Tom Humphries, you're a g@bsh1te.

il gatto

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article5946900.ece

What a dirge. Fair enough, I accept rugby is far from the number one sport in Ireland and that alot of people fixated on the English Premiership know or care little about it, but that article smacks of bitterness and parochialism. At a time when Ireland WC 2010 qualification matches don't draw as much of a crowd as a rugby Autumn Test (nearest thing we have to a friendly) and League of Ireland Football is a shoddy product with tiny fanbases, this sort of claptrap is misplaced.
Hundreds of thousands of "casual" rugby fans (only watch the real biggies) will be glued to this match at home and in pubs from Carndonagh to Clonakilty. So what? It's something the Irish soccer team, the FA Cup final, The FAI Cup final(:rolleyes:) or any Old Firm "derby" (how many times a year?:eek:), cannot do.
And as much as I love watching Kilkenny whip all comers with such style and speed, I don't come from a hurling county, much as most of the country don't, and it's appeal is wide but sporadic outside of the hurling areas, and only obsessively watched by the participants on any given year.
There is a reason International sport attracts an audience, and why people get carried away by it. Our team, representing our island are going out to uphold our national pride. If we didn't want "pats on the head from elsewhere", why bother with any international sport?
Tom Humphries, you're a g@bsh1te and you should've kept your pathetic prejudices under wraps until all this was over. "Atavistic pride"? Stay away from the big words Humphries, you only sound stupid. Won't be reading his column for a long while.

ALH-06

il gatto wrote: »

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article5946900.ece

What a dirge. Fair enough, I accept rugby is far from the number one sport in Ireland and that alot of people fixated on the English Premiership know or care little about it, but that article smacks of bitterness and parochialism. At a time when Ireland WC 2010 qualification matches don't draw as much of a crowd as a rugby Autumn Test (nearest thing we have to a friendly) and League of Ireland Football is a shoddy product with tiny fanbases, this sort of claptrap is misplaced.
Hundreds of thousands of "casual" rugby fans (only watch the real biggies) will be glued to this match at home and in pubs from Carndonagh to Clonakilty. So what? It's something the Irish soccer team, the FA Cup final, The FAI Cup final(:rolleyes:) or any Old Firm "derby" (how many times a year?:eek:), cannot do.
And as much as I love watching Kilkenny whip all comers with such style and speed, I don't come from a hurling county, much as most of the country don't, and it's appeal is wide but sporadic outside of the hurling areas, and only obsessively watched by the participants on any given year.
There is a reason International sport attracts an audience, and why people get carried away by it. Our team, representing our island are going out to uphold our national pride. If we didn't want "pats on the head from elsewhere", why bother with any international sport?
Tom Humphries, you're a g@bsh1te and you should've kept your pathetic prejudices under wraps until all this was over. "Atavistic pride"? Stay away from the big words Humphries, you only sound stupid. Won't be reading his column for a long while.

Well said. I'd expect such from Humphries - he's written the like before. But on the day of the Grandslam decider? Shut up ye miserable git, keep your bitterness to yourself!

He's only bitter because internationally, Irish rugby has a higher profile and has had more success than any other Irish sport put together, and he's not part of it.

Fizman

Jesus. I just read the first 4 - 5 sentences and closed out of it. Now the fact that i'm just in from a night out may have something to do with it, but he is one sad little man. What a genuinely pathetic thing to print in a national newspaper on the eve of one of the countries biggest sporting occasions in decades. Who is he possibly hoping to get his message across to?

Loser.

il gatto

Worse. It's the London Times, so he's making us out to the world to be a nation of fraudulent bandwagoners who don't care about any sport for more than a month at a time. We may throw that accusation at some bands of supporters in every sport at times, but Humphries is out of order with the vehemence. Has he never heard you shouldn't air your dirty washing in public?

thebiggestjim

Read a few lines and closed it, horse**** dribble.

I thought it was an ok article.
He simply points out that not everyone likes rugby and wont be concerned about the match but they wont be cheering for us.

Hes a wanker because he doesnt like rugby,not because of the article he wrote.

Im the opposite of Tom,I think GAA is utter ****e but I wouldnt cheer against us in international rules.Does that mean im a gob****e?

