QuoteRTE will be probably hyping up Man United-Liverpool Owlsfan!!!
Hopefully An Ceannaire will post the www.rte.ie website front page on Tuesday.
RTE will be probably hyping up Man United-Liverpool Owlsfan!!!
Ridiculous assertion given that soccer is the simpler game of the two. If you check the respective attendances for a drab Novemeber game against Samoa and a drab Nations cup game against Wales you might get a more accurate attendance of which sport houses the fairweather casual fans.Originally Posted by Jinxy
This thread is the usual chip on the shoulder foot.ie nonsense that every sport is trying to repress their precious game. For years GAA has been the bane of posters here, it appears now Rugby is in the firing line. I pity people who can't enjoy the best of them all or at least respect others who chose to enjoy or participate in other codes.
Last edited by Murfinator; 08/10/2011 at 11:03 AM.
I'd be inclined to agree with Jinxy. Rugby is the talk of the water cooler in all the offices, but outside a sizeable hardcore, most of the interest is casual. A lot of the attendees are there for the occasion. I've posted before about how disgusted I was at Croker v France in 2007 when we blew a late lead in the 6N. Leaving the ground the party I was with were laughing and joking and barely fussed. I was sick.
When Leinster played (French team) in the latter stages of the H Cup this year, The French team got a late score to get within 1 score with only minutes left. A nailbiting finish was set up. The camera homed in on a guy in the crowd, showing all the appropriate signs of nerves. Behind him was some bimbo doing her lipstick and laughing with her mate. That did my head in!
Just like there are bland singers who people who aren't that much into music are into, there is a disproportinately large number of people supporting the rugby that aren't particularly fussed about sport.
The Samoa rugby / Wales football analogy is daft. The same week that IRL played Samoa, Rovers v Sligo drew 30k, about 8k more than a rugby international. Context is everything in sport.
For the last 4 years or more the rugby team has had a far easier ride with the public and the media than the footballers in my opinion. They have never really done anything at a WC - bar one big win this year. Poor 6N performances have been overlooked, late leads blown and a Grand Slam very nearly blown. I drank and shouted myself hoarse that day, but the disparity in treatment rankles with me. Yes, they're great guys and the country should be proud of them but as a country we get behind winners and lose interest otherwise.
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 08/10/2011 at 12:52 PM.
Yeah, Sligo won that game didn't they? - a great occasion.
So... normal service resumed?
"Jacques Santini...will be greeted in every dugout of the country by "one-nil, one-nil" - Clive Tyldsley, 89th minute of France-England June 13, 2004.
"Ooooohhhh Nooooooo" Bobby Robson 91st minute.
The rugby team are ranked in the top 8 teams in the world.
They made the quarter-finals and were soundly beaten.
Yet they will be feted as 'brave', 'heroic', 'warriors' etc. when they come home.
The Irish football team don't even get that sort of treatment when they win.
First things first I love all these sports in equal measure so don't have any particular agenda here. But really this argument seems daft to me. It seems like people are competing in terms of the "who has more fairweather fans" debate, playground style. Lets be honest every sport has their bandwagoners.
Yes but again those anecdotes can equally be replicated in both other codes. How many of those fans on Hill 16 3 weeks ago have ever seen the inside of Parnell Park or travelled round the country with Dublin? I was walking out of Croker once and a Dub "fan" behind me asked his mate, what do GAA players do in the non summer months?
Also when I would go to Ireland games in football I'd routinely here the populist egit behind me chanting "Kev Kilbane ya Donkey" (and this was in his heyday too, when Chelseas Damian Duff would have to play up front to accomodate Kilbane on the left) about our most loyal player to ever wear a green shirt.
In short, all three sports have the barstoolers, bandwagoners and big game junkies.
A little context is required on that analogy too though. You are comparing a dull lifeless November international to the FAI Cup Final. Also the 30,000 fans definately had something to do with the fact that the tickets were ridiculously cheap. A greater comparison would be if you asked how many attend a Friday night match between UCD and Pats in a league game for example.
I think, (and I admit the competition is not as fierce in rugby in that the worlds playing population is signigicantly less than football) that the rugby team have performed at a higher level than the football team over the last 4 years. You must remember that that four year period included the Stan era. When Eddie failed to bring us on to the next level Deccy was brought in and delivered almost immediately.
I do think Trap gets an extremely hard time, but thats because I think the average rugby fan or journalist is more measured and objective in his analysis, whereby the average football fan is far more erratic and often buys into tabloid sensationalism. The red tops have well and truely a grasp on the football market, whilst almost no stake in the rugby press.
As regards the amount of people who have never watched rugby before watching Ireland these last few weeks, so what? I think its great, the country haas been buzzing the last few weeks and the team has captured the imagination of a nation. Maybe that will be the last time most of those fans show their heads for another 4 years but sure it was good to have them behind the team while it lasted.
Also as regards, Ireland not really doing anything in the WC "bar one big win this year"? Let me remind you that they beat the current Tri Nations Champions, so probably on paper they beat the best team in the world, and the won a pool for the first time in WC history. It is analogous to Ireland beating Spain in a football WC but by your logic thats just a mere afterthought.
