You need to visit Limerick or Cork when Munster next win a Heineken cup or Ireland next win a grand slam and tell them that mate. See how long you last!! Its a religion in some counties outside the pale.Quote:
Originally Posted by mypost
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You need to visit Limerick or Cork when Munster next win a Heineken cup or Ireland next win a grand slam and tell them that mate. See how long you last!! Its a religion in some counties outside the pale.Quote:
Originally Posted by mypost
I've seen the survey. It asn't an open questionnaire. There were options from which you could choose (and an "other box" but thats useless)
Might help you understand some of the answers.
It is but alot of that following is down to the success of the team, I know it sounds really obvious but there are alot of munster 'supporters' who would go missing if Munster failed to get out of the group stages for example, which is a real possibility this year.Quote:
Originally Posted by SilkCut
Having said that the IRFU have to be applauded for the structures they put in place. I read a book a few years back, think it was called from here to there or something like that and told the transition of rugby in Ireland over the last few years. From the disasterous Ashton era, the Irish team run by a bunch of men in a boardroom etc to the well drilled operation it is now. The game was on its knees when Ireland lost to Argentina in the WC in France but that triggered the changes needed.
As mentioned above by someone else, a domestic professional league in Ireland on a traditional club level was not and never would be viable, either is one in football im afraid. Some people, understandably would not like the change but a similar league with Wales, Scotland and others is the only way we will have a genuinely viable and competitive 'domestic' league.
Having said all that no other sport captures the heart of the nation as the Irish football team when things are going well, there is so many examples to illustrate this point.
Anybody that thinks Rugby is more popular than football seriously needs their head examined - no way hose:o
:D....Quote:
Originally Posted by bennocelt
Ya ifk101 i did the same on reading that :D
ha, actually i should have said horse!!!! (with a thick country accent):)
Biggest load of crap I've read in a long time.Quote:
Originally Posted by mypost
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...all_ByMike.JPG
Here's 65,000 munster fans traveling abroad to watch their team.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...rugby_2006.jpg
And the ones that didnt....
"a few hundred hardy snobs" my arse.
I like soccer a lot but the fanbase for it is far, far less likable than for the other 3 main sports in the country. What soccer for a start a large portion of the countries "fans" tend to be living in other countries. Even look at this forum you'll see a large number of people living in the UK, US, Australia and elsewhere. And they're the most "snobby" of all, they criticise rugby supporters and the game they follow, they criticise the GAA for being evil, they complain about barstoolers, complain about people who support the premiership, complain about this and complain about that. A lot of the so called fans of this sport especially on this site come across as begrudging auld men with zero tolerance for folk with other interests.
We have 4 great sports in this country that give great entertainment for different reasons. I pity those who feel that they must choose one and berate the rest.
Murfinator, the town im from got to a provincial semi final in GAA and won a provincial final in Junior soccer this year. There is a spill over of players between both, but not a huge amount would start on both teams. Id take the soccer crowd over the GAA crowd anytime. The gaa lads go around the town thinking htey are gods. I remember one of my mates was fundraising outside church for the GAA team for the development of a new stand. One of hte players said, nevermind that that should be for a players holiday.
Its like that up and down the country in GAA. I am a fan of GAA, but id take Ireland soccer fans over rugby and a lot of gaelic crowd any day.
Don't get me started on the lads that follow Rugby, I love watching rugby but the hub in dublin and cork turn their noses up at soccer and even GAA. If you haven't experienced this yet, you have abit of living to do. Ive worked and socialised with plenty of them in Dublin and London, and id take the soccer crowd any day.
Again thats my personal preference, but I reckon if i met you, you'd get on with me better than any of the rugby crowd im referring to.
You seem to be getting more and more frustrated on this site, and I enjoy and agree with a lot of yer posts, but Im wondering if you really care for the soccer at all?!
Thats simply not true. Rugby is popular(ish) in 10 countries on this planet.... ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by mypost
Of course I do, what I don't care for is the generalisation tripe being thrown out about fans of other sports. There'll always be exceptions to good supporters and you've named some, just like there's fine examples of bad soccer fans in this very thread. It doesn't mean one sport has better fans than another but I will say that soccer fans seem to oppose the rise and popularity of other sports more than fans of other sports would to soccer.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
And for me personally I'll cut to the chase and say I'm not as proud of the Irish soccer team as I am of the Rugby team or the county team and it all boils down to location. Soccer feels too anglicised a game for my liking, guys like Doyle, Duff, Given, Andy Reid etc are legends and if the whole squad was like that there'd be no problem but don't expect me to sing the praises of someone like Caleb Folan who essentially is here because he isn't good enough for England. To compare with the rugby lads, I regularly see them training, I have a book with each of their autographs and even go to see Munster play. My only first hand experience with an Irish player is at the Late Late Show when our captain came on to tell us all to lower our expectations and continued to explain how we're not as good as England.
Even look at the Lucozade "last 15 minutes" adverts. For Rugby we get ROG, the hero of our first six nations in decades, football there's gooch the best player in the game and likewise Shefflin. For soccer there's a former reserve goalkeeper telling us through an English accent how bravely the team will battle.