SomeFool

Ah he's just a horrible bitter little man who enjoys a bit of attention...........
typical 'opinion column' journalist really....
Just ignore him and he'll go away...

getthegarglein

If the lads can do it later today then I think Tom will be surprised just how much rugby will have united the nation

Tom seems bitter about the fact that most kids growing up now prefer to play rugby,a game where you get paid for your hard work.
I would imagine its bitterness that GAA is dying and rugby will become the mainstay sport.

il gatto

Dustin Weak Saltine wrote: »

I thought it was an ok article.
He simply points out that not everyone likes rugby and wont be concerned about the match but they wont be cheering for us.

Hes a wanker because he doesnt like rugby,not because of the article he wrote.

Im the opposite of Tom,I think GAA is utter ****e but I wouldnt cheer against us in international rules.Does that mean im a gob****e?

Most people have no interest in athletics, but journalists didn't go out of their way to slate it when Sonia was winning races.
Fair enough if you don't like GAA, but you don't go off to London to tell anyone who'll listen that it's muck and not as popular as people would have them believe. You just ignore it.
Nobody is fraudulently claiming, as the Welsh do, that rugby is our number one sport. But the Irish rugby players are currently our top performing international sports people, along with Padraig Harrington. Where's Humphries' diatribe against golf? I think golf is a good walk, ruined. I still wouldn't have thought a journalist should've attacked it, and it's followers on the eve of Harrington's tilt at the Open title.

crybaby

It reads to me like Humphries had some issues growing up with a) Prods / West Brits / Whatever nasty word you want to use and wealthy people. When he came to be an adult he seems as a sports writer to have planted these two labels to the game of rugby in a way to attack whatever annoyed him so much when he was growing up.

On the other hand he can relish in GAA the glorious game solely for the tough working class Catholics, he seems seriously bitter that us nasty rich Prods were happy about beating the English at Croke Park because as we all know us rugby lot just aren't as Irish as the lads who support the GAA.

The rugby chaps had done it. They had planted the flag on the peak of national adulthood. The final stage of our evolution as a race was complete. We were walking on two feet and with a straight back at last. And wearing blazers with shiny buttons.

There's a particular nastiness to this article, how dare we as a sporting nation take such pride in beating our biggest rivals at Croke Park. He sees rugby as this upper-class game for a bunch of Prods and seems to view us as a bunch of British gentlemen trying to civilize the GAA crowd it really is an insight into a person who just can't let something from his past go.

Now just imagine the sprawling, out of control, emotional nonsense Humphries would have written had Ireland beaten England 4-0 in football on that day in a World Cup qualifier. Would it have been any different than the media frenzy when that rugby match happened?

Please Tom don't bother yourself checking the teletext and maybe next time somebody offers you a job covering a sport you so clearly despise you will have the honour to decline it and go watch some "real sport".

thomond2006

Dustin Weak Saltine wrote: »

Im the opposite of Tom,I think GAA is utter ****e but I wouldnt cheer against us in international rules.Does that mean im a gob****e?

No. :):)

louthandproud

Dustin Weak Saltine wrote: »

I thought it was an ok article.
He simply points out that not everyone likes rugby and wont be concerned about the match but they wont be cheering for us.

Hes a wanker because he doesnt like rugby,not because of the article he wrote.

Im the opposite of Tom,I think GAA is utter ****e but I wouldnt cheer against us in international rules.Does that mean im a gob****e?

You want me to answer that?

Fair point though, but I don't see the need for Tom proclaiming that so many Irish people are or were disenfranchised from rugby due not being protestants or from rich schools. If he did then that is because he's a narrow minded little *****r.

I think I hate inverse snobbery almost more than direct snobbery. It's such a small man attitude. Rugby is played in almost every town in Ireland and although there are elitist schools and clubs, most are not thankfully and welcome all comers.

Zzippy

Dustin Weak Saltine wrote: »

Tom seems bitter about the fact that most kids growing up now prefer to play rugby,a game where you get paid for your hard work.
I would imagine its bitterness that GAA is dying and rugby will become the mainstay sport.

Steady on now, don't lose the run of yourself. GAA still far outnumbers rugby for the number of kids it has playing. GAA is certainly not dying, sorry.

