Rugby V GAA in Limerick City

Liam79

Which is bigger lads? Tom Ryan and Len Dineen had a cat fight about it on the radio the other day. I would think Rugby by a MILE! I cant stand hurling, 30 farmers with sticks!! I prefer gaelic football, but Rugby is superior to both and far more popular in the city!

krudler

They're both shyte

JerryHandbag

Association football ftw.
But which is bigger? No denying its rugby, both city AND county.

Roadend

JerryHandbag wrote: »

No denying its rugby, both city AND county.

No chance, GAA hands down, but the gap is closing

sioda

Tom Ryan imo came out as a bigotted eejit after that interview. It comes down to the fact that people like success and munster give that.

Iang87

rugby by a country mile. Limerick fans would sell out thomond park a million times over for any game whereas early championship games for limerick just about sell out if at all

Tinytony

Have you ever played sport at any decent level? How exactly could you class a game where someone picks a ball and runs with it till he gets knocked down as a superior game to hurling?



Number of Rugby Clubs in Limerick: no more than 15

Number of GAA Clubs in Limerick: 55 +



Capacity of largest rugby venue outside Dublin: 27,000

Capacity of the Gaelic Grounds: 45,000


Rubgy is probably more popular in the city areas but it wouldn't be even close to Junior soccer. In terms of playing numbers in Limerick city and county you'll find rugby well behind soccer, football and hurling.

Roadend

Iang87 wrote: »

rugby by a country mile. Limerick fans would sell out thomond park a million times over for any game whereas early championship games for limerick just about sell out if at all

For any game I assume you mean any Heineken Cup game (Leaving aside the All-Blacks one off game obviously)

Tinytony

Iang87 wrote: »

rugby by a country mile. Limerick fans would sell out thomond park a million times over for any game whereas early championship games for limerick just about sell out if at all

Eh no they wouldn't. There were plenty of tickets available for group games in Heiniken cup.

Roadend

The filling of the ground argument also leaves out the fact people come from all over munster to TP, not just Limerick

puntosporting

GAA both hurling and football has far more people playing than rugby and i dont see that changing for many a year!
Hurling is far from **** give it ago you may be ****e at it but that would be your downfall!
I love rugby and hurling in equal measure not so much a fan of football but id never diss it as rubbish its another tough sport!

Amazotheamazing

Hurling is far larger, far far larger infact, overall. There's more hurling clubs in Limerick than senior rugby teams in the entire of Ireland.

neil_hosey

Hurling and Rugby are my 2 favourite sports in the world and I absolutely HATE when people trying and turn respective supporters against eachother. Hurling is a far superior sport skill wise, takes a lot longer to master. But rugby is great to watch, especially when your following your own team, and there is a skill level involved in fact there are many more skills involved in rugby, when taken into a/c every player has a very different role to play, but mastering those skills is not on par with hurling.

But please lads.. dont argue about which is superior, they are both great games.

Hurling has more clubs/players/supporterse in limerick though. Not a hard call to make tbh. Prob same in every county in Ireland.

Browney7

Hurling in the city areas is struggling with only Na Piarsaigh and Claughan(to a lesser extent) having an anyway decent team. A lot of GAA supporters support rugby in equal measure and I have no doubt that if the hurlers get on a bit of a run this year the whole county will get behind them as always.Rugby is probably bigger in the city however.

Limerick people compared to most other counties are great to support their teams when it comes down to it.

Liam79

Browney7 wrote: »

Limerick people compared to most other counties are great to support their teams when it comes down to it.

Utter sh*te! Tell that to Limerick 37 or even better tell that to a Limerick football team who made 2 munster football finals, beat cork by 10 points in Cork, pushed Kerry harder than any other team in Ireland and still got PITIFUL support from the great limerick sports people

Utter sh*te

Rugby is WAY bigger than hurling in Limerick City and anyone who cant see that is delusional.
Take 5 normal lads in limerick between 15 and 25
ask them to name 5 Munster Rugby players and 5 Limerick Hurlers and see who is more popular......

Itsdacraic

Liam79 wrote: »

Rugby is WAY bigger than hurling in Limerick City and anyone who cant see that is delusional.
Take 5 normal lads in limerick between 15 and 25
ask them to name 5 Munster Rugby players and 5 Limerick Hurlers and see who is more popular......