Or how about Lawrenson when he expresses his viewpoint as an "Irishman" as he speaks through a thick english accent on the national british tv station. Or how we've now played some home games in London. It's a game and setup that makes me very uneasy about being passionite towards it at times, I wouldn't have those reservations with Rugby, Football or Hurling.
13 actually. 6 nations + tri nations + argentina + 3 pacific islands. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by lionelhutz
There are examples of anglo-Irish rugby players too: the Easterbys* for example (unless I'm mistaken), but point taken. We relied a lot on Staples, Curtis, Geoghegan etc in the 90s though.
It's great to say genuinely world class players like Kearney, Fitzgerald, O'Driscoll and others who are 100% home grown, not just ethnically Irish, and who liver in Ireland.
*Guy Easterby beat me by a minute in the Dublin marathon recently ):.
Funnily enough, "fan culture" is one thing that really drew me towards soccer as a kid, despite the aggressive nature of a lot of it. Rugby can offer nothing like a stadium full of Italian ultras for example. However, it's not rugby's fault that it attracts a more middle class element in general. I love rugby but soccer 100% for me any day, much as I dislike many aspects of it.
agree with stutts on the fan base point. much more enjoy the craic with lads who were in bari, sofia, mainz (i didn't make the others), than the toffs who I overheard discussing the days movements on the stock exchange upon leaving murrayfield in february this year. (true story).
i know most munster fans aren't like that, but head to most 6 nations games and its the sort of terrible D4-esque chat that you're gonna have to listen to.
i love rugby as a sport, think our country as done brilliantly, would even consider following them to a world cup in the future, but in terms of what I love, it's following the football, with the kind of fans that football attracts.
the articles point re: GAA is hollow, as no-one outside of Kilkenny is gonna vote for them, Kerry likewise for their achievements. Can't use a survey like that to compare popularity. it's nonesense.
I still can't understand how this thread title is allowed to survive.
Rugby Union is a minority sport that most of the world couldn't give a f**k about. Even in countries that play the game at a relatively high international level like Italy and Argentina it's only really popular in specific regions of the country and doesn't on the whole enjoy widespread support. Even in Australia one of the powerhouses of Rugby Union it's only the 4th (soon to be 5th) most popular sport.
Personally I'd prefer Ireland qualify for SA 2010 than win New Zealand 2011. It would be a greater acheivement imo than winning a tournament that about 10 countries in the world take seriously and half of them are tiny pacific island nations with populations smaller than County Cork.
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Originally Posted by Stuttgart88
That's exactly it, what I wouldn't give for the Irish soccer team to be in the same position, being able to watch them train or see them randomly walking down the street or being able to watch them play week in, week out. It'd make a big difference to my association with the team.
I know it's not a lot of the players faults, the likes of Doyle, Keane, Duff, Given, Dunne, Reid etc I'm sure would have loved to stay in Ireland if they could, but to make the top level it just wasn't a practical option. But for every one of them there's several others with a background of England/Scotland youth level caps or the Stephen Ireland, Stephen Carr, Dean Kiely or Andy + Joey O Briens of this world who appear utterly ungrateful to their fans here and couldn't give two craps about playing for us. Though Shane Supple has the right idea. :)
Murfinator you have contradicted yourself somewhat re: the anglicised part, saying that you can't associate with them yet you understand that they have to go away but for that reason you cant get right behind them.
reading a different post of yours, dont take any offence here, but you are a good few years younger than a lot on here and I would assume fairly fresh out of college. If/Wehn the need arises that you too, may need to leave the country for whatever reason, I think you will see things from a different light.
Lastly, The reason alot of emigrants come on here is because this is how we keep in touch with the daily/day to day updates and keep in contact with everything thats going on in the world of Ireland soccer.
http://www.puttingrugbyfirst.com/executive_summary.phpQuote:
Originally Posted by Murfinator
Over 80% of the people playing rugby globally live in the 8 main playing countries.
97% of the viewers for the last Rugby World Cup were in the same eight countries (less than a million people outside of Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales, France, Australia, NZ and South Africa).
Seven of those eight countries are English-speaking and you suggest football is the Anglicised game!:rolleyes:
Only 33 million people globally watched the last Rugby World Cup Final, the 2006 World Cup Final had a global audience of 715 million.
Now, please can we move this thread to the 'Other Sports' thread.
As somebody who loves both rugby and football (my first choice) you come across as a complete fool in this post.Quote:
Originally Posted by mypost
For starters rugby in a number of countries is played by people from a wide variety of social backgrounds in the same way football is actually.
If you are using that charade / cringe fest in the Phoenix park to justify the popularity of football in this country I'll leave you to it............
Football is without a doubt the one true global game. No other sport can touch it for the global presence and the way it attracts millions of viewers whether it be the Premier League, world cup, Euros, the champions league etc.
The Olympics as a one off event can match it for a couple of weeks but apart from that nothing comes close which is to be expected.
