SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY REPORTS
Rugby still has a Celtic cross to bear

SO THERE is peace in the war of the Celtic rugby nations - an uneasy peace no question, but at least the guns have stopped firing for now.

The calming of hostilities between the Welsh on one side and the Scottish and Irish on the other should give all three unions a chance to survey the damage they have inflicted on each other in recent weeks. These are not mere flesh wounds we are talking about, after all. They are far more grave than that.

Despite what we are told of a new four-year arrangement being carved out between them there has to be a huge element of doubt about whether the Celtic League will make any kind of a decent recovery from all of this.

The Celtic League people are fooling nobody with the declaration of peace in our time. The players of Scotland, Wales and Ireland still have a deep distrust of their unions, they still fear that the carpet could be pulled from under them at any time and that pro club rugby outside of the Heineken Cup will disappear.

Don't expect the player drain to England to dry up anytime soon and don't expect the ills of this competition to be suddenly healed just because some deal has apparently been brokered. All it means is that the self-interest has been parked awhile, but if the history of this competition is anything to go by another crisis is not far away. You fear it won't again survive the kind of turbulence we have seen of late.

This article was posted on 19-Jun-2005, 08:40 by Hugh Barrow.