I used to like Humphries' articles, but that was pure drivel. I'm a GAA man too, played hurling all my life, and still follow it passionately. But I'm a sports fan too, and love watching rugby. Most of my mates are the same. My da is 63 and he's the same, GAA man through and through but he'll be glued to the box later.
Humphries prejudices about rugby are well known by now, its just a pity he gets to air them in public and people get the idea he's right...

RuggieBear

Zzippy wrote: »

Humphries prejudices about rugby are well known by now, its just a pity he gets to air them in public and people get the idea he's right...

bingo.

and lads no more namecalling/abuse please.

Persiancowboy

Humphreys should stick to what he does best - licking the ass of Roy Keane and stop writing about a sport he clearly despises. I have read some of the ****e he has written in the past about rugby - for a guy who proclaims himself to be a sports fan it is pathetic.

If he took the time to attend some matches here he might actually learn something about the game and those that follow it. For instance, a very great many of those who support Munster and who have regularly travelled far and wide doing so, are the very same people he will find in the Gaelic Grounds or in Thurles for the football and hurling league and championship games. While I suspect that cross-over might not be as strong in both Leinster and Ulster, it is changing from the days where rugby was the sole preserve of the sheepskin coat brigade.

Times are changing Tom but obviously not in the little insular hole where you exist.

copacetic

Zzippy wrote: »

Humphries prejudices about rugby are well known by now, its just a pity he gets to air them in public and people get the idea he's right...

agreed, I used to have a lot of time for him, but all he seems to do now is write about hurling and slag off every other sport. They wheel him out whenever there is a big competition on in Rugby, golf etc. He had a similar pointless rant about the ryder cup when it was here. He has become a bit of a parody of himself and I'm not sure crybaby is far off, he always goes for the easy 'not an real Irish/working class sport routine' when talking about rubgy.

Robbo

I don't entirely see what's that offensive for the article. It's a Humphries piece so the usual suspects all make an appearance; referring to the Celtic Tiger years by way of expensive coffee, the proud nobility of amateur GAA (and nice dig in the sidebar about how much Sean O'Halpin makes) and the way he loves to set out his point early doors and proceed to miss it by some distance.

The only notable absentee was to crowbar in something to do with Leeds United but I'd imagine he'd want to keep that little obsession out of an article like that.

You can see this week in week out, usually when writing about a GAA. Hell he even reviewed The Damned United yesterday in similar tones, neglecting to mention that actual film until well into the piece.

NickNolte

I'm not going to feed the troll by reading any more of this thread or reading the article.

copacetic

NickNolte wrote: »

I'm not going to feed the troll by reading any more of this thread or reading the article.

thats it Nick, don't let him win, I knew that Humphries is out to troll boards, it's pretty much the point of all his articles.



bugger, you aren't going to see this, ah well.

anonymous_joe

Hmmm, Tom Humphries I've missed you.

For the record, I was at the Gah, on Paddy's Day (first non SCT sporting event I've ever seen on Patrick's Day. :P) and I'd hardly suggest it caught the nation's attention. It was an enjoyable day, there was some undoubted skill on display, but GAA is romanticised still to an unpalatable degree.

Humphries makes his money telling us all how much he hates middle class people, and does his best to split the country into the evil 'middle class' and the ordinary folk. Everything he's ever written about rugby has degenerated into an attack on the sport because of the schools people went to.

Conversely, if a journalist had written an article claiming 'I hate GAA, only knackers and muck-savages play) they'd be rightly branded a fool. Allow the boy throw his toys out of his pram. It's Humphries, if we win he'll declare us all fools, if we lose, he'll sit their with a smug face and be happy as a pig in shít.

Cavehill Red

il gatto wrote: »

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/rugby_union/article5946900.ece

