It's a little odd then, given this statement of bold intent, that O'Connell only started six Magners League games out of a possible 20 for Munster last season. And that Peter Stringer only wore the province's number nine jersey in five fixtures. John Hayes only managed the three starts. Marcus Horan, six. Ronan O'Gara, nine.

Denis Leamy scraped together five appearances. It's a similar story with Leinster.

Brian O'Driscoll started seven games last season, while Girvan Dempsey and Gordon D'Arcy both clocked just nine.

Injuries, of course, played their part in some of these non-appearances but it's important to recognise one particular thing. Last season, for the first time in the brief history of the Magners League, no games were fixed for the same weekend as international fixtures. Which means that for once, Ireland's internationals weren't prevented from playing for their provinces because they couldn't defy science and be in two places at the same time. They were stopped from playing so that they could be in peak condition for when they pulled on the green of Ireland during the November internationals and Six Nations championship.

A couple of the questions now doing the rounds following Ireland's desperately disappointing World Cup effort are inter-related. Firstly, is wrapping our best players in cotton wool the best preparation for international rugby? And leading on from that, are our internationals being exposed to enough topclass rugby purely by playing six matches, sometimes more, in the Heineken Cup?

In many ways this entire debate has been kicked off by the Welsh. Following their brave if naive defeat to Fiji a couple of weeks back, their players came out and spoke honestly and forthrightly about why they believed their side were leaving the tournament a little early. Ian Evans, the Ospreys 23-year-old second-row, put the blame firmly at the door of the Magners League and, specifically, the way the Irish teams treat the competition. "We need consistent high-performance games, " said Evans. "It is no use us just going back to the Celtic League and playing against mediocre teams. If people don't put their best sides out every week, we are not going to get better as a nation. We have to keep our intensity levels up."

Intensity has become a key word in this World Cup and, in that context, it's interesting to look at the make-up of the semi-finalists and see what kind of rugby system they've come from. South Africa come from a centrally controlled rugby system, much the same as what operates in Ireland and Scotland, to give just two examples. That's fair enough. There are many positives to having full control of your players all year round.

However, in England and France . . . the countries where most Argentinean internationals also ply their trade . . . the free market reigns and during last weekend's quarter-finals the benefits of that were easy to see. Think of it like the civil service versus private enterprise. In the centrally-controlled rugby systems, where promotion or relegation simply don't exist, complacency can breed and multiply. If most games you play are neither do nor die, it's the only natural outcome. If, however, you're part of the free market and you're very existence as a player depends on you absolutely having to win your next game, then a completely different mindset predominates. Last weekend both England and France showed an intensity and bloody mindedness in battle that Australia or New Zealand could hardly fathom, never mind replicate.

"Handling the pressure of a knock-out tournament is something we don't have, " said Australia coach John Connolly this week. "There is always tomorrow in the Super 14 . . . there are enough games that if you have one bad game you can make up for it. There is no doubt, the Heineken Cup is very tough.

The Premiership in England, you are playing for the top four [to reach the semi-finals], top six [to qualify for Europe], promotion and relegation.

They are huge stakes every week. It brings a different style of rugby. It is not always a better style of rugby. It is a no-risk style whereas the southern hemisphere teams play a freer style."

Taking Connolly's considered thesis on the world game, at least Irish rugby has the Heineken Cup to sharpen its competitive instincts but that's only six to nine games per season. The issue is that the Magners League could be so much more if the top players were allowed to play a proper part in it.

For example, last season's Irish starting XV didn't play in the Magners League the week before the start of the November internationals or the week before the start of the Six Nations and they didn't partake in any games on the free weekends of that particular tournament either. A fair few of them didn't even play the weekend after the conclusion of the Six Nations.

The vast majority of the French and English internationals, meanwhile, lined out for their clubs on all those weekends. Admittedly, there is a fine line between remaining competitively primed and being flogged to death . . . and the French and English systems do tread all over it most of the time . . . but there's a reasonable argument that Ireland's players are being protected too well, that they're being closeted to such an extent that their instincts are being dulled. Which isn't necessarily the players' fault.

The policy of rest weekends appears to come from on-high and we know for a fact that at least some of these players would love to play more of a part for their provinces rather than spend their free Saturday afternoons shoe-shopping or what not. The IRFU policy also feeds into a bigger problem, one that may just have been a reason for Ireland's no-show at the World Cup. If Ireland's internationals are being asked to play no more than 10 Magners League games per season (the only players to start more games than this were Ulster's Rory Best and Andrew Trimble), then it creates yet another comfort zone within the Irish system.

Over the past few weekends we've highlighted the fact that the era of no consequence created by Eddie O'Sullivan . . . where the first XV are set in stone to such an extent the rest of the party feel they're never likely to get a game . . . has been instrumental in Ireland's poor showing. The Magners League attitude being fostered by the IRFU is similar.

Ireland's internationals are almost guaranteed their provincial places despite the fact many of them play less than half their sides' Magners League games. The players who take the slack when the internationals are away are, for the most part, jettisoned the minute they come back.

What does that do for the selfconfidence of the players relegated to the substitute's bench or out of the 22 entirely? Ask a fella like Eoin Reddan, who had to move to Wasps to get away from it all.

And what does it do to the mindset of the international players who know they're going to get their provincial place back no matter what?

Of course, the measurement of many of these things are intangible but it's the intangibles that need to be looked at right now if Irish rugby is to regain any kind of credibility over the coming season. It can all start with the Magners League. An idea would be to make every player available all season long, even during the free weekends in the Six Nations and get everybody's competitive instincts back up to where they should be. If players need to be rested here and there for specific reasons, then rest them but how about making 20 Magners League games a season the benchmark . . . and work down from there as the need arises . . . and not the 10 games that appear to be expected now. As Paul O'Connell hinted 18 months ago, winning the Heineken Cup might be fantastic but Irish dominance of the Magners League would be an altogether better indicator of the health of the game in this country.