It could have been worse -- but only just.

Although the whiteout of all but one Guinness Premiership fixture last weekend may cause pressure on the fixture list later on in the season, at least it was not a Heineken Cup weekend where there is little room for manoeuvre.

And although it seems that the blanket of snow and ice is colder and more widespread than in recent years, a quick delve into the history books will show that it is nothing to write home about.

Back in 1963 – admittedly the coldest winter since the 1740s – there were no club matches for weeks on end and the only way that Wales could stage their international against England was to cover the Cardiff pitch with hundreds of bales of straw.

Come kick-off, these were stacked up to within feet of the goal-lines and the players – some of whom were later diagnosed with frost-bite – were forbidden from taking the field till after the national anthems. When they did run out, the clicking sound of 30 pairs of boots on the frozen surface sounded to Wales skipper Clive Rowlands: "Like a herd of cattle."

In my playing days, the whole playing schedule could easily fall victim to the weather.

With an England trial coming up, I remember being so desperate to get a game of any sort that when Cambridge junior club side Old Perseans offered, me a run-out in December 1976, I was happy to join them in ignoring the frozen surface at a reform institution in deepest Bedfordshire and played along with the delusion that the game would have gone ahead anyway even if the nation's rugby media hadn't been desperate for a game to cover.

In my cub reporter days, I had to keep BBC radio listeners informed as, after weeks of club inactivity, the authorities at Twickenham woke up to the fact that the international against Ireland might be in doubt as well – and frenziedly organised hot-air blowers, ground-sheets and wind-tunnels, as well as double-time for the ground staff and a couple of farcical inspections by the referee.

And, even when the game turned professional, the coldest of snaps had a knack of testing specially-designed technology to the limits.

England's first fixture at the magnificent Stade de France, in 1998, was in serious doubt until the Northampton firm, now run by former Somerset cricketer Nigel Felton, stepped in to save the day.

Sports and Stadia Services now have a contract to provide three pitch-cover systems per week to the Guinness Premiership and each 105 metres long with hot air pumped down a central tube before being blown sideways across the ground.

These systems have been pretty effective to date – only 17 matches have had to be postponed in the last 10 seasons – but with Felton asserting that conditions last week were the worst he has known in this country, it was inevitable that the campaign for an enforced mid-winter break in rugby would get another airing.

Writing shortly after that ice-fest in 1963, former England captain Lord Wavell Wakefield argued for a complete reorganisation of the season and for the international championship to be played in March and April.

Thirty years later, in his autobiography High Balls And Happy Hours, Scotland and Lions skipper Gavin Hastings put up a strong case for rugby to become a summer sport.

Only last week, another former Scottish international, John Beattie, was arguing in his BBC Online column for rugby to be played in June, July and August on the grounds not only would it facilitate a global rugby season but that warm, dry weather would lead to a huge improvement in skill levels and appeal to a vastly greater audience.

Of course, rugby has every right to be confident that it could hold its own against traditional summer sports such as cricket, golf, tennis and Flat racing but why run the risk?

The evidence from Saracens' Wembley experiments and from the big matches staged at Twickenham, by Harlequins, would suggest that there is a huge potential market for rugby as played in the winter.

With Leicester regularly packing out their newly-expanded Welford Road Ground, and with attendances going up across the board in the Premiership, there's every reason to suggest that rugby has found its rightful place in the sporting calendar.

So, with the cold snap set to continue, and the technology not yet available to every club every week, there's not much we can do except grin and bear it.

And watch the cricket.