THE theme song for the Rugby World Cup is 'The World in Union'. RT�, over the course of the years, has done a good presentation for their coverage.

Shirley Bassey sings to a softfocus film in slo-mo of the world's finest players for the intro to most of the coverage. It fits well. "There's a dream I feel, so real all the world in union. The world as one gathering together. One mind, one heart, every creed, every colour. Once joined, never apart. Searching for the best in me. I will find what I can be. If I win, if I lose or draw it's a victory for us all. It's the world in union."

I think a new song is required.

Syd Vicious, Chairman of the IRB, might care to choose 'Anarchy in the UK' by the Sex Pistols.

It is only in moments of crisis that you can really judge people, to see how they perform or react. If that is the case then the game of rugby union is in trouble. A ship sits easy at anchor in the harbour but that is not what it was built for. Whenever we set sail, why do I always get the impression that Bozo, Bubbles, Groucho, Chico and Harpo are at the helm?

We'll get to the kernel of the issue in a moment but this problem dates back to October 1995. There was to be a professional player circus, involving 20-25 of the top players in the top eight nations, funded and televised by Murdoch's organisation. The game of union would never have recovered. As it was, the TriNations and Super-12s competitions demanded the players become professional. Driven by southern hemisphere pressure, the IRB caved.

Some unions were dragged all the way to Paris though.

Let's just call me a dog in the street. If I knew what was going to happen in October 1993, surely my lords and masters in the IRB knew what was afoot way before. Perhaps a contingency plan would be put into place to ensure that the governing body could do just that - govern everyone.

In a lamentable display of mis-understanding and a ruinous lack of leadership, they let everyone off to do their own thing. The southern hemisphere had its models and franchises in place, but in the northern hemisphere nobody knew what was going to happen. Problem recognition has never been their strength.

The RFU in particular sat back and let a collection of beauties roll in and buy up these venerable institutions pretty much for damn all.

When you consider that all the RFU had to do was go to the board of trustees of the top 12 clubs at the time and instruct them to set up limited or private companies and buy 51% of the share capital, it seems so simple. A little bit of coercion might have been required but that could have been done for less than �2 million per club. That's �1 million less than what they are currently sub-venting them on an annual basis, with virtually no control over their means of production - the top 30 elite players in the country. It's down to the goodwill of the clubs to make them available.

It's a bit like communist Russia.

Communism wasn't working so let's change to a free-market economy in the morning. Wonderful.

The French situation, as usual, was a little bit more complex. Not only did you have sugar daddies but you had giant companies, through their principal, taking strategic shareholders to showcase themselves through the local rugby club. So Peugeot own a chunk of Toulouse, Michelin have a significant shareholding in Clermont Auvergne, Faber Laboratories effectively own Castres, and so on. A powerful shareholding with significant financial muscle and a serious lobby.

Correct me if I'm wrong but at that press conference in October 1995 to announce the game was turning professional Syd Millar was at the top table. It was puzzling to see him get grumpy and bearish about the English and French clubs when this Frankenstein of his making came back to bite him in the arse.

The touch-paper has been fizzing for 11 years.

This issue has been mis-managed and held in abeyance for quite a while and the current impasse has been brewing for 16 months. They have chosen to ignore the situation and, in return, the English and French clubs have targeted (in tandem) the pi�ce de r�sistance in the northern hemisphere. It has come to this, fools on both sides playing with fire, without having the faintest notion that it burns.

What has happened was going to happen sooner or later. Nothing has surprised me though, including the tactics - almost out of the pages of an Al Qaeda manual. Terrorise, spare no one and, as in the case of most extremist action, go against the wishes of the greater good - effectively 99% of the population - to achieve your needs. The governments of course will not back down and, instead of conciliation and diplomacy, there'll be diffidence and aggression.

So, for a problem of their own making, I hope they can come up with a solution before the television moguls do.

The French clubs do, however, have a case.

The clubs effectively control the elite players and there is the grievous issue of how often they get to use them. On average there are 11 internationals in a 32-week season. Chuck in a Heineken Cup and it barely gives time to complete a French championship programme. The IRB over the past five or six years have paid lip service to player burn-out, noting that it is a serious issue yet doing nothing. Only this year, the IRB announced plans for further international competition, more world championships and more north vs south play-offs. The clubs will never see their players and when they do they will be burnt out and broken up.

The French championship has increased its crowd and television audience on a compound basis year on year. Two months ago, Stade Francais filled Stade de France (82,500) for their championship match against Toulouse. A great spectacle, a great match.

Having talked to a number of French sources, nearly all of them genuinely state that the reason for the one-year 'boycott' is indeed the fixture congestion issue. Fair enough, but it's the only one that is plausible because nothing else makes sense.

I wonder also about Serge Blanco's role in all of this. Some of the things he says stand up to scrutiny. Much of it though is contradictory and I would suspect his somewhat limited intellectual capacity might leave him open to manipulation. You could easily sense Syd Vicious's literary outburst was all his own work. Blanco's reply was scarcely hand-crafted.

There are two people who wield enormous power in the LNR - Arnaud Dagorne, its general secretary, and Patrick Wolf, its vice-president. Wolf is politically ambitious and a lawyer by profession and would be quite happy to sit back, pull the strings and let Blanco's international profile give credibility to their burgeoning ambitions. The two suits would not have gained so much momentum if they had acted on their own. Millar alluded to the fact that he thought Blanco "allowed himself to be used". Maybe, maybe not, but he acts for a very powerful lobby - Peugeot, Faberge, Michelin, Max Guazzini, Michel Martin - one that won't go away easily and one that won't be bullied if the worst comes to the very worst. They can and will survive without the Heineken Cup.

Maybe without grovelling or pandering, the world governing body will address their issues.

The French clubs rightly feel that they have been subjugated and disenfranchised - c'est bon parler.

As for the English clubs, they are on a far less secure footing, being completely dependant on the RFU for solvency. However, they know that the RFU simply couldn't pull the plug. I just can't understand why they require to hold 50% of the RFU's shareholding if indeed it doesn't give them any increase in their relative financial distribution from the ERC. They are "simply asking for equal recognition and status in any new agreement". Whenever I hear the words "simply" or "merely" used on a contractual basis I am always suspicious. I think the English stance is perplexing and their demands obscure. They "simply" have no case and they will be pulled back into line very shortly. I hope this is not the first play in a long war. I would not be confident that the IRB or the ERC would be able to nail this one and put it to bed for good, rather than hoping that once the sands settle down that it will go away for a while - which is what is going to happen.

My opinion is this: when it comes to a choice of goodwill or conscience, and people or profit, the people who have initiated this putsch have no conscience and the initial reaction of the IRB will only have encouraged them.

I think there will be a Heineken Cup next year with all the English sides in it. I also believe that the French sides will participate either in the 2007/2008 competition or the following season, depending on a deal which is being done at the moment. Extra funds being distributed to the LNR via the FFR from a hastily organised slush fund will ensure sponsors, television etc are kept happy. Short-term solution. But there is a whole summer of bickering to come. I am not, however, so sure about the format or the long-term future for the Challenge Cup.

Next season's competition will be an uneasy marriage with trust and suspicion taking turns to play on us.