Rugby now more popular than football AND GAA?!

[Eminence Grise]

'The beautiful game, bogball, stick fighting and egg-chasing beauty contest'?

[paul_oshea]

Is that the gimp from Galway who hosted Second Captains on RTE2?

There are lots of gimps from Galway, only slightly outdone by Mayo.

No hold on they are well outdone by mayo.

[Charlie Darwin]

How about "Stutts' favourite thread"?

[IsMiseSean]

There are lots of gimps from Galway, only slightly outdone by Mayo.

No hold on they are well outdone by mayo.

Murphy is from east Galway, bad crowd over there. Back in Connemara we're all perfectly normal & sound.

[Stuttgart88]

Football vs rugby in Wales. Discuss.

[BonnieShels]

I saw there was a new post in here and I knew it was you and I knew that that was the post.

You could say I felt it in my gut.

[Stuttgart88]

Anyway, just before Wales v Slovakia Dean Saunders was saying Wales was a rugby country. He got slaughtered for it, people on social media saying outside a few towns footy is more prevalent. Cardiff and Swansea each turn over more pa than the WRU and their attendances dwarf all but the national rugby team. Pro rugby in Wales draws poor crowds. I was in north Wales on holidays recently and saw little evidence of rugby. All the public parks had football posts.

And in Bordeaux I was having breakfast in my crappy airport hotel the morning after we lost to Belgium and I was explaining the Euros to an elderly New Zealand couple on holidays in Europe. The bloke, a giant of a man, was saying all the kids in NZ are playing soccer now. I asked was it because of the injuries and his wife said yes, her grandkids are playing football because so many teenagers are walking around school on crutches all the time.

Interesting times.

[backstothewall]

What about "3 Games that we all secretly admit aren't a patch on hurling"

[DeLorean]

Or even... "3 Games that we all secretly admit aren't a patch on the way 3 teams play hurling"

[gastric]

Patricians versus plebians versus bogmen!

[Drumcondra 69er]

This guy really doesn't get it. An utterly ridiculous article.

Ciarán Murphy: GAA doesn’t really need feed of pints to have a good time (http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/ciar%C3%A1n-murphy-gaa-doesn-t-really-need-feed-of-pints-to-have-a-good-time-1.2704382)

Like there's any comparison between being in a foreign country for a few days and making a day trip (by car!) to the Connacht semi final. I could compare a regular soccer qualifier in Dublin to a Kerry v Cork clash in Killarney too, to emphasise the extreme p!ss head nature of the GAA.

It's one of the worst and most sanctimonious articles I've ever read. I've lived in the shadow of Croker for over 23 years and the amount of boozing that goes on when there's championship games on is at in industrial level regardless of who's playing. He was in France on a day trip and has the definitive word on the fans experience? Laughable. There's plenty of old codgers who go to their local LOI fixtures and don't have a drink, same as those that go to local GAA games. Absolutely embarrassing article although I think it's deliberate click bait. None of the second captains lads are as clever or as knowledgeable as they'd like to think. Baddiel and Skinner with a student union twist.

[BonnieShels]

I drank in France. But rarely drink in Croker and I'm there from Feb to Sept. Never drink in Tolka. And never at Lansdowne Road (cos it's nigh on impossible), though I bagged a pint v Switzerland just cos it was Good Friday (thanks DeL). I drank watching Ireland v Italy in Lansdowne in the 6N mostly because I had a hangover that knew my name. I also went to the pub to watch Ireland v Italy in the Euros.

There's nothing at all at ant point that will indicate that the sport I watch will decide that I'll be having a pint or not and to suggest that it is the sport is a load of the proverbial.

Murph has been the one I missed from the old OTB crew for their GAA coverage cos Woolly annoys me.

[MeathDrog]

I drank in France. But rarely drink in Croker and I'm there from Feb to Sept. Never drink in Tolka. And never at Lansdowne Road (cos it's nigh on impossible), though I bagged a pint v Switzerland just cos it was Good Friday (thanks DeL). I drank watching Ireland v Italy in Lansdowne in the 6N mostly because I had a hangover that knew my name. I also went to the pub to watch Ireland v Italy in the Euros.

There's nothing at all at ant point that will indicate that the sport I watch will decide that I'll be having a pint or not and to suggest that it is the sport is a load of the proverbial.

Murph has been the one I missed from the old OTB crew for their GAA coverage cos Woolly annoys me.
Wooly has gone. He's decent on GAA but terrible on everything else.