We came up against an inspired Welsh side who will probably get to the final and who knows what will happen after that and were beaten by a better side. The rugby team have done us immensely proud in the last few weeks and its just gutting we couldn't continue the adventure a little longer. If the football team even part emulate the success in provincial and international rugby, I'll be over the moon.
Also I completely concur with the poster who said the problem is not sports competing for kids (which is a healthy thing) its actually getting kids away from PlayStations and sitting on walls and actually playing sport of whatever kind full stop. I'm shocked when I see the empty greens these days compared to when I was younger. Thats the real issue that needs adressing here.
In fairness, the last time the Irish football team got to the quarter-finals of a World Cup they got a homecoming that the ruggers could only dream about.The rugby team are ranked in the top 8 teams in the world.
They made the quarter-finals and were soundly beaten.
Yet they will be feted as 'brave', 'heroic', 'warriors' etc. when they come home.
The Irish football team don't even get that sort of treatment when they win.
Of course the coverage is biased towards rugby somewhat due to the prevalence of D4 types in the meeja, but we all know that the man in the street isn't really in to rugger.
Probably because the football team haven't beaten an "Australia" since September 2001.
Also they were described as "warriors", "brave" and "heroic" following their performance in Paris.
Some people just want to feel they are being unjustly excluded from the party methinks.
If we get 2 wins and a draw in our next three games, wait to see the level of excitement and hysteria, which will render the rugby attention over the last few weeks, just a mere whisper in the dark.
Toashty, a lot of good points there, but although I'm struggling to offer evidence (other than a 30+ years' experience of going to 5 & 6N games) I'm convinced that a large part of the crowd just isn't as fussed. I had loads of mates who just went to the rugby cos it was an excuse to go on the lash. I think there's a much better and broader understanding of rugby now, in fairness.
I think your UCD / Pats point is just wrong.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Magners / Rabo Lge & H cups are cited as evidence that rugby is far more popular. That misses the point. Football simply can't have a product that can compete - it's the nature of the European & global professional ecosystem they operate in. If we had a Champs League standard football team in Dublin playing similar standard opponents I expect they'd get great crowds.
Rugby is able to put on more "blockbuster" shows because of the landscape. Samoa showed that a second tier rugby intl lacks the pulling power that SA or OZ would have. If there were more games required against the Samoas of the rugby world, or worse, we'd see just how faithful the rugby crowd is.
I'm not as bitter as I sound - honest! It's like having 2 kids where everyone ignores the shy geeky one while lauding the outgoing one. I'm just trying to make sure they're both appreciated and understood and not treated unfairly!
Last edited by Stuttgart88; 08/10/2011 at 4:52 PM.
The country hasn't been buzzing though.
Take a walk around the place.
You wouldn't know we were even in a World Cup if the media didn't remind you every 30 seconds.
The city was buzzing when Dublin won the All-Ireland.
I fail to see any evidence of a rugby buzz.
I woke up this morning at 5:00am, looked out my window and saw the light in the living room of every single house on my street was on. It was definitely something special to see everyones house lights pouring onto the dark streets so early on a sunday morning. Just a shame its finished.
A lot of clubs/bars were hosting breakfast events for all of the games as well. Turned it into quite a family event rather than an alcohol-fest associated with night time competitions which was quite nice. Would definitely say there was a lot of excitement around
I couldn't get over all the Irish fans in the crowd cheering and waving in the last ten minutes
Simon Hick off Newstalk said he saw plenty of fans wearing green wigs and leprechaun outfits leaving well before the game was over.
It was a glorified p*ss-up for most of these backpacker types that were knocking around NZ and Oz anyway.
I'd wager most of them have never been to a rugby game in this country.
To be honest I don't think the majority of that crowd are back packers. Back packers seems to suggest they are coming home. Most of them are economic migrants who've fled the resesh in look for work.
And maybe a few did leave before the end, but the rest made some noise out there. They would have outnumbered every country in the tournament bar the kiwis themselves.
Last edited by French Toasht; 08/10/2011 at 10:52 PM.
Just like a lot of Ireland away day days in the football then, at least in the past
One thing I did notice watching the rugby is that the fans had very few signature flags hanging around the stadium
Agreed with this. There is enough of us who enjoy all sports. I was at a county championship game last night, I'll be at the races today. If I wasn't at a county game last night, I would've headed for Thomond Park. On another night I'd have taken in a Limerick game had one been on.
Rugby is enjoying a growth at the moment, I don't see it as a big threat to other games. AIL rugby seems like a dead duck. I can see that coming back to being an issue within rugby circles. People living in Dublin, Limerick, Galway and Belfast have ease of access to rugby games. It's a long old trek for the rest of the population. There's nothing better than being able to go to a game. GAA can offer inter county rivalry. Soccer needs to grow more in a few more regions so that is more of a rivalry between regions which games can thrive upon.
https://foot.ie/forums/117-Kerry-FC
A Championship: 4 years - 8 first teams - 0 financially ruined. First Division '14: 7 first teams.
Opportunity lost for new clubs/regions to join the LoI family.
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