Rugby union can be absurdly sweet and sour. Sunday in Dublin showed its capacity to captivate but its murky underbelly will be back on show in the coming days. Will the French clubs surrender to their union's summons?

Will the Welsh regions follow the money or fight for their principles? Will the English clubs have to eat their bodyweight in humble pie? Like the All Blacks, the politicians of European rugby are relentless.

The mass squabble over the future of the Heineken Cup could also go down to the final kick. Where once there was a prime cross-border competition there is now a primal scream of avarice and a nasty sense of deja vu. We are back in the vicious darkness of professionalism's early days.

It was certainly an interesting week for the International Rugby Board's chief executive Brett Gosper to declare his sport "in rude health."

At least he got the rude bit right. Last week's joint statement from the Irish, Welsh, French, Scottish, and Italian unions was described by Saracens chairman Nigel Wray as "the last bastion of the landlord versus serf relationship" and the FFR president Pierre Camou has copped some particular stick. "It's ludicrous that some bloke in France who hasn't invested a penny in the game can tell small businesses how they can operate and what they can and can't do," Wray told ESPN.

"It's ludicrous. It wouldn't happen in any other industry. The unions, who if you like have had the landlord role, always want to cling on to their power, it's perfectly normal. But it's like stopping the waves coming in. Canute didn't manage it and they won't."

Wray has been fighting this particular fight for 17 years now. Sure enough he was in Exeter on Saturday, loyally following his club as usual, still adamant rugby's traditional elders can no longer dictate what he can or cannot do. Imagine Fifa telling the English Premier League how to run their business? Even if it leaves them with a fallow European fixture-list next season, the English clubs see absolutely no future in the current set-up.

The stakes are growing ever higher. Imagine the committee-room meltdown should the Rugby Football Union become estranged either from its neighbouring unions or its clubs? The RFU cannot reject the latter now without risking a full scale civil war less than two years out from a World Cup. If, on the other hand, they are ostracised by every other European union the whole foundations of the Six Nations, the region's chief financial driver, start to tremble.

Either way, next season's Heineken Cup is in danger of being a dog's dinner. France are promising to supply eight sides but not necessarily all the best ones. Some – Toulon, say – will be caught in two minds. Without the English it will be even harder not to concentrate on an undiluted, full-strength tournament, namely the Top 14. The four Welsh teams will be minus a number of players who are bound for wealthier clubs abroad. The Scots and the Italians will carry on as normal, but for how long? The Amlin Cup, which offered a financial leg-up to Europe's smaller operators, has been mothballed. Without the English pantomime villain element it is no longer a competition to make the heart sing, regardless of your nationality.

Neither does it require a genius to work out where the English clubs will be tempted to look next. South Africa is in the same timezone and their players do not want to spend the rest of their lives shuttling to and from Australasia. Add in the best French sides and, potentially, you have the germ of a global club tournament. The Celtic unions, stuck with a competition of limited horizons, might yet begin to regret opting for the status quo. In the meantime we're heading for the world of darts – split organisations, rival finals, divided loyalties.

It would have other knock-on effects, too. The English and any rebel French clubs would be even less inclined to release their players for games outside international windows. Mutual understanding is already strained. Wales, for instance, must soldier on against Australia this week without the likes of Bath's Paul James. Fiji have had to call up sevens players this weekend to make up the numbers against the Barbarians because their regular XVs combatants mostly ply their trade for European clubs. Even the Baa-Baas are struggling for sufficient bodies. The fight for control of players will grow ever more vexed and expensive.

It gets worse. Without European Cup exposure next season – if their new tournament has to be delayed for a year – many leading English players would be restricted to domestic action. It is not the ideal way to prepare for an intense World Cup on home soil. All the feel good pre-World Cup marketing initiatives will also be drowned out by the wail of political sirens and arguments in the media.

The average punter will be tempted to shrug his or her shoulders and watch the football instead. At a stroke the best opportunity to publicise rugby union in England – and Wales – for a generation will have been wasted.

No pressure, then. The French clubs are reportedly due to meet on 2 December, with the French Federation's annual general meeting also taking place early next month. Something really has to be sorted out by Christmas because every side needs to know what next season's budget looks like before they start re-signing or recruiting in the New Year.

In short, it is not about the pesky English getting their comeuppance. It is about securing a viable future for the professional club game which, under current arrangements, shows little sign of dawning for the majority. A Celtic "victory" will be hollow indeed if it comes at the price of surrendered trust and fresh infighting. Ireland want to stage a World Cup in 2023 and will need the RFU to vote for them at some stage.

France fancy staging that tournament too. You can already sense deals being discussed, based on the outcome of the current European saga. Never mind the players, how much can we flog the product for? Sweet and sour, indeed.

Electric atmosphere

Want to hear the perfect description of how it feels to play in a high-profile game in front of a pumped-up home crowd? Let the Munster lock Donnacha Ryan be your guide. At the weekend he was recalling the night Munster played the All Blacks in Limerick in 2008, the 30-year anniversary of their famous win over the same opponents in 1978.

"It really dawned on me when we came out on the pitch," Ryan told the Sunday Independent. "It was like grabbing an electric fence. And then hanging to it for 80 minutes." Those involved in Sunday's Test at the Aviva Stadium will have experienced similar sensations, which made the All Blacks's second-half resilience all the more remarkable at the end of their gloriously unbeaten year.

"What I'm proudest of is that we've been tested in all sorts of ways and have been able to find the answers," suggested a bloodied Richie McCaw. South Africa in Ellis Park, England at Twickenham, Ireland in Dublin ... only a seriously mentally-strong side could have survived such a brutal trio of examinations.

Prediction of the week

The final weekend of November international action is here, with Wales seeking to finish on a high against Australia in Cardiff. This will be a pivotal fixture in the 2015 Rugby World Cup pool stages but, as things stand, both sides have had an energy-sapping autumn. Given their improving results the Wallabies, for me, have some momentum but the verdict from our hutch-dwelling expert, after a moment's hesitation, is a Welsh victory. Not for the first time this season reputations are on the line.