[tetsujin1979]

Woolly will be on the joe.ie GAA podcast starting soon

[tetsujin1979]

My own experience of drinking at games is that I'd rarely do it, but mainly because I usually drive to the Aviva, and I usually have work the morning after. There's regularly a garda checkpoint on my route to work, and they haven't stopped me yet, but sod's law dictates it will be the morning after I've had a drink at a game. If it's a Friday/Saturday game, I'll have a drink after the game, it's even rarer that I'd drink before a game.
I think the only time I did have a drink after a midweek game in the most recent qualifiers was after the second leg of the play off.

[DeLorean]

I drank watching Ireland v Italy in Lansdowne in the 6N mostly because I had a hangover that knew my name.

Too soon ;)

[DeLorean]

It's a bit more measured and thought out than Ciaran Murphy's nonsense but it's like the Irish Times have some sort of agenda going on. There's no doubt the fans milk the reputation they have but, seriously, so fecking what? The contradiction, I find, is that these begrudgers are so paranoid about other ways we might be viewed, as a nation, that they feel the need to accuse the fans of being desperate to be viewed in a certain way. They don't get the irony that they're the ones with the hang ups and insecurities. Just live and let live ffs.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/irish-soccer-fans-abroad-a-source-of-pride-or-embarrassment-1.2707519

[Stuttgart88]

I really fail to see the point of that Frank McNally article.

And anything that mentions "lack of segregation" really annoys me. Segregation wasn't required in almost all of Euro 2016 games, just as it wasn't required when we hosted Poland, for example, last year. But segregation adds to the spectacle of a big football natch. Football fan culture is an extraordinary and fascinating thing, in all its guises.

[BonnieShels]

Wooly has gone. He's decent on GAA but terrible on everything else.

I had noticed he hadn't been on of late. But clearly missed that memo when he left. Mick's first poaching eh?

How long is he gone?

[tetsujin1979]

I had noticed he hadn't been on of late. But clearly missed that memo when he left. Mick's first poaching eh?

How long is he gone?
Mick's gone to balls.ie, Woolly's gone to joe.ie. Mick had a week long farewell culminating in his last crappy quiz, probably because Ger Gilroy owns balls.ie, whereas Wooly was put straight on gardening leave. Think it was about 3 weeks ago?

[Stuttgart88]

Football vs rugby in Wales. Discuss.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07fm3ct

Discussed here. Great Radio 4 programme "In Wales the Ball is Round". I'm not sure if the link above works; if not just google it or search for it on iPlayer radio.

[davidatrb]

Maybe I am being overly defensive, but I object to what he mentions about the "paucity of numbers attending LOI games".

There were 50,000 travelled to Lyon by some accounts and 5000 that attended the match vs France. I am going to give some LoI numbers too.

When you compare to the League of Ireland numbers remember that that French match in Lyon was the biggest match since the Spain game at the same stage of competition in 2002 - 14 years ago. Also bear in mind that the LoI numbers are repeated week after week after week, but the number of Ireland matches in major tournaments are VERY few and far between.

In contrast there were 20,000 attended the opening round of fixtures in the LoI this season - you can double that if you want to include the next round of fixture which will count all home fans (Shamrock Rovers didn't have a home match in first round). 25,000 attended the FAI Cup Final last year. Yes 50,000 is more than these numbers but not by orders of magnitude. There are a lot of ppl working on improving attendances at the League and phrases like that paint a bad picture of the League that I don't think it deserves. We should be bigging the League up not knocking it down - I think it might be key to the development of talent in the future. I know there is ALOT of room for more improvement but lets build on what we have and acknowledge the achievement to date and move on from there.

We shouldn't take those kind of snide comments sitting down. I bet most ppl reading that sentence didn't even register because it is so ingrained in the national culture that the League of Ireland is ****. We need to change that attitude because really the League is not as bad as the perception of it is.

Paucity. Insufficient. Insufficient for what? Insufficient to create an atmosphere, a match day experience? I don't think so. Having been to LoI matches and National team matches the atmosphere is often more electric at League of Ireland with the Irish match day experience a little more sanitised or civilised ....

[BonnieShels]

Mick's gone to balls.ie, Woolly's gone to joe.ie. Mick had a week long farewell culminating in his last crappy quiz, probably because Ger Gilroy owns balls.ie, whereas Wooly was put straight on gardening leave. Think it was about 3 weeks ago?

