Rugby now more popular than football AND GAA?!

[Fixer82]

Am I the only person who watched the game who believed that the final pass for the first New Zealand try was blatantly forward? I was stunned that it didn't go to the TMO, that the Irish players didn't protest or that it didn't come up in any of the reports on the game. Final pass for the second one was iffy also, although marginally so


I find that a lot in rugby. The same way I constantly see foul throws in professional soccer.
They just get away with it

[samhaydenjr]

I don't know ~ Sometimes the TV pictures can give false impressions.

In real time I thought the winger had a clear run to the line and was starting to groan and then it seemed to pop out of his hand forwards and I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, only to see another All Black catch it and run over the line. And then they showed the replay from close up and you can clearly see that the ball leaves the winger's hands behind the 5 metre line and is then caught by his teammate inside the line. And this wasn't a momentum thing that is allowed when a player is sprinting forwards and throws a spin pass sideways - the winger was being forced over the sideline and threw a basketball-style pass that was forward from the moment it left his hands.


I find that a lot in rugby. The same way I constantly see foul throws in professional soccer.
They just get away with it

What's frustrating is that the TMO is used for so many things, often spotting minute infractions from far earlier in a passage pf play - this should surely have been checked. If I'm right about this, it's a failure on the level of the Luis Diaz disallowed goal.

[Stuttgart88]

I think you can say that there were some fairly inconsistent and almost capricious refereeing/TMO decisions in the QFs.

I'm even hearing that Kolbe's charge down of Ramos' conversion should have been referred to TMO for starting his run before Ramos stepped forward. For the life of me I can't see the mitigation for the Argentinian head clash against Wales and the tackle on Aki looked bad.

The South African "knock-on" at 7-0 was a close call and I'm glad it wasn't referred. The ref was entitled to call it as backwards if he saw it that way and any knock on, even if a penalty and yellow should have followed, would have been marginal and the player did look to try to claw the ball backwards.

[tetsujin1979]

There was a head collision in the South Africa game around the 65th minute that I thought would be referred, but nothing happened.
The South African number 7 led with his elbow, although he was in possession.

The opening try is here, if you look at 0:14, their number 13 is before the mark when he releases the ball, and the 11 is ahead of it when he receives it. Strange that none of the Irish players near him on the pitch claimed it was forward though
1713274697498956191

[SkStu]

In real time I thought the winger had a clear run to the line and was starting to groan and then it seemed to pop out of his hand forwards and I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, only to see another All Black catch it and run over the line. And then they showed the replay from close up and you can clearly see that the ball leaves the winger's hands behind the 5 metre line and is then caught by his teammate inside the line. And this wasn't a momentum thing that is allowed when a player is sprinting forwards and throws a spin pass sideways - the winger was being forced over the sideline and threw a basketball-style pass that was forward from the moment it left his hands.

I had the exact same reaction in real time as yourself but when it came to the replays I saw it more as 50/50 but questionable. I'd have to go and take another look but i still cant bring myself to watch the highlights. Many passes in the game look questionable but there's something to what seanfhear says in that the cameras and the speed of the game in those moments can maybe make it look more questionable than it is? I dunno. Still gutted anyway.

[Stuttgart88]

Here's the Irish Times' GAA Correspondent's take on things:

Seán Moran: The GAA has more to be worrying about than the exploits of Irish rugby
It’s a long time established that Gaelic games have nothing to fear from other sports’ exposure on the international stage

https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/2023/10/18/sean-moran-the-gaa-has-more-to-be-worrying-about-than-the-exploits-of-irish-rugby/

For all the disappointment unleashed by the Rugby World Cup exit on Saturday evening, the campaign was by a distance Ireland’s best showing since the tournament began in 1987.
It was of course frustrating that for the current team, the quarterfinals continued to prove an insurmountable obstacle. But for the first time ever, Ireland were genuine contenders and will in all likelihood see a team from whom little separates them, win this year’s title.
Will the knock-on effect be to divert youngsters towards the oval ball and away from the O’Neill’s football and sliotar?
Such intimations of a threatening new world conditioned some of the responses within the GAA community towards Ireland’s new status, from the aggressive belittling of rugby and jubilation at their defeat to over-wrought anxieties about losing “market share” to the rising tide of a competitor sport.
Firing the imagination of youngsters is a good start but there are equally issues for rugby in its excessively gladiatorial collisions and parental concerns about concussion.
Maybe it’s the sport’s narrow social base and established stereotypes, but rugby attracts a level of visceral hostility, hugely disproportionate to its represented failings.

