Originally Posted by
Jerry The Saint
I heard that the takeup of Premium tickets (i.e. 10-year GAA ticket holders who have the option to buy their seats for other games/events) was something like 85% for the rugby but only 35% for the Wales game. And it's only likely to get worse. Even packaging it with Germany, a series of bad results would probably lead to people skipping the Cyprus game as a protest or simply through lack of interest.
I thought the atmosphere at the start of the game was much better than people are giving credit for. Certainly I've never heard the anthem sung as loudly at a GAA game. This team just doesn't inspire enthusiasm, wherever the game is played. It's not completely a glory-hunting thing either, even allowing for the fact that we have (almost) no realistic hope of qualifying, an actual decent performance, playing proper, exciting football even for a brief spell would help to get the crowd on their side.