David Humphreys's claim that Ulster's progress to the European Cup quarter-finals was beyond his team's wildest dreams was understandable, but brought to mind the more level-headed reaction of a US college basketball coach. Asked by a journalist if a win had exceeded his wildest dreams, the coach responded wisely: "My wildest dreams have nothing to do with basketball."

Still, it was at least a dream fulfilled for Ulster and for Munster too, if not, sadly, for the free-falling losers of Leinster and Connacht. It may have been a bit much to hope that Ireland's three Cup representatives would all reach the knock-out stages, but, with the knowledge now that a draw would have sufficed for Leinster when they led Llanelli by 21-0 on Friday, that defeat becomes all the more galling.

It would surely have strengthened the IRFU's bargaining power for next season's competition, if and when the 1999-2000 European Cup takes shape. The French Federation have offered to act as mediators between the English clubs and ERC Ltd with a view to the former returning to the European fray next season.

The French, despite not quite bullying their way through this season's pool stages as they expected, are on record as saying that, without the return of the English clubs, there is no point in persisting with it.

Even more predictably, the hawkish English club owners, led by Sir John Hall, have gone on record as saying they will have nothing to do with a competition run under the auspices of ERC Ltd. Yet it's difficult to see where else they can go.

The British League still looks suspiciously like a smokescreen to bring Cardiff and Swansea unofficially into the Allied Dunbar fold. As for a pan-European competition, the English club owners have since unveiled their plans for that competition, to be run by them, but they just don't seem to understand that the French clubs are not going to break away from the French Federation, for one simple reason. Their grounds are municipally-owned stadiums, and any breakaway would effectively leave them homeless.

For all their trumpeting of the Allied Dunbar league, crowds are down this season. It's interesting to note that, of late, Ulster's and Leinster's average attendances compare more than favourably with all bar Leicester and Saracens. Friday nights under lights are right. The English club game, with its minimal satellite television audience, has been affected by the public's reaction to England's disastrous southern hemisphere tour last season - further proof that the international game remains the lifeblood of rugby.

Simple economic reality may ultimately make even the biggest hawks in the English club game realise that a European Cup is essential to them and that a degree of compromise may therefore be required.

This will undoubtedly mean an increase in the number of English clubs, perhaps to eight or 10 (especially if they can ditch London Irish and London Scottish) with a similar number of French clubs.

Irish representation is likely to be reduced to two, with Wales having double that number. The Welsh scarcely deserve it despite, it has to be said, some belated improvement from Llanelli and, most stunningly of all, Ebbw Vale. But, misleading yardstick though it undoubtedly is, it probably needed Leinster to qualify ahead of Llanelli for three Irish teams to remain in the premier European competition.

In a way then, a review of Leinster's season will show that they missed out on next season's Cup not once (by finishing only third in the interprovincials) but possibly twice. If so, they can have few complaints save for their truly horrendous injury list.

Yet, in a funny way (even though all four provinces were so competitive that each of them beat the other in turn, save for Munster's double over Connacht, and they were in close proximity right up until the sixth and final round) the final provincial table now seems to tell even fewer lies than it did three weeks ago.

Munster and Ulster have proven themselves the better two, most probably in that order, over the long haul. Munster have lost only one of their last nine games while Ulster have won their last five. Leinster, meanwhile, have lost six of their last seven and Connacht their last four.

Leinster's decline is a crushing disappointment for the province after the undoubted success of their Friday night operations in Donnybrook. Mistakes were undoubtedly made. Mike Ruddock admitted his first year working with a full-time squad had been a learning process for him while last week Jim Glennon was quoted as admitting that selecting a near full-strength team for the trip to Stade Francais was probably an error.

The backlash was felt against Munster. After a disrupted week's training Trevor Brennan and Victor Costello were wheeled out for that game and haven't played since. The use of the replacements' bench possibly backfired in the home game against Stade, and most certainly did when the aforementioned duo were withdrawn against Connacht.

The recurring collapses after often excellent first quarters or first halves questioned collective and individual spirit. There was a lot of pointing to the heart afterwards on Friday night and certainly it's hard to see how Munster or Ulster would have let those leads slip.

Too many Leinster players didn't perform to their maximum, notably the disappointing Brennan and Gabriel Fulcher. The flawless Girvan Dempsey was an honourable exception.

In the latter critical stages, conservatism seemed to creep into selection, with the call to arms for older heads such as Kurt McQuilkin, to the exclusion of Brian Carey (a rare Leinster success this season) and, flying in the face of the national selection, the preference for David O'Mahony over Ciaran Scally. The latter had a fine full debut on Friday night and looks one for the future in Leinster.

There's a bucketload of talent coming through, and if an out-half and an openside flanker can be unearthed, then Leinster will come again.

At least the Leinster clubs will be happy. As for Munster and Ulster, the five-week break before the quarter-finals won't help them compared to French clubs who will stay together. As with Leinster's progress to the semi-finals four years ago (when a huge chunk of their squad would have had to detour to Florida had they reached the final) once again the season seems to have been planned on the basis that no Irish side would progress to the quarter-finals.

The thought of one or two disrupting the fourth round of AIL fixtures on January 9th is even more alarming or pleasant - depending on which side of the great club/province divide you fall. But this season has underlined one undeniable truism yet again - the future is with the provinces.