Somebody else made an official announcement during the week and it takes me back to the opening line of this piece. The RFU announced their figures for the year . . . revenues are up 25% to 153m and operating profits are up 73% to 41m.

All that after making subventions to all Premiership clubs. Spectacular. Like I said, just look at some of the people our maker gave the shillings to. You can't doubt their monetary aptitude . . . I'd love if the IRFU were able to turn in those figures. Why oh why did the unspeakable gobshites make such a grandiose announcement at such a delicate time? It's like blinging up before you take a walk in Harlem.

The Heineken Cup starts next week.

Aren't we just lucky to have it at all?

Remind ourselves of what happened in March, April and May of last year. Serge Blanco started the conspiracy with a diversion about French League congestion, weakened teams, Canal+ started some whinging about diminution of quality, player burnout, etc. Next the French clubs said that they were boycotting the Heino because the RFU weren't giving over the agreed shareholding/ stakeholding owned by the RFU in the ERC to the Premiership clubs. A bizarre and unholy alliance and an act of strange solidarity. Uncle Syd then throws all of his toys out of the pram in a fit of pique. Sledging, slagging and diplomatic sashaying follow and then. . . silence! May arrives and the greater and unsuspecting rugby public have cause for great celebration. Let the bell towers ring out. The competition is saved . . . rejoice . . . the fatheads who got themselves into this mess in the first place scramble a solution. There will be a competition in 2008. We all went about our humdrum existences with hope in our hearts, come November there would be the Heino. It was almost like a passage from the Book of Genesis. Let there be Heino.

Today is Sunday 4 November, 168 days since the grand announcement on 20 May that everything has been agreed, all parties are happy and the greatest competition in the world ever will proceed as usual. Would it surprise you if I told you that no agreement has been signed, that the English clubs have not agreed to do anything yet? They might have intimated that they might do something in principle, but usually I find that unless a contract is signed, sealed and delivered, you ain't got nothing.

Now let me think what you could do in that time. Jules Verne's Phileas Fogg travelled around the world in 80 days, the Israelis and Egyptians had a full scale war completed in 42 days and for some nonsensical reason you can give up eating crisps for the 40 days of Lent . . . great achievements all and it would still leave you six days shy of the 168 days that the tosspots involved have spent doing precisely nothing. Surely a week would be enough to find an eight-year replacement for the Paris accord so that all the relevant parties who have agreed in principle would sign a legally-binding contract which would ensure the continuance of the competition.

A whole summer to work behind the scenes, a World Cup competition where all the parties would be gathered together. What were they doing?

Things have changed a little bit too.

Bernard Lapasset has been voted in as Chief Tosspot in the IRB which means he can't hold onto his job as Fixer-in Chief at the FFR and it also means that there will be a scramble for that position.

One of the applicants will be Blanco.

Lapasset was a key player in controlling any implied threat by the French clubs so the chief agitator could be in charge by year end. Where will that leave everyone if a contract still hasn't been signed?

In the meantime the RFU are still struggling to come to terms with the fact that they unbelievably reached the World Cup final. Three finals out of six ain't bad. They must be doing something right, it's just they don't know what that is yet. The RFU are in a very powerful position, financial muscle is everything.

As long as the dosh is rolling in they can dominate the game on the field of play.

But before they can do that they have to be able to control their means of production as they don't have full control over their elite players just yet. They are very close to a compensation package where they can control an elite group of 32 players where the focus would be England which up to now has not been the way things have been done. It would be a big wrench on the clubs to cede control of their stars, but it is nearly done.

So maybe I just can't quite believe that the RFU have shown their hand. "Well lads, I've a house of aces and kings . . . d'ya really want to see me?"

The deal was always about money or the two-fronted dispute, ie RFU vs clubs on elite player availability and RFU vs clubs on division of spoils for the Heineken Cup. The first one is practically sorted, the second one is still live and dangerous and the RFU make the announcement, Harry Enfield-style, that they've got "loadsamoney".

There is a Premiership rugby briefing tomorrow and God knows what they will come up with in relation to the Heineken Cup, but now that they know that the RFU have more money than they could possibly have dreamed of . . . with further supernormal profits anticipated for next season . . . why not hold out for a better deal now that they know what's in the kitty? Why did the RFU not defer their results until after the deal was done?

Despite assurances and knowing nods, until the English clubs sign up nothing is certain and I would suspect that there is an awful lot more to sort out than just the small print.

Onto the competition in all it's imperfect form. Ian McGeechan during the week bemoaned the fact that Wasps are in a dreadfully tough group. A lot of his protestations were down to selfinterest but as champions it's nothing that they can't overcome. Llanelli, Munster and Clermont-Auvergne are extremely difficult sides on any day of the week and this one will come down to bonus points garnered away from home and refereeing decisions . . . it will be that tight. So you can see why he is not exactly jumping for joy with the draw.

The ERC have gone from a matrixtype draw two or three years ago to an open draw where the top-six domestic champions are seeded but it now means that the Magners League has real relevance and sides like Munster will now have to take it more seriously. Munster were the third Irish seed and they got the draw they deserved. Leinster were the first Irish seed and they got the draw that they, eh, deserved. Yes Toulouse and Leicester. Toulouse were seeded third and the Leicester Tigers were seeded second. That's the draw folks. It does seem very lop-sided and the likely winner could come out of either Pool 5 or Pool 6 but it's a mug's game trying to predict a winner. However, it does seem that Blanco's team Biarritz, open draw or not, still for the third year in a row have managed to pull three duff sides in their Pool. I can probably tell you who won't win it . . . I would be pretty confident that none of the Irish teams will get out of their group which will add the air of misery that is currently pervading Irish rugby.

Leinster in particular are on a downward spiral. The Leinster management of Cheika, Knox and Brewer have not taken this team forward. The great victory in 2006 when Leinster beat Toulouse away from home was "a blip" (copyright Philip Browne). Their depressing Magners League fall away last year when it was theirs to win says everything and the utterly dismal non-performance against Wasps in the Heineken Cup last year copper-fastened the notion that this team was going nowhere. All the weaknesses are still there and they will come to light, particularly up front, under the slightest bit of pressure. We will see this from the very first day when Leicester come to town, a match which if Leinster lose they will be out of the competition. Their form so far suggests that by next Saturday afternoon their Heineken Cup will be over.