A better question would be

Which is bigger in the city Rugby or Munster Rugby PLC?

puntosporting

what is the real question here?
How many people support or take part or both or something altogether different?

Raiser

I had thought the Gaelic Grounds were practically empty these days for all but the bigger matches?

- Anyway the attendance figures at GAA fixtures are [generally speaking] not an indication of the willingness of the supporters to travel/attend but more an example of how large incestuous, redneck families enjoy a day out!!!

Insect Overlord

There's some absolute shite being spouted here, by all sides of the argument...

Browney7

Liam79 wrote: »

Utter sh*te! Tell that to Limerick 37 or even better tell that to a Limerick football team who made 2 munster football finals, beat cork by 10 points in Cork, pushed Kerry harder than any other team in Ireland and still got PITIFUL support from the great limerick sports people

Utter sh*te

Rugby is WAY bigger than hurling in Limerick City and anyone who cant see that is delusional.
Take 5 normal lads in limerick between 15 and 25
ask them to name 5 Munster Rugby players and 5 Limerick Hurlers and see who is more popular......

Look at the 2007 all ireland hurling semi final and final when we supposedly had no hope of winning and we still brought more than 25000 to the semi and 45000 to the final. That ain't bad is it Liam???Anyway I said compared to most other counties. Look at the size of Cork compared to Limerick and look at how much they bring to a Munster football final or even Kerry for that matter.Sure they only turn up for the finals. Football is the third if not fourth sport in Limerick and yet we still manged to muster a crowd of 15 to 20 thousand to go to said matches.Not too shabby. How many would Dublin bring to a hurling match for a county of a million odd. How many do Galway bring to an all ireland hurling quarter final against the all Ireland champions. As for Limerick 37 Liam...LOI soccer is terrible to be honest and what size gate do other clubs get anyway in the first division. 1000 odd???

Roadend

An File wrote: »

There's some absolute shite being spouted here, by all sides of the argument...

Welcome to the internet

D-A-V-E

ok theres some facts that need to be straightened here..

Limerick is the rugby capital of ireland..and has a bigger following than gaa..in the city anyway..look at all the car flags..flags and massive jearseys in town!
thomond park is the biggest dedicated rugby stadium in the country (croke park is only temporary), its filled for EVERY game of the magners and heineken cup

gaa is not at all big in the city, the gaelic grounds with a capacity of 50,000 has never been full EVER!..the closest was in the munster final last year when slightly over 48,000 came.
Limerick and ireland is not the same as england where football fans supports football and rugby fans support rugby..

everyone supports their team..be it county or country..however rugby has a bigger following where as in the 'big' gaa matches we might be lucky to have 30,000 attending..this is just fact..wish it was the same but its not!

Itsdacraic

D-A-V-E wrote: »

ok theres some facts that need to be straightened here..

Limerick is the rugby capital of ireland..and has a bigger following than gaa..in the city anyway..look at all the car flags..flags and massive jearseys in town!
thomond park is the biggest dedicated rugby stadium in the country (croke park is only temporary), its filled for EVERY game of the magners and heineken cup

gaa is not at all big in the city, the gaelic grounds with a capacity of 50,000 has never been full EVER!..the closest was in the munster final last year when slightly over 48,000 came.
Limerick and ireland is not the same as england where football fans supports football and rugby fans support rugby..

everyone supports their team..be it county or country..however rugby has a bigger following where as in the 'big' gaa matches we might be lucky to have 30,000 attending..this is just fact..wish it was the same but its not!

The AIL League is the biggest club rugby tournament in Ireland. The two two biggest clubs in Limerick, Shannon and Garryowen played the semi final of that competition last weekend. Where was it played? In a field in Coonagh with about 2k spectators. Pretty poor for a game that is MASSIVE in a city of 165k.

I fail to see your point about only 48k turning out at the Gaelic Grounds. Thats double the capacity of Thomond Park.

Why does everything have to be an us versus them arguement anyways?

tfitzgerald

Amazotheamazing wrote: »

Hurling is far larger, far far larger infact, overall. There's more hurling clubs in Limerick than senior rugby teams in the entire of Ireland.

+1 i think overall hurling is bigger but i have to be carefull the wife works for munster

Liam Byrne

Liam79 wrote: »

Which is bigger lads? Tom Ryan and Len Dineen had a cat fight about it on the radio the other day. I would think Rugby by a MILE! I cant stand hurling, 30 farmers with sticks!! I prefer gaelic football, but Rugby is superior to both and far more popular in the city!

