So where does the Celtic League stand now? Two 30,000 or so attendances for televised finals have made it a success almost despite itself. It may be much lower in the pecking order than the Heineken European Cup, but if the latter competition owes a sizeable debt to Munster, then quite simply they have been the saviours of the Celtic League.

Imagine if Munster had been as undermined by a tough draw and World Cup qualifying demands as Leinster were?

Leaving aside the quality of their rugby, who else would have brought about 15,000 to the Millennium Stadium from outside Wales? Instead, thanks in the main to Munster and the best supporters in Europe, the Celtic competition has been given kudos which it perhaps doesn't deserve.

The question now, is, can the three Celtic unions capitalise on this? The evidence would suggest not. Teething problems remain. As highlighted by Brett Sinkinson's stamping on Ronan O'Gara's ankle, the lack of independent citing commissioners is another example of tournament organisers and unions absolving themselves of their responsibility to safeguard the game from thuggery by placing the onus on opposing teams. It's a cop-out, pure and simple.

All 14 teams also signed a participation agreement which allowed for 20 minutes' extra-time in the event of drawn matches in the knockout stages, before going into an additional 10 minutes of "golden point" extra-time, i.e. the first team to score wins.

Yet Saturday's finalists were notified just before Friday's eve-of-match press conference that there would be no initial 20 minutes of extra-time, instead going straight into the "golden point" 10 minutes.

If there was no score in that time, and the try tally over the 80 minutes had been level, the next valid criterion was the number of yellow cards incurred over the knockout stages, with Munster having already incurred five to Neath's none.

Unlikely scenario though it was therefore, effectively Neath could have gone into extra-time knowing they only had to keep Munster scoreless for 10 minutes to lift the trophy. Talk about shifting the goalposts. At the behest of television perhaps?

A major criticism of the competition in this column has been the apparent lack of close co-operation between the three relevant unions, all the more so in the absence of a central organisation or CEO. Bill Watson, the Scottish union chairman of the Celtic League, fervently maintained that the opposite was true.

"I actually see determining the number of teams as the only difficulty. I think there's an absolute will to see it moving forward strongly, and there's a belief in getting the intensity of games we actually need. It's the very opposite, we've actually worked very closely together."

Watson, no doubt fuelling suspicions west of the Shannon that a secret Celtic deal had been done to jettison Connacht, admitted that, while flexible, his ideal template would be a 10-team Celtic League comprising three Irish, three Scottish and four Welsh.

He spoke also of Ireland and Wales finalising their numbers "in the not too distant future". Yet that was at lunchtime on Friday, and the IRFU had resolved to maintain four provinces the night before. Amazingly, no one had communicated this to Watson. So much for working closely together.

ON being informed of the IRFU decision Watson was not actually too perturbed.

"Eleven or 12, you're dealing with the same number of weekends, so there's not an issue in that. The way we're talking just now we'd like to see it extended to get more games into it and build the tournament up. That's why the numbers are so important. We could actually have each team playing each other once."

That in itself probably wouldn't be sufficient for Scotland and Wales, but it's about the maximum increase Ireland could take if the clubs and the AIL is to have any kind of worthwhile future. For without the clubs' recruitment and development of players, the provinces could be starved in five or 10 years down the line.

Watson would like quarter-finals, semi-finals and a final to be maintained, but in an 11-team league that would mean 10 rounds of matches, i.e. 50 games, to eliminate just three teams out of 11.

"Well, that's the way we're thinking just now. That keeps more teams involved. If we can get eight teams going forward that sustains interest and that meets the needs of the teams as well."

It sounds like an awful lot of rugby for very little end product. The top four progressing to semi-finals sounds a good deal better. But, in any event, what the Welsh might agree on is anyone's guess.

Clearly, the Celtic League cannot progress with such an unsure future for, as Watson maintains, the likelihood of potential sponsors coming on board hinges on an agreed number of participating teams for at least a two-year period, and preferably a good deal longer. This is compounded by an autumnal World Cup.

"We envisage a large part of the pool stages (next season) taking place during the World Cup," says Watson. "One of the parties who expressed a lot of interest was very much aware of that (the World Cup) and that wasn't dissuading them. It still gets the exposure. Quite frankly, when the World Cup is on rugby will have a high profile."

Watson cites the example of Ireland during the World Cup qualifiers last September, when despite missing the international players "the crowds went up 30 per cent in Ireland. They've gone up 100 per cent in Scotland and 20 per cent in Wales.

"An unexploited part, which we really need to exploit, is a real Celtic attitude. It has some tremendous values.

"When you look at the final last year, 2.1 million people watched it. What we tend to not fully recognise is the expat population of the Celtic countries. Almost 60 per cent of that 2.1 million audience were in England. The values lie in the feelings and the passions of the Celtic people."

Alas, not if they're passionately pulling in different directions.