What a dirge. Fair enough, I accept rugby is far from the number one sport in Ireland and that alot of people fixated on the English Premiership know or care little about it, but that article smacks of bitterness and parochialism. At a time when Ireland WC 2010 qualification matches don't draw as much of a crowd as a rugby Autumn Test (nearest thing we have to a friendly) and League of Ireland Football is a shoddy product with tiny fanbases, this sort of claptrap is misplaced.
Hundreds of thousands of "casual" rugby fans (only watch the real biggies) will be glued to this match at home and in pubs from Carndonagh to Clonakilty. So what? It's something the Irish soccer team, the FA Cup final, The FAI Cup final(:rolleyes:) or any Old Firm "derby" (how many times a year?:eek:), cannot do.
And as much as I love watching Kilkenny whip all comers with such style and speed, I don't come from a hurling county, much as most of the country don't, and it's appeal is wide but sporadic outside of the hurling areas, and only obsessively watched by the participants on any given year.
There is a reason International sport attracts an audience, and why people get carried away by it. Our team, representing our island are going out to uphold our national pride. If we didn't want "pats on the head from elsewhere", why bother with any international sport?
Tom Humphries, you're a g@bsh1te and you should've kept your pathetic prejudices under wraps until all this was over. "Atavistic pride"? Stay away from the big words Humphries, you only sound stupid. Won't be reading his column for a long while.

This fat fool only really gives a crap about his beloved GAA. I know for a fact that he flew home from the European Championships the day before the final in Lisbon in 2004 in order to watch some Waterford Gah match, like the gob****e he is.
A mate of mine used to sit next to him in the press box at some soccer games, and he wouldn't even be watching the game, just writing away on his laptop and surfing the net. And he'd have the whole thing done by half-time.
But he used de big wurds in de Toimes so all de people do be tinkin' he's a genius.
Ever seen his books? Unreadable.

Glenbhoy

ALH-06 wrote: »

Well said. I'd expect such from Humphries - he's written the like before. But on the day of the Grandslam decider? Shut up ye miserable git, keep your bitterness to yourself!

He's only bitter because internationally, Irish rugby has a higher profile and has had more success than any other Irish sport put together, and he's not part of it.

How do you measure profile and success??

I like watching rugby and would be reasonably knowledgeable about provincial and international rugby (at least I used to be), but how can you compare a game like rugby with other truly international sports like soccer, golf, athletics, hell, even cricket?

thehighground

Robbo wrote: »

I don't entirely see what's that offensive for the article. It's a Humphries piece so the usual suspects all make an appearance; referring to the Celtic Tiger years by way of expensive coffee, the proud nobility of amateur GAA (and nice dig in the sidebar about how much Sean O'Halpin makes) and the way he loves to set out his point early doors and proceed to miss it by some distance.

The only notable absentee was to crowbar in something to do with Leeds United but I'd imagine he'd want to keep that little obsession out of an article like that.

You can see this week in week out, usually when writing about a GAA. Hell he even reviewed The Damned United yesterday in similar tones, neglecting to mention that actual film until well into the piece.

I don't see what is so offensive in this article either. The strapline says "For older generations, the prospect of victory in Cardiff today will do little to stir the sporting soul."

At least he is consistent - this is his piece going back to 2001 which explains how he developed his dislike of rugby. I think its funny!

Drive the buggers underground
Tom Humphries' original article that appeared in The Irish Times on January 30th, 2001

TOM HUMPHRIES

ONE FROM THE ARCHIVE/JANUARY 30TH, 2001: RUGBY PEOPLE. Can’t live with them. Can’t shoot them. Mainly can’t live with them. Can’t afford to live with them. Haven’t the bloodlines to live with them. Haven’t the patience to live with them. Haven’t the language skills to live with them. Haven’t the desire even. Rugby people have always been college scarves and jutting jaws and silly songs I don’t know the words of.

C-A-N-N-O-T live with them.

Now, a quick word before we start. Every time I write one of my patented, bitter and twisted chip-on-the-shoulder social-cripple pieces about the rugby world, the same smug epistles hit the desk all the way from D4.

They tell me (surprise!) that I have a chip on my shoulder about rugby.

“You’re like a little boy with his nose pressed up against the window – come on in and have a pinty, for croying out loud.”

I know. I have a chip. Actually I like having a chip on my shoulder about rugby. It is my inalienable right. I will not have a pinty.

Thonks. I am happy as I am.

more......

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sport/2009/0218/1224241330694.html

_blank_

It's how these people make a living.

How many of you clicked through to the link, or indeed bought the paper?

Now you are on here ranting about the man. It's what he wants.

Dunphy, Spillane, Hook, Humphries and countless others are all in the same business. Scandalise the audience to get a reaction.

Well done lads, you've all fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.