The fact that you took a dig at hurling as "30 farmers with sticks" sums it all up for me, really....

Your attitude, that is - not the game itself.

Both games - if well played by two relatively even teams - are a joy to watch. Both are ****e when played badly.

Munster's success probably makes rugby shade it a little, but there's a reason why the statue on O'Connell St has both....because both are part of the city's tradition and are well respected games.

At local level, both codes are well supported, and if Munster weren't doing so well internationally, there'd be very little between them. I've been at a good few poorly-supported Celtic League matches in both Thomond and Musgrave Park.

Then again, rugby is a professional game with the guys in full-time training; while I wouldn't even remotely suggest that it's "easy", it's definitely a lot easier to train, play and recover from injury in a professional sport, so they're not really comparable.

Neither code deserves snide "30 farmers with sticks" remarks......what someone does for a living has SFA bearing on it, and plenty of farmers play gaelic football as well......in fact, while gaelic can be good, it's downright ridiculous at times because there's no defined "tackle".

But if you can hit a sliothar over a bar from 65 metres with a stick, as distinct from an actual hurley, then work away and put a video up on YouTube so we can all watch your skills.... :rolleyes:

D-A-V-E

Itsdacraic wrote: »

The AIL League is the biggest club rugby tournament in Ireland. The two two biggest clubs in Limerick, Shannon and Garryowen played the semi final of that competition last weekend. Where was it played? In a field in Coonagh with about 2k spectators. Pretty poor for a game that is MASSIVE in a city of 165k.

I fail to see your point about only 48k turning out at the Gaelic Grounds. Thats double the capacity of Thomond Park.

Why does everything have to be an us versus them arguement anyways?

dont get me wrong about hurling and football i absolutely love it..it just bewilders me as to why we have a 50,000 stadium that has never been full. where as if thomond was that size it would be full every game..fact, listen ask as many people as you want but rugby is always going to be bigger in the city, regardless of the 'unimportant' AIL league..which if you recall attracted crowds the same as munster is doing now back in the 70s-the 90s.

anyway compare the turnout in o connell st for 06 and 08 for munster (when half the city was in cardiff) to in 07..nobody was on the streets! but its just a city thing..maybe not as much as a county thing..theres probably more rugby teams than hurling in the city too!

Itsdacraic

Thomond Park would not be full if it were 40k bar one or two games a year, the same as the Gaelic grounds. There were plenty of tickets available for any of the group games in the Heiniken Cup and all Magners league games. If Munster Rugby thought they could sell out a 40k stadium once a month, then you can be damn sure they would have developed the stadium to cater to for that and remember they are attracting fans from all over Munster, a supporter pool of 1 million people.

The casual sports fan likes a winner. Munster are a winning side the past couple of years so have a huge band wagon element attached to them. The same way as when Limerick hurlers do well the numbers attending the games swell compared to the earlier rounds. Its a natural occurance that happens in all sports. But if you look at the number of people actually participating on the ground and at club level around the city I would be very surprised if rugby was ahead.

What Munster have above all else, is a very very slick marketing and PR machine and kudos to them for that. They bring huge money to the city and that is always welcome but remember at the end of the day rugby is now a professional sport and people are creaming massive profits out of it.

Sport is an essential part of life and is something that is to be encouraged, regardless of what it is. That is why it is stupid for people to try to compare sports that have completely different skill sets to each other. I would be a GAA man first and foremost but I would rather see a kid going out and playing rugby than being stuck out home playing the x-box (or posting on internet forums).

JerryHandbag

Raiser wrote: »

- Anyway the attendance figures at GAA fixtures are [generally speaking] not an indication of the willingness of the supporters to travel/attend but more an example of how large incestuous, redneck families enjoy a day out!!!

I really shouldnt laugh.....ah to hell with it :D:D

tommy249

D-A-V-E wrote: »

dont get me wrong about hurling and football i absolutely love it..it just bewilders me as to why we have a 50,000 stadium that has never been full. where as if thomond was that size it would be full every game..fact, listen ask as many people as you want but rugby is always going to be bigger in the city, regardless of the 'unimportant' AIL league..which if you recall attracted crowds the same as munster is doing now back in the 70s-the 90s.

anyway compare the turnout in o connell st for 06 and 08 for munster (when half the city was in cardiff) to in 07..nobody was on the streets! but its just a city thing..maybe not as much as a county thing..theres probably more rugby teams than hurling in the city too!

