Not sure I get where Sweeney is going. For every rugby indiscretion there is a Ronaldo, falling about like a big handbag. Yes, we in soccer have men like Messi - artists who don't dive about - but we also have El Hadj Djiouf.

The point is that there are many things to admire about the way a rugby scene has been created in Ireland - (apart from the sport itself which is nonsense and the vast majority of the fans who are shapers with no idea what is actually going on) - such as:

A genuinely family occasion - with no chance you will have guys screaming foul language at you or your kid
Regular large attendances - despite iffy facilities, freezing weather and a rap sport
At its core - it is in a sentence that is the antipathy of soccer in Ireland - it is well managed

....but for all that it is built on sand - inflated contracts and tax breaks, transitory sponsorship, the comical arrangement where Lenister with 2 million people rejoice for beating a provincial town in England with 3 men and a dog

...but in fairness to them, their administrators come from the professional managerial classes and can manage. Unlike the clowns that manage Irish soccer

But give me 90 minutes watching Ronan Finn any day before that set piece driven egg chasing nonsense