Did anyone watching really care that the rugby world is a little thin for a tournament with so many teams? Is it reasonable to expect that a team covering two jurisdictions would insist on the national anthem of one rather than the other and then revile the compromise?
Is it really a rejection of nationhood for rugby supporters to sing a protest song about republican violence?
Why should the eligibility rules for players bother people any more than Fifa’s ancestry provisions, which we have been happy to exploit down the years? After all, someone playing and living in Ireland for a number of years has at least as plausible a claim to represent the country as someone who has just been alerted that their grandmother was born here.
Above all, why get worked up over any of it? If it’s not your cup of tea, put the saucer down.
Rugby’s narrow base is undoubtedly expanding in terms of public interest. Saturday night gave Virgin Media Television its biggest ever audience. It might even do the unthinkable and outrank The Late Late Toy Show in this year’s ratings.
It’s a big progression more than 20 years since the Ireland-England Six Nations finale in Lansdowne Road with both teams going for a Grand Slam, which attracted only the fifth-largest sports broadcast audience for 2003.
The majority of GAA people don’t really get worked up by the threats supposedly posed by other sports, but the advent of the split season has triggered certain anxieties about abandoning traditional championship months and leaving the field open to competitors.
Allowing that the final audit on the new calendar hasn’t yet taken place, it’s difficult to pinpoint where the damage has actually happened. If the All-Irelands were still in September, they would have been tussling for publicity with the rugby matches and although there would have been plenty of room for both, as there was in all such cases until 2015 – by 2019 the All-Irelands had started to shift – there would still be a dilution of profile.
Anyway, it was a core belief of those proposing the spilt season that relinquishing media attention for the weeks in question would be worth it for the life it would breathe back into the GAA’s club activities, involving the vast preponderance of players.
Yes, some counties have been dilatory about utilising the additional weeks but the concept has only been in operation for a couple of years and responses are still evolving.
The GAA has been in a more worrying situation than this before. Thirty-three years ago, at the high point of the Jack Charlton era, Ireland reached the quarterfinals of the Fifa World Cup. On the face of it, that was a far greater challenge than what has happened in recent years with rugby.
A successful national soccer team reaches parts of society inaccessible to both rugby and Gaelic games – a reality conceded by the GAA in 1990. Nonetheless, watching half a million people on the streets of Dublin celebrating the team’s return must have made for uncomfortable viewing on Jones’s Road.
You never say never, but it looks increasingly possible that Irish soccer may not again attain such heights even if things improve on the current gloom. But that doesn’t change the sport’s status as the most played in the country.
In the days of Italia 90, the GAA wasn’t as prepared for the eruption of interest in another sport but it responded, albeit by accident, when Dublin and Meath provided their own epic saga over four matches the following summer. Subsequently, the development of Croke Park captured public imagination and Gaelic games thrived.
The tempo of football and hurling is different – steady and tribal. In other words, there will always be All-Ireland finals but there won’t always be high-profile performances at World Cups.
To command exceptional public interest, rugby and soccer require a degree of international success that can’t always be guaranteed.
None of this is based on complacency or a view that the GAA is invulnerable. Clearly it has its challenges, ranging from concerns about deciding on the long-term shape of its season to the imminent integration process, to anxiety about the future of football and its apparently inexorable transformation from spectacle to aesthetic black hole.
Croke Park can concentrate on these matters, however, without fretting about losing ground to other sports, simply because of their high-profile involvement in an international tournament.
So, it’s perfectly appropriate and neighbourly to wish them well and commiserate when things don’t work out.

[Fixer82]

There was a head collision in the South Africa game around the 65th minute that I thought would be referred, but nothing happened.
The South African number 7 led with his elbow, although he was in possession.