Take a look at the Soccer Forum after a match that has been televised on RTE. Everyone up in arms over Dunphy's latest proclamations.

This is the very same thing.

If people keep reacting, they'll keep writing.

heh, and as I'm typing this, someone goes and actually quotes a piece, complete with link.

louthandproud

Des wrote: »

It's how these people make a living.

How many of you clicked through to the link, or indeed bought the paper?

Now you are on here ranting about the man. It's what he wants.

Dunphy, Spillane, Hook, Humphries and countless others are all in the same business. Scandalise the audience to get a reaction.

Well done lads, you've all fallen for it, hook, line and sinker.

Take a look at the Soccer Forum after a match that has been televised on RTE. Everyone up in arms over Dunphy's latest proclamations.

This is the very same thing.

If people keep reacting, they'll keep writing.

heh, and as I'm typing this, someone goes and actually quotes a piece, complete with link.

Looks like you are talking about these guys too then! Is this not a forum for people to voice their opinions on this kind of stuff?

_blank_

louthandproud wrote: »

Looks like you are talking about these guys too then! Is this not a forum for people to voice their opinions on this kind of stuff?

Indeed it is, and I'm sure the gah-heads over on the GAA forum have their little pet rants too.

But be under no illusion, these journalists do monitor the MBs to gauge reaction to their pieces.

I'm not saying don't voice opinions, it's why we're here after all, but the pure indignation resulting from these pieces is the very reason they are written.

Warper

He does make a point about rugby in the North - it is practically all Protestants and rugby in Leinster remains eliteist or at least likes to think it is.

The great thing about this whole occasion is lets hope it opens up what is a great sport - Rugby to a whole wider audience that wish to play the game and get rid of some of the ****e that is associated with the sport.

yerayeah

I don't think his point is neccessarily wrong. If Ireland don't win today the vast majority of people watching won't be that bothered.

He is a bit ridiculous in the way he never has a good word to say about rugby though!!

And whoever said his books are unreadable, what sports books would you rather read instead?? TH is one of the most talented sports-writers of his generation.

Cavehill Red

yerayeah wrote: »

And whoever said his books are unreadable, what sports books would you rather read instead?? TH is one of the most talented sports-writers of his generation.

Riproaring nonsense.
I'd much rather read Simon Kuper, Ed Smith, Paul Kimmage every day of the week. And that's just to list some personal favourites.
In fact, I'd rather read ANYONE (with the sole exception of Vincent Hogan) than Tom Humphries and his ill-thought out, overwrought, self-obsessed diatribes of tripe.
If you think he is in any way talented, I can only assume you don't expose yourself to much (or any) sports writing at all.

Glenbhoy

Cavehill Red wrote: »

I know for a fact that he flew home from the European Championships the day before the final in Lisbon in 2004 in order to watch some Waterford Gah match, like the gob****e he is.

From memory of that final it would need to have been a very poor gah match for him to have made the wrong decision.

Mikel

OP, I think you're missing the point(s) he's trying to make.
Rugby has been and still largely is an elitist sport played by an exclusive band of schools mostly in Dublin.
This means that most people grow up without any contact with it like they would with GAA and soccer.
You can try and paint this as inverse snobbery but it's just a statement of fact. As a result he says he feels no connection with it.

A large swath of us will be at home watching something else or doing something else, not out of ill will but just because rugby does not concern us or stir us.

What's so controversial about that?
As a result

The game does not still the nation in the way that Ireland football matches in World Cup finals do, clearing those streets that have previously been festooned with flags and bunting.

Again, nothing untoward there, it happens to be true.

In fairness, there was also a lot of guff written when England played at Croke Park. If it was written by an English journalist it would be called jingoism.
Another journo at the IT recently wrote about this too, Watterson maybe, and I think he's a rugby fan.

I saw a lot of the coverage before that game and I would describe it the same as Humphries.
Rugby is a minority sport but it has a vocal constituency, especially RTE and the Irish Times who bestow meaning on events that aren't there.
The definite undertone was that it was time to 'move on' and blah blah and here were the rugger guys to show us how it was done.

Remember all the self congratulatory letters and articles in the IT about the anthem not being booed, that we had reason to be so proud?