Just shows you with Balls and Joe blur into one. I remember Mick's last week. That's why I'm shocked to hear of Woolly's vamoosing so soon and without notice. And I listen to the show most nights! Anyway...

[ifk101]

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/ciar%C3%A1n-murphy-gaa-doesn-t-really-need-feed-of-pints-to-have-a-good-time-1.2704382

The below reminded of the above article - "GAA doesn’t really need feed of pints to have a good time"


All Ireland Final Day…
A great day to be Irish, you rock out of bed, possibly with a dodgy banging headache from a few ‘kill the nerves’ pints the night before. Its no such day for porridge or a healthy breakfast, it’s the slap up fry. You discuss match ups, the weather and the possible outcome, the jersey is washed and ironed, the good jeans are on, wallet, phone and you’re out the door. Few pre match pints in Quinns, the chat and banter is unreal. As you tip down Jones' Road with a spring in your step, you can hear the crowd cheer each score in the Minor match.
You head into croker and get that buzz when you see the pitch, the shiver runs down your back, wishing you could be out there. You roar like **** when the players walk past you during the parade, with their chests out and hopping off the ground. Then It’s time for the National Anthem, up you stand in your seat, hands behind the back and belt out every word proud as punch, the ball is thrown in and we’re off. Your heart is close to exploding for 70+ minutes, at the final whistle if your team is on the right side of the score board its mayhem, if not, it’s depression. Either way you are going for pints. Everyone spills out in all directions, mad for porter, you skull pints and go through the game in fine detail
“He was ****e, overrated…”
“Jaysus it was some score, and at that time of the game, serious balls”
“AH sure stop, hes and animal”
The night is approaching, you’ve had nothing but a half a cooked burger, destroyed in onions, since breakfast - so you sly into the chipper and put in some soakage. The craic about town is mighty, plenty of slagging, then the time has come “We’ll hit coppers”, you get out of the taxi in Harcourt street, the queue is a 100 yards long, but you still wait, as you stand there half cut you decide to ring your mate, whos at home in bed, looking for his gold card. After a long wait you’re finally in, the place in wedged, Saw Doctors blaring, one part of you feels like getting sick, the other wants another Jager bomb.
Its now 4.30am and you’ve had your fill… back to the chipper for more slagging, taxi home soon after and then into the cot. You wake up Monday morning, not knowing your arse from your elbow - Dying, but if SAM MAGUIRE is heading in the direction of your county you don’t give a ******, because the session is on again….
ROLL ON SUNDAY !!!!

[Charlie Darwin]

“AH sure stop, hes and animal”

[bennocelt]

When does that happen, lol

then It’s time for the National Anthem, up you stand in your seat, hands behind the back and belt out every word proud as punch,

[IsMiseSean]

The GAA crowd always start cheering & shouting well before the end. Normally they have some young one crowing it out too.

[paul_oshea]

“AH sure stop, hes and animal”

You've shown your inability to fully understand and impersonate gaa loving country folk.

Aaah scchhhhtop, sure he's an animal.

Very subtle, but very important difference

[BonnieShels]

The GAA crowd always start cheering & shouting well before the end.

Every time I've heard AnaF ata sporting ocassion whether soccer, football, rugby or hurling there's always a carcophony at around teh "lámhach" stage. The GAA crowd ain't got nowt to do with it.



Normally they have some young one crowing it out too.
Mostly it's just the Artane or Garda band though...


http://www.independent.ie/incoming/article29559048.ece/ALTERNATES/h342/790071.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh2oxxB2uCc

[IsMiseSean]

Mostly it's just the Artane or Garda band though...


I should have said games outside of Croke Park. At most Connacht Championship games it's usually a daughter/niece of a county chairman who hasn't a note in her head.

As for the Nadia debacle. Wasn't that just a case of JD trying to get a bit of hole for himself?

[IsMiseSean]

Every time I've heard AnaF ata sporting ocassion whether soccer, football, rugby or hurling there's always a carcophony at around teh "lámhach" stage. The GAA crowd ain't got nowt to do with it.

Ireland v Italy at Euros
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqZ_dORNPx4

All Ireland Final Dublin v Mayo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ef5qN-w0Jm4


TBF the football crowd in the Nadia clip do start cheering before the end but I'm putting that down to trying to drown her out.

[tetsujin1979]

I should have said games outside of Croke Park. At most Connacht Championship games it's usually a daughter/niece of a county chairman who hasn't a note in her head.

