Keane at it again to a degree this morning claiming Ireland fotballers have a "win or lose, hit the booze" mentality, unlike their rugby counterparts. He also says that Munster lost a Heineken Cup final through cheating.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/spo...cle6962332.ece
Now hang, on. My recollection of that game isn't that clear. Munster had a scrum inside Leicester 22 in the dying minutes. They were 6 points down, no?
Back's cheating led to the scrum being botched and Leicester saw the game out. Cynical piece of cheating no doubt, but it cost Munsther the possibilityof coming back, not the probability, which I think is an important distinction.
I just think it's rich that Munster lose because of cheating, Ireland get eliminated because "same old same old losing mentality and not taking chances", nothing whatsoever to do with cheating.
The "win or lose hit the booze" quote makes two appearances and it's not clear whether the first quote refers directly to the team, though that's how the journalist presented it.
However he has a pop at the fans' attitude “I have always felt with them we have come up short and always because we seem to settle for second best, and the ‘win or lose, hit the booze’ attitude of the Irish supporters,” he said. “The rugby lads have taken it to a different level [of professionalism and success]. That’s why I like the rugby players.". What about giving away a penalty in Cardiff with the clock on 80 minutes? Winning mentality, or sheer good fortune that Jones missed his first kick of the game?
Hang on, he's comparing the attitude of pro rugby players to Irish football fans here, no? He's not comparing like with like. Rugby fans show very little emotion after a defeat, it's just a bit of an occasion. They're hardly teetotallers. At Croker in 2007 everyone around me was laughing and joking after France's late winner. Just look at how devastated we all were after Paris.
It's actually quite an interesting article but where he could have made valid criticisms he made cheap digs. I'm sympathetic to the view that we need to start seeing these games out, but there's a better way of making that point.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 19/12/2009 at 9:12 AM.
One thing I dont fully get is, is it most of the time that people in Ireland are either Rugby fans or Soccer fans? Some of the lads I know in the city here are this way.
Why is this?
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
because their snobby idiots (goes for both sides)
But that tends to be the case acorn?
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
people seem to get very bogged down in this. I'm a huge fan of soccer, rugby and GAA but i've always playeed GAA and would be seen as a GAA man by certain people i know. why do we have to be put in these boxes? silly silly silly
especially when it seems most of the Irish soccer team are fans of both gaa (hurling and football) and rugby
Folding my way into the big money!!!
Yeah Fix I was just curious. A lot of the young Irish I meet in NYC refuse to watch the world cup q's which boggles my mind. They only watch the Rugby. I was at the bar a couple of times with a game coming up in a few days and i was like, so where do you all watch the game? A bunch of us go to such and such...when they tell me they never watch i was dumbfounded. Youll sit in a bar on a random tuesday with the Mets on but wont come down on a sat to watch ireland fight for the WC? But you will find a place to watch Rugby at 6 AM? Crazy. The other Irish agreed with me BTW.
To me you either like sports or you dont. I mean its like the olympics, most of us dont know the first thing about, say, curling, but its easy to root for your country in it.
Anyway though I supose its better you are thought of as a GAA man than a GAY man.![]()
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
I'll try to explain this. I grew up in Ireland in the nineties. Jack Charlton was king and we all watched and played "soccer". Rugby was never dicussed amongst my classmates. As such, I don't watch it and have no time for it. I don't even know the basic rules of the game, and it doesn't interest me to learn them.
I have two cousins who live down in Cork and they don't watch soccer at all. They're big into the rugby though. It makes no sense.
Keane was talking about Irish players and not Irish fans in this article in my opinion in relation to boozing. I believe the Times journo got it wrong. I don't believe Keane was having a dig at Irish footrball fans here. But he was again having a go at current Irish players and he is wrong (and being a prat of the highest order). I am still waiting on Keane to praise a current Irish player. Not a mention of Richard Dunne who is having an outstanding season. Win or lose we booze? Cliches and slogans from Keane. Clough was always original.
Last edited by Noelys Guitar; 19/12/2009 at 10:56 PM.
Yes, but it was a 5 m scrum and Munster were mincing (surprise, surprise) the Leicester scrum. Munster were in an attacking position (Ireland were defending against France). What Back did was very cynical - he couldn't lose as it was in the last minute and the worst that could have happened was that Munster would get a penalty which wasn't enough to win the game. Other thing is that Munster never complained that they were cheated, in fact Mick Galwey the captain at the time said that he wished Back had never admitted to cheating in the first place. He also said if a Munster player had gotten away with the same thing, they would be regarded as a hero. Comments from the players were that Leicester were better and deserved to win anyway - Munster were just not good enough.
I agree - he wasn't having a cut at Irish fans. I've read Ronan O'Gara's bio and the Munster players are very hard on themselves. Nothing less than 100% is tolerated. In a million years, I couldn't see Paul O'Connell sneaking off and organising a Christmas Party behind Declan Kidney back like Robbie has at Tottenham.
“I have always felt with them we have come up short and always because we seem to settle for second best, and the ‘win or lose, hit the booze’ attitude of the Irish supporters,” he said.
Whatever way you look at that, he is having a "pop" at the fans.
'In that regard he sees Ireland’s football team heading backwards'
“I watched [Ireland’s game] against South Africa a few weeks ago [when Ireland beat the world champions] and in the last ten or 15 minutes that sheer determination to win was incredible. They are as professional an outfit as there is out there. They have surpassed the football team of a few years ago.
Scraping by South Africa at home in a friendly is a long way from beating them in a World Cup competition. The football team can do better but they are not going backwards.
And now he says Sparky should never have gone to Man City due to his Man U connections...
IS Roy footballs version of Simon Cowell? Is he ever not talking?
No Somos muchos pero estamos locos.
Ireland didn't scrape by South Africa - the scoreline belies our dominance in most areas of the field - and in rugby terms, the November internationals actually count for seeding in the World Cup (or rather, the 2008 matches did). The notion of rugby "friendlies" is non-existent, they are competitive test matches. If you're looking for friendlies in rugby, the Churchill Cup in America during the summer was more along the lines of a soccer friendly; Ireland played a B-squad against noted weak opposition; ironically it was a mini-tournament but was more of a "friendly" than the November Internationals.
Sorry a tad off topic there
More to the point, and regarding Roy Keane, he never shuts up because he's too dim to realise the endless parade of journalists are just looking for cheap copy to fill their papers with. They know by now Roy Keane'll have a pop at anyone and anything that doesn't meet his "standards" and make filling the back pages easy peasy.
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