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Originally Posted by paul_oshea
Paul i wouldnt bother responding to him...i swore to myself before i wouldnt rise to Murfinators bait and this is defo the VERY LAST TIME.
as you questioned earlier i dont think he really gives a sh*t about Football Irish or otherwise....NO MATTER what the thread is about he always turns it into "soccer lads not part of my community"..."anglicised"..."dont represent me" etc.....its the same EVERY TIME...praising other sports(which of course is his right) and belittleing soccer fans.
also some of the points are quite ridiculous...for example the Lucozade thing!!!FFS Lucozade is part of Glaxosmithkline a global corporation whatever their advertisement department do is nothing to do with us here and for the record Alan Kelly was an excellent goalkeeper for Ireland as was his father before him so get your facts straight.
Murfinator to you i say you are as entitled to your opinion as anybody in the world and in fairness in your posts you do make some excellent points and i applaud you for that but as i have noticed you bring each thread back to your same arguements as i have pointed out above which i just think is childish...also i notice you choose to ignore posts which make point or challange against what you have said and clearly have no response to you.....as i said im done rising to ur bait but if i was you i would question why you come on to this site if its just to agitate.
Good luck to you Sir and all the best for the future.
A religion ?.......where were all the faithful for the AIL cup final in Limerick?......where one their own clubs was playing!!!Quote:
Originally Posted by SilkCut
usa, canada and japan aswell :DQuote:
Originally Posted by Murfinator
Rugby is quite big in Georgia too for what it's worth.
National sport in Andorra, after they realised they were rubbish at football.
I have Georgian rugby still on my mind. :D
The Czechs have the right idea :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvUIbqKyppY
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Originally Posted by Acornvilla
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Originally Posted by Schumi
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Originally Posted by pineapple stu
And yet, less than one million people across all these countries (+ Argentina, Italy and the Pacific Islands) were interested enough to watch the Rugby World Cup Final. Doesn't sound that popular to me :rolleyes:
Nothing against the sport of rugby itself, but it's the whole elitism surrounding it ****es me off. After all, it is a sport taken seriously by around 11/12 countries.
Soccer is no.1 in terms of participation in this county. No doubt about that.
Globally soccer is bigger than every other sport combined. More people watch the world cup final than the olympics biggest event (eg 100 meters final). Gaelic games are marginally bigger than soccer in Ireland. Though in Sligo town soccer is bigger. Soccer is huge in Ireland indeed. Rugby is a good sport but is only more popular than the other 2 in D4. Even in Limerick soccer and hurling combined would be bigger than rugby. Rugby is a minority sport. You could strike up a conversation with a taximan in Florida or Africa about Roy Keane. As good an all as he is they won't have heard of Brian O'Driscoll or rugby for that matter.
a spanish student moved into my flat this week. im living in limerick he has never heard of the heiniken cup or munster for that matter!
has he heard of Martin Camano?:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Acornvilla
i'll ask him and let you nnow tomorow :DQuote:
Originally Posted by CarrickFan
hes a big bilbao fan he watched MNS with me on monday and spent much of the show laughing at the crowds, stadia and defending...
Shannon played Clontarf in the final. Off the top of my head, in Limerick there's also Young Munster, Garryowen, Richmond, Old Crescent, UL Bohemians, and Thomond rugby clubs, each with their own set of fans. Did you really expect fans of those clubs to attend? From what I could tell (I was at the game) there was zero attendance from any other Dublin clubs.Quote:
Originally Posted by SUB of the day
to put it another way, if Bohemians played Sligo in the FAI Cup Final, would you expect any Shamrock Rovers, St Pats, Sporting Fingal, etc, fans to attend?
last 2 munster magners league games at thomond park 15,000 for cardiff blues / 16,700 for ulster match were are all the fans gone nearly 13,000 empty spaces both games .. do young munster , garryowen, richmond, old crescent, ul bohs , thomond fans not support munster now or is it the gloryhunters/ fairweather fans have started to fade away :pQuote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
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Originally Posted by Brian Boru
Here's a man who's never been to limerick. :D
Thank you Tetsujin. We appear to have gone way off the topic of the thread. There is absolutely no arguement that Football is the more popular sport GLOBALLY, we are taking about its popularity in Ireland right now and it is a very understandable arguement. Success breeds success, as long as we are producing average footballers and world class rugby players, rugby is going to increase in popularity. There is no reason not to follow all of our sports though because comparing them is a bit of a waste of time. Each game has its good points and its bad points eg. I love to see Brian O'Driscoll drop his shoulder and leave opponants on their arses, I also love to see McGeady stepover the ball and go past his man, I used to love watching DJ Carey and Jamsie O'Connor leave their opponants for dead, the Gooch doing the same in football and over here, Chris Judd dominating for Carlton in the AFL. Essentially we watch sports to see the best exponants of the games doing what they do best, with that in mind, as long as Ireland are the best rugby team in Europe and on the outter in Football the chances are that rugby will be more popular (in Ireland.)Quote:
Originally Posted by tetsujin1979
Why is this topic near the top of the board (due to postings)two days before our most important game in years? Nonsense thread.
Don't read it then.Quote:
Originally Posted by Noelys Guitar