Womens' rugby Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread

kksaints wrote: »

Would you call that a good Irish performance? Thought England were quite comfortable winners.

Compared to Irish performances of old, it was good. I think the ref ruined it but there were good aspects of the Irish performance. Scrum, maul both performed well. Line out was more stable than two weeks ago against Wales. Defence was good, and they kept Alphonsi quiet which is a feat as she is a beast.

Although we lost we can take a lot from the game. England are the second best team in the world and we were within a score of them.

gugsy wrote: »

What was the final score didnt get to see the end.

17-10

Interesting comment by George Hook after the match: There are good Irish women sprinters, about 199th. best in the world, who won't make it to the Olympics. If they converted to rugby sevens we could be in with a shout at Rio 2016.

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

But that nature program or "terrible movie" would be a lot more popular than women's rugby.

I noticed this sudden promotion of women's rugby came around the same time as the men's team performed poorly this time last year.

Its seems to be in the media interest to promote apparent success in rugby to try and keep the so called rugby fans in this country happy, is case they go back to not giving a s#&t once the national team is loosing

Apparent? They won the grand slam last year ffs!

Two years ago the women slept on the floor of a train the night before their match in France. They deserve better than that. I think it's only right that the most successful sporting team of last year gets some airtime.

Nobody complained when Katie Taylor was on the tv :rolleyes:

Edit: also the "so called" fans of women's rugby tend to be the hard core fans who play or support grass roots rugby.

yeahimhere wrote: »

Yeah I think some can make the transition but most won't. A good few years back when they started a girls team in my town they tried to attract those from the athletic club and gaa teams including myself. Those who were sprinters didn't work well - being tackled when going full tilt was completely a different sensation. Most quit afraid of injury and damaging competing in their main sport.

Perhaps your example had a different reason for not working out though.

Yeah I think the "saving myself for the <insert sport here> season" is massive in rugby.

There are steps in the right direction. And it pains me to say it, but I agree with Hook on certain things. There are more girls getting involved from a younger age, similar to the other sports. Meaning that for some rugby will be the main sport. And if they are brought up tackling, they won't shy away.

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

But that nature program or "terrible movie" would be a lot more popular than women's rugby.

I noticed this sudden promotion of women's rugby came around the same time as the men's team performed poorly this time last year.

Its seems to be in the media interest to promote apparent success in rugby to try and keep the so called rugby fans in this country happy, is case they go back to not giving a s#&t once the national team is loosing

Well they did win the Grand Slam last year. Also this match was a potential grand slam decider plus rte most likely thought that there would be an overspill of viewers who watched the mens match who were possibly going to stay on and watch the womens match.

All in all the match was ok quality wise and it was an interesting experiment. Personally I couldnt see them surviving rating wise as a stand alone match like the u20 but it possible it might work as a run up match or after the mens match like today.

sullivlo wrote: »

The irfu have run open days for the 7's. They sent a lot of fresh faces to the sevens series this month. Girls who had never played rugby but could run fast.

It did not end well.

Maybe they would improve with a bit of coaching? If you get one or two out of it that would make it worthwhile.

Fr Tod Umptious wrote: »

But that nature program or "terrible movie" would be a lot more popular than women's rugby.

I noticed this sudden promotion of women's rugby came around the same time as the men's team performed poorly this time last year.

Its seems to be in the media interest to promote apparent success in rugby to try and keep the so called rugby fans in this country happy, is case they go back to not giving a s#&t once the national team is loosing

If you confine tv sport to what most people want you will get just GAA and Soccer. Golf and horse racing, for instance, will get the boot. I have little or no interest in either, and you would be doing me a great favour if you if you logged into the golf and horse racing threads to advocate their disappearance from tv. Trouble is, a national tv channel has to cater for minorities too.

calfmuscle wrote: »

With regards to the sprinters coming or there is one already in the development setup. Its hardly an original idea by Hook though sure just look at Carlin Isle!

Unfortunately they need to be strong Nd brave as well though!

Yeah they are still lacking fitness and speed, brazil beat them by 15 points last week, 30 this week, and were only spared last place by a dodgy ref decision.

Who are supposed to be the speedsters on the team? The seem to get burned on outside a lot and are rarely able take advantage on open space. The slow motion replays show them puffing and giving up the chase way to soon.
Cronin and Houston are only two who look to be up to standard there.

Trimmed a lot of off topic posts in case anyone starts scratching their head

TBH if national TV was just based on supply & demand we'd be in a dark place, especially when it comes to sport. Rugby has benefited for years on the basis that TV has helped the sport grow when it's clearly not near the most popular sport on the Island. The same should be for women's rugby. It might not be popular now, but the fact a big game like the one in Twickers was shown will capture a few more fans, not to mention it was put on due to a lot of people over social networks asking for it.