The opening try is here, if you look at 0:14, their number 13 is before the mark when he releases the ball, and the 11 is ahead of it when he receives it. Strange that none of the Irish players near him on the pitch claimed it was forward though
1713274697498956191

Wow. That really is forward!
I thought it at the time but didn’t see that angle in the crowded pub.
Ultimately though, they had 14 players for 1/4 of the match and we couldn’t put them away

[EalingGreen]

(To get back to the thread title)
It's all very well (and understandable) that the IRFU is trunpeting the TV viewing figures for the NZ game etc, but is anyone able to guess how many Irish rugby fans are actually out in France for the RWC? And how that compares with the numbers of football fans who went out to France for Euro2016? (Technically at least, you might even add the GAWA/NI fans to that latter figure, to make it an all-island comparison.)

Although the Euros in June/July is a bigger pull than the RWC in September/October weather-wise and holiday season etc, arguably it's one way of sorting out the barstoolers from the genuine followers.

[tetsujin1979]

(To get back to the thread title)
It's all very well (and understandable) that the IRFU is trunpeting the TV viewing figures for the NZ game etc, but is anyone able to guess how many Irish rugby fans are actually out in France for the RWC? And how that compares with the numbers of football fans who went out to France for Euro2016? (Technically at least, you might even add the GAWA/NI fans to that latter figure, to make it an all-island comparison.)

Although the Euros in June/July is a bigger pull than the RWC in September/October weather-wise and holiday season etc, arguably it's one way of sorting out the barstoolers from the genuine followers.
I posted about this a few pages back

Noticed that the attendance for Ireland-Romania at the weekend has been given as 41,570. That's an increase of more than 2,000 on the Ireland-Belgium group game in Euro 2016 that was held in the same stadium - 39,493 - and strangely more than every game that was held in that stadium during the tournament - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nouveau_Stade_de_Bordeaux#UEFA_Euro_2016_matches
Has capacity increased since 2016?

[seanfhear]

Generally Rugby supporters have more money than your ordinary Irish People ( I said generally )

[Stuttgart88]

Thius could be interesting

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/67070361

The past 12 months have been a sobering time for domestic professional rugby union in England.

Just under a year ago, the English Premiership had 13 teams. Now, there are 10.

London Irish,Wasps and Worcester have all gone into administration, and last month Championship title-holders Jersey Reds ceased trading.

Why are so many clubs failing? Is this rock bottom? Or is there more to come?

In iPlayer documentary Rucks and Riches, which will be broadcast this weekend, BBC Sport takes a closer look.

[EalingGreen]

I find that a lot in rugby. The same way I constantly see foul throws in professional soccer.
They just get away with itThere is a difference, though. In football, if you steal a few yards to take the throw, or don't fully use both hands, or have both feet over the line etc, the advantage gained is usually only marginal. Which is why (imo) referees often ignore these infringements in their greater desire to keep the game flowing.

Whereas in rugby, a final, forward pass to the winger which directly allows him to evade his marker and dive over the try line, can make the difference between winning and losing.

[seanfhear]

" " It's only illegal, if you are caught " "

Ask Thierry Henry ? ! :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

[Fixer82]

There is a difference, though. In football, if you steal a few yards to take the throw, or don't fully use both hands, or have both feet over the line etc, the advantage gained is usually only marginal. Which is why (imo) referees often ignore these infringements in their greater desire to keep the game flowing.

Whereas in rugby, a final, forward pass to the winger which directly allows him to evade his marker and dive over the try line, can make the difference between winning and losing.

yes agreed. still irks me when I see a crappy foul throw ignored by a ref

[Razors left peg]

The amount of memes and jokes I seen flying around this weekend laughing at England losing to South Africa is mind blowing to me. Lets all laugh at a team who got further than us, again!

I think it shows the psyche of the Irish sporting public. We are great at jumping on a band wagon, no matter what the sport, but the vast majority of "fans" are just looking for entertainment. When we qualify for a football tournament the same lads who were saying that "we dont have the players" or "shure we're sh1te anyway", will be all out in force getting p1ssed and singing Ole Ole.

It goes back to the title of this thread, Rugby more popular than football (I'll leave out the GAA part). Rugby is popular for a few weeks every year, and football gets popular from an International perpective whenever we are any way good. Its not about which is the most popular, its which will the idiots jump on board with at any given time... and when we lose we go back to making jokes about England losing!

[Fixer82]

If you really want to know which is the most popular just ask yourself, ‘how many people understand the rules of rugby better than soccer?!’

