With the GAA about to make a decision next weekend on the leasing of Croke Park for 2008 rugby and soccer internationals, association president Nickey Brennan says that the circumstances governing the decision haven't changed in the past year. "The situation now is that management on Friday night will discuss the use of Croke Park in 2008 and the matter will come up for a decision at Central Council next Saturday.

"We've made it quite clear in fairness to our own people, who are being kept completely up to date, that the situation as regards the development of Lansdowne Road is no different than it was the last time around except that planning permission has been granted and appealed to An Bórd Pleanála. The outcome of that hearing is awaited."

There have been complaints from some members within the GAA that the offer of Croke Park was intended to be during the construction work on the proposed new Lansdowne Road stadium and that in the absence of planning permission the decision to relax Rule 42 should be suspended.

According to Brennan, however, the uncertain nature of the development is why the issue to be resolved is limited to next year's rugby and soccer internationals rather than anything longer term.

"The only one difference from when we made the decision for this year is that Lansdowne Road is now totally closed for redevelopment and will not open again. That's the only differing factor - in as much as you could say there's any difference - but certainly our members will be asked to make their decision on the same basis that they made their decision the last day and that's why the decision is only being made for 2008."

In fact the GAA won't have to wait too long after Saturday's meeting to learn the fate of the Lansdowne Road project, currently under appeal to An Bórd Pleanála.

It is believed that the IRFU and FAI are expecting a verdict on this within the next month or so. Although the inspector conducting the hearing into the redevelopment said that he hoped for a decision by February 22nd, informed sources expect it to run around a fortnight late.

The board, which isn't obliged to accept the inspector's findings (as the GAA are only too aware given that one of the phases of the Croke Park redevelopment was held up when an inspector's report was overruled), can make the following decisions: decide to accept the full permission granted by Dublin City Council or reject it on the basis the proposal is completely unsuitable.

But it is between these extremes that the decision is likely to fall. Permission can be granted but with conditions, which can be either minor - relating to matters like working hours or stipulation on dirt and dust - or major, concerned with issues like the height of the proposed stadium.

Height has a significant bearing on capacity and if permission is given with a requirement that the capacity drops much below the proposed 50,000, it would be questionable if the development would be considered feasible.

From a GAA perspective the staging of Sunday's rugby international against France will give Central Council something to weigh up when deliberating on the future use of the ground. "There'll be some members of Central Council who were at the game," according to Brennan. "There'll be more who were watching it on television and more members of Central Council who haven't seen it at all and have maybe read newspaper reports. It will be interesting to hear what they have to say. It puts a different angle on it to have the first game over so people will have views on how it worked out."

Clarifying remarks he had made on RTÉ Radio One's Morning Ireland yesterday - remarking that he thought the crowd had been a little slow to get going - the president said: "In fairness I was comparing it to a GAA event in that if you have a GAA event the audience is 50-50 or thereabouts. It's the first occasion that we've had a big occasion in Croke Park - bar the International Rules - where the crowd was overwhelmingly behind one team.

"With France dominant in the first half it took the Irish support a while to get going and the nature of the game is different to our own games in that it's a stop-start type of game with breaks for scrums and lineouts.

"I thought that maybe the crowd could have got behind the team a little more but then I was in the Árd Comhairle section and maybe people were quieter there. But there was a fantastic atmosphere and I wouldn't want anyone to think I was talking that down."