Riskymove wrote: »

I was not particularly bothered by the airing of the game, however, I do think such things should be based on supply and demand and not percieved inequality of treatment

The game was always planned to be shown online etc and so was available to people. It's clear that the pressure to show it live was based on ideas of inequality and resulted in it being shown. The ratings will tell their own story.

There were 80,000 people (presumably with some level of grass roots supporters) in Twickers on Saturday...how many stayed to watch the match?
We will see what happens at the Italy game too.

Supply and demand is the usual approach..yesterday a deferred version of the Munster Rabodirect match was shown as the priority was given to the Kilkenny Tipp hurling game...such is life

If as much effort was made by people to get people to actually attend the Irish Women's Rugby games as was spent trying to get them to show this game live I think far more could be achieved in terms of improving the profile for the game

I didn't quote you in that post?

Anyway.

There were 13,000 people at the womens match on Saturday. Yes, that is a mere fraction of the 80,000 capacity but it's progress. The sport as a whole is growing worldwide, and in order for it to continue to grow, it needs to be publicised.

As .ak said, if we were to live off supply and demand for TV we wouldn't see half of the things we do.

There has been a huge push to get people to attend the home games. The IRFU are providing a grant of sorts for clubs with womens teams to go to the Aviva for the match. Ashbourne RFC has been pretty packed for the other home games. Compared to this time 4/5 years ago the support is immense. The push to get this on the TV, from what I can tell, was that it wasn't accessible to people as it was an away game. It was a triple crown decider. The womens games in the UK are normally shown on Sky Sports 2 - fairly high profile, no? And the other night it was on BBC red button.

Ireland is not the only country where they show womens rugby on the TV.

Riskymove wrote: »

So I can't speak on the matter?






Publicised yes, absolutely....there were many ways to do that....I am not sure that the approach taken did much for publicising the game in general...rather it seems to have polarised views



again my issue is not with the airing of women's rugy

Apologies - I misread your post and thought you were referring to something I had said in reference to you. Monday morning and all that...

From talking to people who were at the ground there were more Irish fans than English fans at the womens match. So there was some element of progress in that people either stuck around to watch the match, or travelled there especially.

I think the Aviva on the 8th will tell a lot as to how the publicising of the game is going. It will be interesting to see how many people are there for the game.

Polarised the view how? In that the focus is on getting the game on TV and not much else? I "like" the page on facebook and they are posting up articles from all walks of life on womens rugby and where it is mentioned in the media.

I have to say - thescore.ie have been great at doing previews / write-ups / interviews with all of the womens players.

justsomebloke wrote: »

How is that clear?

I am basing it on the articles I read and what was on social media...imo that was the basis of the call

It's RTE, so chances are it came down to pure costs as to which game they would show between the u20's and the women's game. Given the women's game was directly after the men's game in the same venue would of played a massive part in it too as they wouldn't of need a 2nd set up of equipment in the UK for the weekend to do the U20's at a much higher cost

I agree this helped in terms of cost...but if all that was true..why didn't they just decide to show it live to begin with?

Riskymove wrote: »

I agree this helped in terms of cost...but if all that was true..why didn't they just decide to show it live to begin with?

Truthfully it's RTE, equality isn't going to come into it. It probably came down to the fact the U20's were no longer in contention for the Grand Slam, which probably dented advertising for that and with the women still in contention they probably made a call to switch their focus. Again as it's RTE the decision to do this probably took a while as there probably isn't too much difference to them between the 2.

i think you're over playing the equality card, they are a successful team in a womens sport that is growing rapidly in this country, it merits is place on tv on those grounds.

justsomebloke wrote: »

Truthfully it's RTE, equality isn't going to come into it. It probably came down to the fact the U20's were no longer in contention for the Grand Slam, which probably dented advertising for that and with the women still in contention they probably made a call to switch their focus. Again as it's RTE the decision to do this probably took a while as there probably isn't too much difference to them between the 2.

so the recent campaign was just a coincidence and RTE would have decided to show it anyway?

I think that is unlikely but who knows

There was a campaign done on Twitter to convince RTE that there was a market for the womens game. It seems to have worked, which means there must have been enough of a market for it.

Hopefully you are right...the ratings will tell a lot and the Italy game will be an important factor now. It'll be up to irish fans attending to support it

i think you're over playing the equality card, they are a successful team in a womens sport that is growing rapidly in this country, it merits is place on tv on those grounds.

if equality isn't an issue, why call it "a women's sport"

I'll just have agree to disagree on this...I believe a lot of the campaign pressure was based on the fact that if RTE had not shown the match live it would be because they had some negative agenda against "women's sports"

I hate this bitching, can you not just watch it or not watch and let it be.

what bitching? I am discussing this issue is all.

I have no problem with the match being aired

John_C wrote: »

What's the arrangement for the game against Italy. Can I just head down to Lansdowd Rd after the men's game and pay in?

I've asked the IRFU and am awaiting a response. Will post here when I hear.

Just got this from the IRFU:

"They are available on ticketmaster – we will not have a facility to take money at the gate."

So best get purchasing!!