[NeverFeltBetter]

World Cup moving to 24 teams, finally: https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby-world-cup/2023/1024/1412691-world-cup-to-be-expanded-to-24-teams/

About the only way Ireland will win a knock-out game.

[EalingGreen]

If you really want to know which is the most popular just ask yourself, ‘how many people understand the rules of rugby better than soccer?!’Never mind "many people", just ask rugby fans whether they understand rugby's rules!

[EalingGreen]

World Cup moving to 24 teams, finally: https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby-world-cup/2023/1024/1412691-world-cup-to-be-expanded-to-24-teams/

About the only way Ireland will win a knock-out game.Aye, but with the extra Round of 16 being added, they may still not get past the Quarter Finals!

[Razors left peg]

Never mind "many people", just ask rugby fans whether they understand rugby's rules!

Could also ask the question whether football officials using VAR understand football rules

[EalingGreen]

Could also ask the question whether football officials using VAR understand football rulesTrue enough.

Though they do understand the benefit of having a well paid, post-refereeing sinecure, conducted in a warm studio, where they don't have 30,000 angry fans shouting at them whenever they make another howler!

[tetsujin1979]

Four of the top five most watched tv shows in Ireland last year were rugby games
https://www.tamireland.ie/top-50-tv-programmes-2023/

[John83]

Four of the top five most watched tv shows in Ireland last year were rugby games
https://www.tamireland.ie/top-50-tv-programmes-2023/
The rugby world cup is a big factor, but there's a lot of rugby and gaa on that list before the first instance of football.

The women's world cup games are second only to the men's qualifer vs France. I'm not sure whether that says more about the success of the women or the lie about how popular Kenny's team was because the stadium attendances were good.

[Eirambler]

The wider public had well and truly tuned out of the Kenny project by 2023. By autumn 2022, particularly the Armenia game and the subsequent friendlies, it was clear it was only going one way unfortunately.

[ifk101]

The wider public had well and truly tuned out of the Kenny project by 2023. By autumn 2022, particularly the Armenia game and the subsequent friendlies, it was clear it was only going one way unfortunately.

2023 viewing figures are (unfortunately) similar to 2019.
649,000 watched Ireland v Denmark, 524,000 Switzerland v Ireland, 461,000 Ireland v Switzerland, 450,000 Denmark v Ireland ......
https://www.tamireland.ie/top-50-tv-programmes-2019/

[NeverFeltBetter]

Interesting article on RTE today, on lack of atmosphere in Aviva for rugby games: https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2024/0213/1432110-crowd-atmosphere-v-italy/

Too many bandwagonners?

[culloty82]

As mentioned in the Independent Sports section this Sunday, the cheapest stand ticket for the Italy game was €55, the dearest was €140 and the writer estimated that €100 was probably the average, so definitely in "prawn sandwich" territory!

https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/six-nations/irish-rugby-uses-the-slogan-the-team-of-us-but-irfu-ticket-pricing-creating-the-team-of-them-and-us-instead/a480483190.htm

lhttps://archive.is/YHDwx (https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/six-nations/irish-rugby-uses-the-slogan-the-team-of-us-but-irfu-ticket-pricing-creating-the-team-of-them-and-us-instead/a480483190.html)

[jbyrne]

i used to go to every 6N game but stopped around 10 years ago and don't miss it a bit. its a cliche at this stage but very true that too many are there purely to be at a social occasion. very few younger fans attending who are the ones most likely to create an atmosphere

[Stuttgart88]

Problems at HQ too

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/13/hitting-the-wonderwall-twickenham-struggles-to-make-own-entertainment-rugby-union-breakdown

And apparently some fans want ticket refunds after they weren’t told their seats were in an alcohol-free zone being trialled.

[tetsujin1979]

As mentioned in the Independent Sports section this Sunday, the cheapest stand ticket for the Italy game was €55, the dearest was €140 and the writer estimated that €100 was probably the average, so definitely in "prawn sandwich" territory!

https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/six-nations/irish-rugby-uses-the-slogan-the-team-of-us-but-irfu-ticket-pricing-creating-the-team-of-them-and-us-instead/a480483190.htm

lhttps://archive.is/YHDwx (https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/six-nations/irish-rugby-uses-the-slogan-the-team-of-us-but-irfu-ticket-pricing-creating-the-team-of-them-and-us-instead/a480483190.html)

All prices are here: https://www.irishrugby.ie/ireland/tickets/
There were restricted view seats for less than €55. I've gotten them before, and all you really can't see is one corner of the try area

I haven't been to a 6N game in two years, last time was when we hammered Wales in 2022. Where I was sitting, there was loads getting up and going to the bar, all through the game. Was sick of standing up to let someone in/out every five minutes.