As for the Nadia debacle. Wasn't that just a case of JD trying to get a bit of hole for himself?

Thought it was him trying to ingratiate himself with the Sunday Independent crowd, he was at their Christmas party around that time and was interviewed by that human skidmark Barry Egan

[Stuttgart88]

It's quiet so time to reopen this one!

NZ rugby losing its halo?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-37627971

Not to mention Danny Cipriani's current court case, and James Haskell and Ben Kay both writing columns in The Times last week condoning cheating and extreme violence, and the new TUE abuse claims in France.

And, I don't know if I posted it here before but at our hotel in Bordeaux in June I met an elderly NZ couple. They barely had a rashers about the tournament, they were just on holiday, but they said lots of kids including their grandkids are playing footy over rugby now. Parents think it has become too physical.

That all said, All Blacks were awesome against springboks last week. And I do feel a bit of sympathy for Aaron Smith!

[OwlsFan]

Mind you more attended the Leinster v Munster game (40k) than were at the Ireland v Georgia game (39k). That said the latter was 12K up on the previous fixture between the teams. No sure what that means but it's quiet so time to reopen this one :)!

[tetsujin1979]

I was at the rugby game in the Aviva at the weekend. No way was there 40k at it. I reckon they worked out the attendance by counting every ticket sold, rather than every fan through the gates.

[jbyrne]

Mind you more attended the Leinster v Munster game (40k) than were at the Ireland v Georgia game (39k). That said the latter was 12K up on the previous fixture between the teams. No sure what that means but it's quiet so time to reopen this one :)!

20,000 max if played on a Thursday evening like the Georgia match

[Charlie Darwin]

I reckon they worked out the attendance by counting every ticket sold, rather than every fan through the gates.
Are you sure it's the rugby you're talking about?

[tetsujin1979]

Are you sure it's the rugby you're talking about?
yeah, the tactic isn't just used by the FAI. At the rugby the lower tier was pretty full, especially in the west stand, but the upper tier (where I was sitting in the south stand) was about half full.
I was in the west stand upper for the Georgia game, didn't think there was much difference in the attendance between the two games.

[osarusan]

I'm fairly sure Munster do it too - count all tickets sold (or given away) as well as season tickets.

[OwlsFan]

20,000 max if played on a Thursday evening like the Georgia match

Yes, interesting point and of course there is home and away support involved in the rugby match. The Georgians had maybe 50 at our game?

[DeLorean]

Probably a good a place as any to put this.

Miguel Delaney: Irish on course to overachieve once again (http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/international-soccer/miguel-delaney-irish-on-course-to-overachieve-once-again-35229417.html)

[OwlsFan]

Interesting stats ok but we haven't qualified yet and the way the Scots fell off the pace in the last campaign is a salutary warning, especially since it was in Georgia they were undone, which we have to visit yet.

[DeLorean]

I don't think he's counting any chickens to be fair. He just said 'on course' and his final couple of lines in the piece was basically the same as what you have said.

[Gather round]

Since the Euros expanded after the 1992 tournament, there have been at least 13 European qualifying places available in each . Here's how they have been filled in the 12 subsequent finals:

12: Germany, Italy, Spain
11: France
10: England, Netherlands, Portugal
9: Croatia
8: Czechia, Russia, Switzerland, Sweden
7: Denmark
6: Greece, Belgium, Romania
5: Poland, Turkey
4: Austria, Bulgaria, R Ireland, Serbia
3: Norway, Slovenia, Ukraine
2: Scotland, Slovakia
1: Albania, Bosnia, Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, N Ireland, Wales

[Stuttgart88]

I think there were at least a couple of us saying last year that rugby is internally contradictory.

"But this was the game where rugby’s inherent contradictions were exposed as never before, the profile of the match coinciding with a series of “accidents”, the like of which are inevitable for as long as a sport condones – encourages, even – the aggressive “hit” to the upper body. Whatever happened to that quaint notion, the tackle?"

http://foot.ie/threads/127683-Rugby-now-more-popular-than-football-AND-GAA-!/page78

Saturday's game at the Aviva also adds nuance to the discussions about TMO / video evidence. Whilst I feel football is too slow to use various means of supplementing the ref's real-time decision making, I also think it's a wild hornet's nest and is nowhere near as clear cut a step for football to take as many in the rugby world say it should be.

