The Irish have been top class this year

As the new year beckons, we have to pay attention to the events of 2009 and its significance for British and Irish rugby.

Without question, the success of Ireland's rugby has had the greatest impact, but the spread of its achievement has also been impressive.

Ireland's Grand Slam victory of 2009 - their first since 1948 - was an honour that had weighed considerably on their shoulders and the accomplishment will probably allow them to move on to greater things in the run-up to the World Cup in 2011.

This has certainly been the case on the domestic front with Munster becoming Celtic League champions in May 2009 and Leinster being crowned European Cup champions soon after.

That memorable semi-final between the two old rivals at Croke Park in front of an 85,000 capacity crowd was a real turning point in Leinster's recent history and who can ever forget the man-of-the-match performance from Australian flanker Rocky Elsom.

Munster had all the expectation of victory, but Leinster had the desire to win and went on to beat Leicester in the Edinburgh final.

Leinster's European campaign this season was rocked by a home loss to a gutsy London Irish performance in Dublin. However, the club - unlike some of the French teams - have the advantage of knowing where their priorities lie.

In the run-up to this European round, they sent an under-strength side to Newport to get walloped 30 points to 14 by an under-rated Dragons team, yet the rest afforded to their senior squad allowed them to soundly thrash the Scarlets at home and away in the cherished European Cup.

They have aspiring young talent such as fly-half Jonathan Sexton and flanker Sean O'Brien to supplement the developing Lions full-back Rob Kearney.

They will take some beating in 2010. Coach Tony McGahey has improved the Munster game.

They are no longer one-dimensional and, when they can select two centres in a European Cup match and leave out South African World Cup-winning centre Jean de Villiers, they cannot be regarded as just a forward unit.

Lifeimi Mafi has made a difference at inside centre and in Keith Earls they have a developing talent.

Significantly, they went to Perpignan last weekend and took them apart.

They have developed the winning way through honest endeavour and have sufficient self-belief to go to France and ensure a bonus-point victory against last season's French champions.

However, it hasn't just been the top two provinces that have, on occasion, shown good form.

There are other all-pound pluses to the Irish game, with Ulster recently beating Stade Francais at home by 23 points to 13 and competing favourably when the rearranged second match was finally played at Stade Jean Bouin.

Stade won this match by 29 points to 14 and even though Connacht are Ireland's developmental province and lie at the foot of the Celtic League, they are difficult to beat at home in either Galway or Athlone, as the Scarlets and Cardiff Blues have found to their cost this season.

So it was no surprise to see Premiership side Worcester fail at Galway on Friday night in the European Challenge Cup.

Irish rugby now has depth.