The old oppressors' anthem had been played and the flag run up and down the timber many times during the Special Olympics at Croke Park a few years earlier and nobody had died of apoplexy, but this, we were told, was our history in the making, the final proof that as a nation we had matured.

I think he hits the nail on the head here

We are obsessed with seeing ourselves as others might see us, addicted to pointing out cloyingly our charm and our passion. Aren't we the greatest supporters in the world? Aren't we? Say we are. Puh-leese!

It's the need for external validation that grates, and it manifests itself all the time.
Nobody does self congratulation like the Irish.
The truth is nobody does bandwagon jumping like the Irish.
Most people will watch anything and espouse the virtues of the players as long as they are winning.
Remember all the 'Best Fans In The World' guff? Jack's Army...
Where are they now? You'd have no trouble getting a ticket for a WC qualifier.

You'll notice too, he doesn't say anything disparaging about the players.
I'm not a rugby person and I wouldn't know a ruck from a maul, but I know the likes of O'Driscoll, O'Connell etc are phenomenal athletes who would excel at any sport they put their mind too.
I'm sure they worked their balls off to get where they are and if they achieve their goals I wouldn't begrudge them a second of the acclaim they will get.

I think it's the self congratulation he has a problem with, and I do too.
We do always seem to need a pat on the head from someone else, I've no idea why.

As for upholding your 'National Pride', jeez where do you start with that?
if you're flittering around from sport to sport trying to uphold pride in where you happen to have been born, I suggest you have some issues.

Good Luck to the goys today, but if they don't achieve it how many of their new found 'supporters' will be posting messages and writing letters calling them a 'disgrace to the country' like after the world cup?
Bandwagon jumpers are a fickle bunch.

CiaranC

il gatto wrote: »

Worse. It's the London Times, so he's making us out to the world to be a nation of fraudulent bandwagoners who don't care about any sport for more than a month at a time. We may throw that accusation at some bands of supporters in every sport at times, but Humphries is out of order with the vehemence. Has he never heard you shouldn't air your dirty washing in public?

Lol, thats exactly what most Irish sports fans are.

Ive nothing against lads who have been involved with rugby their whole lives, but these days I am surrounded by rugby fans who have followed the game for 2 weeks and are die-hard munster fans. From Tallaght.

These guys "follow" Manchester United, the Irish "Soccer" team and now Munster/Leinster (sometimes Munster AND Leinster?!?) and the Irish rugby team, every though theyve been to maybe one live rugby match in their lives.

Its laughable.

darkman2

Good article by Tom Humphries.


I like rugby but he is completely right about the elitism in the sport which seems particularly defined in Ireland. It is the preserve of wealthier people sending their sons off to places like Clongoweswood and Blackrock. That is undeniable. Look at the demographic geography of where rugby is played primarily and that tells you all you need to know.

GAA is much better then rugby IMO because it is not as pretentious as assuming the nation enjoys supporting a bunch of well fed, pompous, spoilt prats for want of a better word.

I know someone will say "look at what the soccer players get paid!" - and you would be right but IMO rugby is far far more elitist. Almost to the extent of cricket.

Cavehill Red

Glenbhoy wrote: »

From memory of that final it would need to have been a very poor gah match for him to have made the wrong decision.

He's the Irish Times chief sports reporter. For him to leave the European Championships before the final is the wrong decision under all circumstances.
AFAIK, it was a county Gah match he came back for, and not even a final either.

Warper

Cavehill Red wrote: »

He's the Irish Times chief sports reporter. For him to leave the European Championships before the final is the wrong decision under all circumstances.
AFAIK, it was a county Gah match he came back for, and not even a final either.

What is so wrong with this? If anything he should be applauded for it - it shows he is passionate about sport and true to his roots.

Stev_o

darkman2 wrote: »

Good article by Tom Humphries.


I like rugby but he is completely right about the elitism in the sport which seems particularly defined in Ireland. It is the preserve of wealthier people sending their sons off to places like Clongoweswood and Blackrock. That is undeniable. Look at the demographic geography of where rugby is played primarily and that tells you all you need to know.

GAA is much better then rugby IMO because it is not as pretentious as assuming the nation enjoys supporting a bunch of well fed, pompous, spoilt prats for want of a better word.

