What to do with the interpros? Whisper it gently, but the interprovincial championship is about to begin next Saturday at Donnybrook and the Sportsground with barely a whimper and a distinct whiff of nonchalance from the rugby public. In truth, it was ever thus.

Jizzing up the intepros has been a question that has vexed Irish rugby folk for some time. Indeed, writing this, I'm already beginning to feel like some of my GAA colleagues who regularly ask "what to do with the Railway Cup?" "Scrap them" would probably be the best answer.

The bottom line is that there is no real sense of identity attached to the interpros. Who in their right mind says, when asked what part of Ireland they are from, responds: "Oh, I'm from Leinster."

Granted, Munster get their gander up from time to time, though more so in Limerick than in Cork, and more when reviving their tradition against major touring sides than against Connacht.

But Munster is not a tribe, Limerick and Cork are. Ditto Connacht, Ulster and Leinster, whereas Galway, Belfast and Dublin are. If Irish rugby is ever to embrace the professional era, and for once become proactive instead of reactive, it might be worth bearing this in mind.

The AIL was a belated step in the right direction, but about 20 years too late. With the advent of the European Cup, it made sense that the provinces represented Irish rugby rather than the clubs. Had the AIL come along 20 years beforehand, the clubs might have been in a position to do so, but they patently weren't.

However, it's just as well that one of the Irish provinces didn't win the European Cup in its inaugural year or else they probably wouldn't have been granted entry thereafter. That might still apply if the improbable ever happens in the future.

In theory, the provinces are supposed to represent the clubs from that geographical base. When both Leinster and Connacht bring in a couple of foreign players, and allot them to clubs from their provinces, the clubs and home-grown players alike are entitled to ask just who they do represent?

Of course, the provinces now represent themselves. They have become what they have striven to become, elite clubs of their own making. What next, bring in four foreigners, or 15?

And there still remains the problem of the interpros, and the lack of identity with the provinces. There is an alternative, far more exciting scenario. Given the right lead from the IRFU, the clubs should now be encouraged not so much to amalgamate, as form new franchises.

The more elite they are, the better. The 16 senior clubs in Leinster could from their own limited company - ditto those in Limerick, Cork, Galway and Belfast - with one share each, a board of directors including a commercial manager, a team manager and coach with, say, 30 contracted players. Even at that it is spreading our limited pool of genuinely representative players.

The clubs would become feeders to the new "super club" and at a stroke would not be obliged to pay their players. It's a joke to expect them to anyway when, outside of Limerick, AIL attendances scarcely if ever reach four figures any more.

In all of this we could do worse than take our cue from the southern hemisphere and especially New Zealand - the commercial and marketing leaders in rugby's new age as well as on the pitch (not coincidentally).

If new Zealand's approach, and to a degree everyone else's, in the new age has shown one thing it is that we should never be hostages to tradition. The possibilities are endless. There could be a new name, the Dublin Ramblers or whatever, with a new sponsored kit and replica shirts hanging in shop windows; and proper marketing of home matches and the like.

Financially, they would be far more viable. Inclusion in the inevitable cross-channel, Anglo-Celtic competitions would follow and the chances of retaining our better players would be enhanced. In the southern hemisphere, leading international players only play for their clubs literally twice or thrice a season.

As it is, the provinces have been further diminished by yet another exodus of leading players across channel, which in turn undermines the provinces' prospects in the European Cup - or they've been hit by those players who last season were willing to play for their provinces and their English clubs but no longer are.

You can't blame them for declining to serve three masters, when two (club and international) is more than ample in 40week domestic seasons augmented by demanding summer tours; all the more so when each master outlines different training programmes and demands peak performances at different times of the season. It's too much to ask for.

New franchises have been formed throughout New Zealand rugby to ensure that every union is represented in their five Super 12 teams. The South Africans seem certain to follow suit.

For example, the Auckland Blues' franchise is owned 80 per cent by the Auckland Union and 20 per cent by the Counties Union so the profits, and losses, are distributed accordingly. The Canterbury Crusaders are a more complex franchise, drawing on several unions, but that didn't stop them successfully making their team part of the region and the region part of the team. The `Dublin Ramblers' could easily emulate them, with 16 grounds in one city to train or play in, as could their equivalents in Limerick, Cork, Galway and Belfast.

As an aside, instead of the interpros, there could be an Irish super club series with which to prepare for the European Cup. Guinness, with a proven track record in sports sponsorship, could then sponsor a new competition instead of the Interpros, called the Guinness Cup or whatever.

It would also be a more legitimate means of establishing the qualifying procedure for the European Cup. For one thing, they would now be clubs.

Of course, it's unlikely to happen, but then again they said professionalism would never happen. Alas, the worrying thing is that some of the people who said professionalism would never happen, and indeed said they would never countenance it, are still running the game in the professional era. That is very worrying.

In which case, we're stuck with the interpros, and an ill-suited, too numerous, too tardy, AIL. As long as they land on us in August, and with the European Cup around the corner there's no other time for them, then they need jizzing up.

The same things, new names, new strips and new `Guinness Cup' wouldn't go amiss - and with it a new points scoring system of four points for a win, two for a draw, and a bonus point for scoring four tries or more, and another bonus point for losing by seven points or less.

If it's good enough for New Zealand's National Provincial Championship, the Super 12 and the Tri-Nations, then it's good enough for the interpros (and indeed, the AIL).

But that's really only cosmetics, at best a face lift, when what is required is complete radical surgery.