, points out that win bonuses are needed if match fees are below a certain level.

Countering allegations of player greed and of players asking for money for giving out medals at local clubs and schools, Drury says these are isolated cases.

"There are many more times when players have not asked for money for events but yet it is the small, bad cases that are used to throw allegations of greed at the players when there is in fact little evidence of it."

In relation to the recent IRFU-IRUPA row, countering IRFU suggestions, he points out that at the time of renegotiating player contracts, it was clear the IRUPA was going to be responsible for negotiating the players' appearance fees and win bonuses. It is a situation that exists happily and, Drury believes, it is best working practice that the players' association represents the collective interests and bargaining position of the group when it comes to international appearance money.

What is clear though, is that the IRFU's strategy of keeping players at home and being their paymasters creates a conflict when it also comes to paying fees and bonuses.

Being the source of two incomes has created its own problems and it's understandable why the IRFU points to wages paid in their arguments over increased player fees.

But the row over the South African tour has given a chance for the IRUPA to increase its strength, reminding the IRFU that it is the players who are central to the game as well as being key to generating revenue for all concerned.

"Rugby-player associations are getting stronger all the time," warns Tony Dempsey, chief executive of the Australian Players' Association and Chairman of the International Players' Association.

"The players are the key to it all and without them there would be no game. The administrators have to recognise that this is the situation and the sooner they do it the better. For many conservatives and traditionalists in the game there is still a wake-up factor to come."