I know someone will say "look at what the soccer players get paid!" - and you would be right but IMO rugby is far far more elitist. Almost to the extent of cricket.

Ehm rugby is played right throughout Leinster if that's what your getting at nearly every area is represented by a club or school. It's not elitist in any shape or form iv played with and against all sorts of people who by your logic wouldn't get near any rugby team because of the size of their wallets. This whole notion that rugby is for posh lads who have nothing else to do is pure bs tbh.

darkman2

Stev_o wrote: »

Ehm rugby is played right throughout Leinster if that's what your getting at nearly every area is represented by a club or school. It's not elitist in any shape or form iv played with and against all sorts of people who by your logic wouldn't get near any rugby team because of the size of their wallets. This whole notion that rugby is for posh lads who have nothing else to do is pure bs tbh.

How many secondary schools in Ireland play rugby? Any in less privilaged places? No. And I know you're going to name a few schools in middle of the road wanna be posh areas that stick a "w" on the end of their address to distinguish them from the peasantry. I know the rugby scene. I live in a very posh area of Dublin so im entitled to make this observation which is justified and undeniable. Some of my freinds play rugby. Like I say I like rugby but get real. It is not open to everyone and this is not done blatantly but by proxy - how many rugby clubs are there in working class areas around Dublin? None.

Then you are as pretentious to expect these people who have no access to the sport at youth to come and start supporting the game. That is not going to happen. I hope it changes, I know it won't.

Warper

Stev_o wrote: »

Ehm rugby is played right throughout Leinster if that's what your getting at nearly every area is represented by a club or school. It's not elitist in any shape or form iv played with and against all sorts of people who by your logic wouldn't get near any rugby team because of the size of their wallets. This whole notion that rugby is for posh lads who have nothing else to do is pure bs tbh.

Well lets just say I dont know one person from a working class area that plays rugby and this applies to all areas of the country but there are lots that play other sports there. Rugby is only played by middle-class wanna-be's and upper-class people and that is a fact.

dRNk SAnTA

He must be getting desperate.

He republished an old anti-rugby article at the start of this years six nations and now he's written a new one for the end of it.

I reckon that he's frustrated that he's practically gone from hero to zero in the last 5 years. He used to write really good stuff but he hasn't done anything of note since the Saipan interview. His last interview with Roy Keane was complete garbage compared to his old stuff.

yerayeah

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Riproaring nonsense.
I'd much rather read Simon Kuper, Ed Smith, Paul Kimmage every day of the week. And that's just to list some personal favourites.
In fact, I'd rather read ANYONE (with the sole exception of Vincent Hogan) than Tom Humphries and his ill-thought out, overwrought, self-obsessed diatribes of tripe.
If you think he is in any way talented, I can only assume you don't expose yourself to much (or any) sports writing at all.

I didn't say he was the only good sports writer and as Paul Kimmage readily admits in the forward to Booked, he isn't in the same league as Humphreys when it comes to sheer writing ability. I just can't see how you claim he isn't talented, his command of the English language is head and shoulders above the vast majority of writers, never mind sports writers. Laptop Dancing and the Nanny Goat Mambo was one of the most readable, funny and enjoyable sports books I have ever read.

He deserves a lot of respect from sports fans in this country for his refusal to believe in the Michelle Smith scam.

Cavehill Red

Warper wrote: »

What is so wrong with this? If anything he should be applauded for it - it shows he is passionate about sport and true to his roots.

It shows he is unprofessional and singularly ill-suited to be a chief sports reporter.
As does his most recent outburst to be honest.
He should feck off to the Waterford News and Star and cover de hoorlin' for them. He'd be happier and so would the readers of the Irish Times.

Glenbhoy

Dustin Weak Saltine wrote: »

Tom seems bitter about the fact that most kids growing up now prefer to play rugby,a game where you get paid for your hard work.
I would imagine its bitterness that GAA is dying and rugby will become the mainstay sport.

out of interest how many professional rugby players are there in ireland?

Cavehill Red

yerayeah wrote: »

I didn't say he was the only good sports writer and as Paul Kimmage readily admits in the forward to Booked, he isn't in the same league as Humphreys when it comes to sheer writing ability.