[Diggs246]

All prices are here: https://www.irishrugby.ie/ireland/tickets/
There were restricted view seats for less than €55. I've gotten them before, and all you really can't see is one corner of the try area

I haven't been to a 6N game in two years, last time was when we hammered Wales in 2022. Where I was sitting, there was loads getting up and going to the bar, all through the game. Was sick of standing up to let someone in/out every five minutes.

it a massive issue in the Aviva, which is easily solved. I would suggest alcohol should only be sold before the game, at half time and after the game. not while the game is in play

[WexCar.]

All prices are here: https://www.irishrugby.ie/ireland/tickets/

I haven't been to a 6N game in two years, last time was when we hammered Wales in 2022. Where I was sitting, there was loads getting up and going to the bar, all through the game. Was sick of standing up to let someone in/out every five minutes.


In fairness that is true for the football games too, it was one of the reasons I decided not to renew by season tickets a few years ago. I was fed up of game after game of constantly standing to let people in/out of the row and having the view blocked with people coming and going throughout the game. What annoyed me more were the people who would arrive up to 10/15 minutes late and then also leave 10 minutes before the half to get drinks, this would be repeated in the 2nd too. If you want a drink to watch a game then stay at home or go to a pub.

[Stuttgart88]

Back in the good old days when I started going to the footy people (I mean lots of people) would pee against the back wall on the South Terrace at half time and it'd flow slowly down the steps around everyone's feet.

I just thought it was all normal!

[Razors left peg]

Back in the good old days when I started going to the footy people (I mean lots of people) would pee against the back wall on the South Terrace at half time and it'd flow slowly down the steps around everyone's feet.

I just thought it was all normal!

Stutts also remembers when Dixie Dean was a boy breaking into the Tranmere team

[seanfhear]

Back in the good old days when I started going to the footy people (I mean lots of people) would pee against the back wall on the South Terrace at half time and it'd flow slowly down the steps around everyone's feet.

I just thought it was all normal!Character building. People also had good shoes in those days !

[EalingGreen]

Interesting article on RTE today, on lack of atmosphere in Aviva for rugby games: https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2024/0213/1432110-crowd-atmosphere-v-italy/

Too many bandwagonners?
"It’s tough, man, I sort of understand that people have work tomorrow as well,"

What sort of job do you do that you need to preserve your voice for the following day? Town Crier?

Do rugby fans have to get their missus to phone into work on the Monday, to explain that the Oul Fella won't be in the office today, because he partook of a couple too many choruses of FOA yesterday?

Worst. Excuse. Ever.

[EalingGreen]

I would suggest alcohol should only be sold before the game, at half time and after the game. not while the game is in playGood luck with that one:
https://www.irishrugby.ie/2023/12/12/guinness-becomes-title-partner-of-mens-and-womens-six-nations/

[Diggs246]

Good luck with that one:
https://www.irishrugby.ie/2023/12/12/guinness-becomes-title-partner-of-mens-and-womens-six-nations/

What do you suggest?

[NeverFeltBetter]

More alcohol is the solution, apparently: https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2024/0214/1432379-a-few-more-pints-as-well-would-be-no-harm-doris/

[tetsujin1979]

More alcohol is the solution, apparently: https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2024/0214/1432379-a-few-more-pints-as-well-would-be-no-harm-doris/
Wonder if he thinks we should fight fire with fire?

[Diggs246]

Wonder if he thinks we should fight fire with fire?

its the corporate bells, they're not fans they are spectators !

[EalingGreen]

What do you suggest?I'm suggesting that so long as you have Guinness or other drinks companies pushing money the way of the IRFU, you're not going to get extra restrictions on alcohol sales, even if that would be otherwise desirable, as you say.

[EalingGreen]

More alcohol is the solution, apparently: https://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2024/0214/1432379-a-few-more-pints-as-well-would-be-no-harm-doris/Once again, there is no problem that cannot benefit from some Homeric wisdom:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXyrYMxa-VI