Ger Keville tweeted in response to that "Next Up Eamonn Sweeney compares the World Cup Final to a Laois vs Leitrim GAA qualifier"
The snobbery of hurling fans is fairly self-evident, and it's part of what's turned me off the game in recent years. Case in point, Christy O'Connor's fairly interesting book The Club, about one of his last season in St Joseph's, has numerous sections where he rails against kids in his local club picking Gaelic Football over Hurling, acting like the bigger ball game is a sport for idiots, and the smaller ball is for PHDs. I remember being struck by how nasty his tone was.
Author of Never Felt Better (History, Film Reviews).
on the morning of the All Ireland Hurling final some plank was on RTE Radio in full flow about how great hurling and the GAA was. During his monologue he said that is was so great that the fans from the two counties would be able to mix in the stands for the final not like other sports in the country, which went completely unchallenged by the rest of the nodding dogs on the panel. At Ireland games I have sat beside scots, germans and poles, at rugby matches the provinces fans regularly sit beside each other and I have sat beside many another 6N fan over the years and at the few LOI matches I have attended the segregation of fans was liberal at worst. I like many a GAA match but the kind of unchallenged GAA snobbery illustrated by the RTE panellist that morning was pathetic
World Cup Finals are notoriously cagey affairs
How come the rugby people are able to fill Lansdowne for a game against Fiji and possibly for all three "Autumn friendlies" while we'll struggle to get half that number in our next friendly unless it's England etc ? There's in element in such rugby matches that they're not really "friendlies" and they get huge coverage in the media while one of our friendlies against say Oman will get at most one page in the papers.
Forget about the performance or entertainment. It's only the result that matters.
the fact these rugby games are on a Saturday at 5.30pm is a big help. also, the IRFU had very good family deals and deals with schoolboy / girl clubs for the Fiji match.Originally Posted by OwlsFan
it hasn't always been like this for the rugby but as everyone knows the Irish love supporting success...
Being able to spin every friendly as a competitive match probably helps too. Doesn't explain our terrible crowds for the likes of Georgia and Moldova, mind.
The tickets for Fiji were dirt cheap, especially compared to the South Africa and Argentina games: http://www.irishrugby.ie/guinnessser...p#.WhK5ulVl_cs
Code:2017 GUINNESS Series Ticket Prices Ticket South Africa Fiji Argentina Category 1 Stand €80.00 €35.00 €70.00 Category 2 Stand €70.00 €25.00 €60.00 Category 3 Stand €55.00 €15.00 €45.00 Category 4 Stand €35.00 €15.00 €25.00 Premium Level €100.00 €50.00 €90.00 Restricted View Premium & Cat 1 €40.00 €17.50 €35.00 Restricted View Cat 2 €35.00 €12.50 €30.00 Restricted View Cat 3 €27.50 €7.50 €22.50 Restricted View Cat 4 €17.50 €7.50 €12.50 Schoolboy/girl €10.00 €5.00 €10.00
Last edited by tetsujin1979; 20/11/2017 at 2:03 PM.
Moldova was a sell-out. Georgia (this campaign) had 40,000 on a Thursday night.
Who did we play in Thomond last year? Not sure it was a sell out.
I couldn't remember this so checked. Seems our most recent international in Thomond was in against Fiji in 2012.
If that's the game you're thinking of you're right anyway, as the attendance was only 17,126.
Ireland Internationals at Thomond Park - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomon...tional_matches
Ireland played the Barbarians there in 2015. Attendance was 16,000 according to this: http://www.the42.ie/ireland-barbaria...31529-May2015/ (capacity is 26,000)
That Fiji game wasn't classed as a full international, it was an "Ireland XV"
An XV made up of completely Leinster & Ulster players wouldn't have helped to be fair.
Right, a bit strange that the Barbarians one was.
I'm not sure if that was a full international game either. AFAIK the rugby team are subject to the same sponsorship agreement as the FAI - that all home senior internataionals are played at the Aviva stadium
Probably not comparable so, even less than a friendly in soccer, more like a B-International or something.
Neil Francis' latest effort "The people are embracing rugby as our new national sport - and rightly so" is really...something.
My rebuttal Is it right to embrace rugby as our new national sport?
Have to agree with you, Tets. A lot of salient points in there.
My father would have played club rugby in a GAA town in the 80's so it would be his primary interest in sport, neck in neck with gaelic football. As a result, i dabbled a bit with rugby underage but gaelic football was my number one (no matter how hard I tried i was bloody brutal at football). In that context, I've always been interested in rugby so I've seen the interest in it grow. The success of Munster and the real occasion that a match in Thomond constitutes has brought a lot of people that wouldn't have been interested previously into the televised and live audience, respectively. That has also been the case for Ireland and probably Leinster.
So, yes, we are a very successful nation in the sport of rugby union. People are drawn to that. Same way people are drawn to horse racing if Ruby Walsh wins a big race or the Irish dominate the wins at Cheltenham and the same way we would have all hailed the accomplishment of Harrington winning his majors or McGinley masterminding Ryder Cup success. That doesn't mean all the interested population were running to get on a horse or swing a golf club immediately after the success.
I'm sure that the playing population of rugby has increased but Francis' heralding it as our national sport is in this context of international success. Gaelic football is a national sport without an international context. Football is the most popular and, as a result, most competitive game in the world. Without knowing the figures, I'm sure both have greater playing populations. And I was about to address his point regarding women and rugby from the perspective of gaelic football and football but it actually doesn't deserve addressing and I would be worried that I would inadvertently come across as a chauvinist pig but having to use it re-inforce my argument.
It's all about BIRGing and CORFing in my opinion
https://www.units.miamioh.edu/psybersite/fans/bc.shtml
Ewan McKenna has had the bit between his teeth on this issue recently too. Here is his latest
https://twitter.com/indosport/status...642665984?s=21
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