The under-19 World Championship is the third largest tournament in rugby. It will take place in Belfast from 4-21 April. It is instructive to take a glance at the effort and time other nations are putting in to what is seen as the most competitive competition outside senior rugby.

For South Africa, the tournament will be the culmination of eight months planning that began back in September when the original squad of 90 was selected following the completion of the Coca-Cola Craven week, an annual tournament for 400 of the country's finest schoolboys.

A series of trial matches followed, before the squad's first training camp was held at the Naval training facilities at Saldanha on the Western Cape. A reduced squad of 45 players was put through its paces. Further training camps were held before the squad played warm-up matches against the Vodacom Western Province and Boland under-21 teams.

This level of preparation is unprecedented for an under19 side, but it underlines the Baby Boks' ambitions of returning to the top four in Division A and continuing to supply talented young players to senior teams.

Australian coach Phil Mooney will take his squad, sheared from a succession of trials and camps, into a nineday training camp at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra as part of their preparation to defend the title they won in Dubai.

"The World Championships provide us with a rare benchmark of where our junior development is at compared with the other nations. It also gives the players valuable match experience and a great springboard to launch their Super 14 and Test rugby careers, " said Mooney.

This is a level of intense, detailed preparation Ireland coach Charlie McAleese can only dream of: "Any young man moving from schools rugby to the under-19 World Cup will fully appreciate the step up in intensity. For instance, two of the Australian boys have already played for the New South Wales Waratahs in the Super-14.

That gives you some idea of the physical dimension they will bring to the tournament."

Those two Queensland Reds, Quade Cooper and Will Genia, will be important players as will Australian Sevens exponent Blair Connor and ACT Brumbies lock Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.

"The lack of time with the players is an ongoing problem in the preparation process in Ireland. The higher countries, like South Africa and Australia, have much greater access to the players than we do, " said McAleese.

In other words, schools rugby here is all about St Patrick's weekend. About winning. The development of players for the world level is about playing skilfully under pressure. It is something Leinster backs guru David Knox alluded to when he first arrived in Dublin.

"The Schools Cups foster a winning-related mentality, not a performance-related mentality, " he states.

"For instance, in the Clongowes-Terenure Leinster semi-final, admittedly played in poor conditions, the ball was rarely moved more than two passes from where it was won. This does not help to develop the skills of the individual.

"The schools system can easily exist and continue to provide for international rugby. For players to be better prepared for the under-19 World Cup and to be able to make the step up to the professional ranks, the schools need to be more flexible in exposing their elite players to specialist conditioning and skills coaches."

Ireland has long since bit the bullet to put in place a structure that is the envy of the rest of the rugby world.

The centrally-contracted provincial and international structures have been the models for progress.

But, in a top-down pyramid from the international to grassroots rugby, the model suffers at the critical juncture between schools and early-adult rugby.

"The work the schools are doing is admirable for the development of rugby in this country, but it is not always appropriate for the type of preparation that is needed for the elite player to compete at the top level, " continues McAleese.

"The under-19 World Cup will be a great awarenessraising exercise. The higher countries have players that are ready to play Super-14 rugby at 18 years of age. That level of conditioning and skills must be our objective".

"The under-19 World Cup will not replicate the senior World Cup. A lot of the emerging nations will play a mean game. They come from countries that have received heavy investment from the International Rugby Board. These countries identify and develop their talent at a younger age. They are on programmes earlier."

In their preparations, Ireland encountered Wales at Stradey Park two weeks ago.

They were in action against AIB League Division Three table-toppers Ballynahinch yesterday and they will play Italy under-19s next Sunday.

It was all hunky-dory for the first 50 minutes against Wales. Former Belvedere College playmaker Eoin O'Malley kicked three penalties for a 90 half-time lead. Then, the deluge arrived as Wales racked up 31 points. It was a repeat of the situation last season but the Irish boys, with more time together, were able to turn it around at the World Cup.

Ireland battled manfully against the limitations of preparation and conditioning to beat Wales 20-15 in the fifthsixth place play-off in Dubai last April.

"The squad we selected for last year's under-19 World Cup was almost the starting team en-bloc for the under-20s this year and we know how well they are doing, " says McAleese.

From the current Ireland under-20 squad on the way to a Grand Slam, eight of the first choice players - namely backs Shane Monahan, Keith Earls, Ian Kettle and forwards Cian Healy, Thomas Anderson, Conor McInerney, David Pollock and Kevin Sheahan - started in Ireland's win over Wales in Dubai. It confirmed them as the best of the four home nations.

Hooker Richard Sweeney and second-row Andrew Browne were used as replacements that day. Scrum-half Paul O'Donohoe and centre Aidan Wynne had to be content with watching it all unfold from the bench. All four have risen to first-team status.

Scrum-half David Drake, hooker Ger Slattery and prop Ruaidhri Murphy have slipped from the first XV to the replacements. Number eight Sean O'Brien was and is injured. He later played for Ireland, along with Pollock, in the under-21 World Cup in France last June. Luke Fitzgerald passed up the opportunity to go to Dubai in favour of concentrating on the Leaving Cetificate.

"I would like more accessibility to the players. We have a very good working relationship with the schools. It is a problem that the zenith of the season for the schools and the Ireland under-19 occurs at the same time of the year.

This presents timing difficulties, " admits McAleese.

As long as Ireland keep competing respectably at the under-19 World Cup, the pressure to change the system will be kept at arm's length. If the superior preparation of other countries - especially perceived emerging nations - starts kicking in, there could be changes that will not make pleasant reading for schools rugby.