False modesty from Kimmage. He's clearly the better writer and the better journalist.

yerayeah wrote: »

I just can't see how you claim he isn't talented, his command of the English language is head and shoulders above the vast majority of writers, never mind sports writers.

Overwrought self-obsessed purple prose shouldn't be mistaken for good writing.

yerayeah wrote: »

Laptop Dancing and the Nanny Goat Mambo was one of the most readable, funny and enjoyable sports books I have ever read.

I thought it was awful. Truly awful.

yerayeah wrote: »

He deserves a lot of respect from sports fans in this country for his refusal to believe in the Michelle Smith scam.

Yes, he does. But how many people actually believed Michelle could urinate pure Jamesons?

Cavehill Red

Warper wrote: »

Well lets just say I dont know one person from a working class area that plays rugby and this applies to all areas of the country but there are lots that play other sports there. Rugby is only played by middle-class wanna-be's and upper-class people and that is a fact.

Where does Limerick, Cork, and the six counties fit into your vision of the country, then?

Glenbhoy

Cavehill Red wrote: »

It shows he is unprofessional and singularly ill-suited to be a chief sports reporter.
As does his most recent outburst to be honest.
He should feck off to the Waterford News and Star and cover de hoorlin' for them. He'd be happier and so would the readers of the Irish Times.

Is Emmet Malone not the chief soccer writer for the Times?

Cavehill Red

Glenbhoy wrote: »

Is Emmet Malone not the chief soccer writer for the Times?

Humphries is chief sports reporter.

il gatto

I'm afraid people like Humphries have misrepresented rugby to the point where Mikel, who professes to know little of the game, and darkman2 are explaining a sport we follow, to us.
I come from Connacht. Both parents from small farms in Leitrim. Born in Galway, used to shop in Ciaran Fitzgeralds father's shop in Loughrae. Moved to Sligo where most young fellas would watch the 5 Nations every year. Went to a rugby school but never played much. Watched us lose to Garbally a fair few times. The local rugby club is a mile away. People from all backrounds play there and always have. My father, in his sixties, from deepest, darkest Leitrim, will watch today as he has most of Irelands 5/6 Nations matces for years. Humphries notions of rugby's pretensions and GAA's working class hereos is b@llocks of the highest order. There's a golden circle in inter county GAA like no other in Irish sport.
The BEST schools may be the big ones in Dublin and the best players often come from them, but that's far from the be all and end all of rugby in Ireland.

RuggieBear

il gatto wrote: »

I'm afraid people like Humphries have misrepresented rugby to the point where Mikel, who professes to know little of the game, and darkman2 are explaining a sport we follow, to us.
I come from Connacht. Both parents from small farms in Leitrim. Born in Galway, used to shop in Ciaran Fitzgeralds father's shop in Loughrae. Moved to Sligo where most young fellas would watch the 5 Nations every year. Went to a rugby school but never played much. Watched us lose to Garbally a fair few times. The local rugby club is a mile away. People from all backrounds play there and always have. My father, in his sixties, from deepest, darkest Leitrim, will watch today as he has most of Irelands 5/6 Nations matces for years. Humphries notions of rugby's pretensions and GAA's working class hereos is b@llocks of the highest order. There's a golden circle in inter county GAA like no other in Irish sport.
The BEST schools may be the big ones in Dublin and the best players often come from them, but that's far from the be all and end all of rugby in Ireland.

quiet you....you are ruining the myth!
were those farms D4 farms in Leitrim?

darkman2

il gatto wrote: »

Humphries notions of rugby's pretensions and GAA's working class hereos is b@llocks of the highest order. .

Really? And I thought it was the GAA that had a club in every parish in Ireland. An organisation that actually helps deprived young people into the game. Silly me :rolleyes:


Everyone knows Rugby is the most elitist sport in Ireland. When is the last time you heard a real working class Dublin accent on any Rugby team!? I have never heard one.

Funny that in the course of trying to explain how elitist Rugby is not certain words pop up like "Dublin 4" and "Farms" - not exactly associated with poverty. Leitrim or not.

Cavehill Red

darkman2 wrote: »

Everyone knows Rugby is the most elitist sport in Ireland. When is the last time you heard a real working class Dublin accent on any Rugby team!? I have never heard one.

Brian O'Driscoll. Currently Ireland's captain. Thanks for asking.