[OwlsFan]

I have always bemoaned the fact that the replays are not shown on the screen for fouls etc at football games but are at rugby and cricket and wherever. Thus the coach potato gets the replay but the person who bothered to attend the game is denied the privilege and discriminated against. I think this is down to the football authorities not trusting the reaction of football supporters to adverse decisions but also to the fact that there are no video replays, so the fan is left with no redress. No system is ever going to be perfect because even with slow motion replays from different angles, it will often be a matter of interpretation by the video ref. How often have we heard the pundits disagree on whether something was handball and/or a penalty. Not all the decisions in football will therefore be cut and dried as was the case in the rugger on Saturday but decisions such as goals from offside or whether the foul was inside or outside the box should be easy enough to arbitrate and whether someone clipped someone or whether it was a dive in the penalty area. Once the video replay is allowed in football, it should also be shown in the stadium or cannot football supporters be trusted unlike their rugby brethern ?

[paul_oshea]

I think if video evidence was made availble the decisions would be fair and balanced and then we wouldn't have those issues to worry about.

[tetsujin1979]

Contentious decisions like that are not shown on the big screen at games because it's a form of video refereeing. As you say, if a replay proved a goal was not offside, or a tackle should have been a red, etc, then the players, and the crowd, would be on the ref's back for the rest of the game.
It's the same reason why a stadium's match clock stops at 90 minutes, so the crowd and players don't start screaming for a whistle when injury time passes,

[Stuttgart88]

I have always bemoaned the fact that the replays are not shown on the screen for fouls etc at football games but are at rugby and cricket and wherever. Thus the coach potato gets the replay but the person who bothered to attend the game is denied the privilege and discriminated against. I think this is down to the football authorities not trusting the reaction of football supporters to adverse decisions but also to the fact that there are no video replays, so the fan is left with no redress. No system is ever going to be perfect because even with slow motion replays from different angles, it will often be a matter of interpretation by the video ref. How often have we heard the pundits disagree on whether something was handball and/or a penalty. Not all the decisions in football will therefore be cut and dried as was the case in the rugger on Saturday but decisions such as goals from offside or whether the foul was inside or outside the box should be easy enough to arbitrate and whether someone clipped someone or whether it was a dive in the penalty area. Once the video replay is allowed in football, it should also be shown in the stadium or cannot football supporters be trusted unlike their rugby brethern ? Every week I disagree with a pundit who says something as trite as "he went down a bit too easily". A foul in rugby is defined, a foul in football is "if in the referee's consideration" an act involves "excessive force" or "lack of care". Will videos solve that? Sometimes I'd say but not often enough to avoid stirring up even further debate.

James McClean in Lille: I got lots of texts in real time giving out about how a penalty wasn't given. On TV Howard Webb pointed out a slight touch on the ball that quite honestly I agree meant it wasn't a penalty.

Even offside: you can rule a goal out for offside, but what if a lino flags wrongly for offside, a forward scores anyway but a keeper claims he had seen the flag and not tried 100%?

I think the Dutch solution makes more sense than video adjudication live in the stadium. A remote referee watches the game live and has 15 seconds to overrule an obviously wrong decision. A study showed that the system improved the success rate of refs' decisions from 95% to 97%.

Anyway, I'm agreeing with what you're saying except I still think whether a player "went down easily" (not a crime) or dived would just as often as not be impossible to determine via TMO.

[BonnieShels]

Getting to the ball does not ordinarily mean that a foul HASN'T been committed though. and it's one of the aspects that annoys me when I hear shouts for "he got the ball". It's all about being careless, reckless or using excessive force.

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/afdeveloping/refereeing/law_12_fouls_misconduct_en_47379.pdf

it was a penalty for McClean.

---

Interesting to see where Rugby is regarding participation in Ireland.

http://www.sportireland.ie/Research/Irish-Sports-Monitor-Annual-Report-2015/Irish-Sports-Monitor-Annual-Report-2015.pdf

---

While we are on the subject of refereeing foul play, the assumption of due care should always exist and especially in a sport like rugby union. notions of intent should be left at the door. If you go to make a fair tackle but miss-time it and manage to get the opponents head, then tiugh, and off you pop. The onus should always be on the tackler to play safe. Regardless of the intent on Henshaw, it was reckless and that should be enough for a yellow.

I have brought this up before but in ice hockey intent is done away with as is the severity f the contact. In a "high sticking foul" even if you didn't see the opponent behind you or it was even the softest of touches you are boxed (binned) for 2 minutes as you should be in control of your equipment and tough if you weren't. No whining, just into the box and that's that.