Dave, you are way off the mark if you think that Thomand Park would be full for every game if it was the size of The Gaelic Grounds. I am not a huge rugby supporter but always follow munster and I picked up tickets for 2 heineken cup games easily this year and I have no contacts with rugby clubs, big business etc. If Thomand Park was the size of the gaelic grounds, sure it would be full this weekend but it would be half empty for all the early Heineken Cup games. Same way its not a sell out for the early hurling games. You can be sure that if Limerick hurlers got to a Munster final and it was played in the Gaelic Grounds it would be a sell out.

There is so much hype about Munster Rugby, due in a large part to the Media. Listed to 95fm before any game, listen to the Limerick Co-Ordination office - its the ONLY thing they promote about Limerick.

Final point, Thomand Park is the stadium for all of Munster so when its a sell out there are thousands there from Cork and the rest of Munster. Thats a 27,000 capacity stadium for the population of Munster, and yet, people like me, who have no connection to rugby can pick up tickets easily enough hor heineken cup games!

Take out big business, take out the girls who have no interest or clue about rugby and only want to watch the players and see how full Thomand Park would be.

Deedsie

All Ireland Final in 2007 Limerick had massive support. Munster is a provincial team. Limerick is a county team. Munsters growth in support is a recent enough phenomenom. A legacy from the Celtic Tiger. But im sure most Limerick people in there day to day lives would take more satisfaction in beating Tipperary in a Munster final than beating the Glasgow warriors in an ML game.

Iang87

tfitzgerald wrote: »

+1 i think overall hurling is bigger but i have to be carefull the wife works for munster

hmm wife works for munster, any chance of a ticket for saturday

Declan30

The Reason those 15-25 would be able to name 5 munster Players over 5 limerick hurling players.
Is because Munster Rugby is always in the media in Limerick.Everyone has jumped on its Bandwagon.

Ask the 15-25 yr olds to name 5 AIL Players in Clubs From Limerick

Liam79 wrote: »

Utter sh*te! Tell that to Limerick 37 or even better tell that to a Limerick football team who made 2 munster football finals, beat cork by 10 points in Cork, pushed Kerry harder than any other team in Ireland and still got PITIFUL support from the great limerick sports people

Utter sh*te

Rugby is WAY bigger than hurling in Limerick City and anyone who cant see that is delusional.
Take 5 normal lads in limerick between 15 and 25
ask them to name 5 Munster Rugby players and 5 Limerick Hurlers and see who is more popular......

grenache

Up to a few years ago i would have said that hurling had many more participants in the city, but with Munster making rugby all glamourous, one would assume that the figures for those playing the oval ball game are very much on a par with hurling. Although from my experience of working in the city, the average city dweller doesn't seem to know much about Limerick hurling, and there is definitely more talk of rugby in the city and its suburbs. In terms of quality, GAA in the city has fallen greatly from its lofty perch of the 1980s when you had teams like Claughaun achieving the double. Nowadays, with the exception of the Monaleen footballers, gaelic games in the city is indeed very weak. Its a disgrace really when you think that a city with a population of 100,000 can only give one player to the county hurling team (Brian Geary). Contrast this to rugby clubs like Garryowen and Shannon, who have dominated the senior club rugby scene in Ireland for the last 17 years. All the Limerick clubs are highly competitive and the majority of them operate in the top two divisions. So in the city yes, rugby is definitely the stronger of the two. Go out into the county and hurling is much stronger.

D-A-V-E

Thomond Park would not be full if it were 40k bar one or two games a year, the same as the Gaelic grounds. There were plenty of tickets available for any of the group games in the Heiniken Cup and all Magners league games. If Munster Rugby thought they could sell out a 40k stadium once a month, then you can be damn sure they would have developed the stadium to cater to for that and remember they are attracting fans from all over Munster, a supporter pool of 1 million people.

this has come up many times in the past..only people who really follow rugby knows that there is not enough room to develop thomond to 50k (like the new lansdowne road) and the developers didnt want to make it any bigger as it would lose its intimate hostile atmosphere..thats actual fact but iv a feeling all you gaa people wont believe that at all :rolleyes:

tommy249

D-A-V-E wrote: »

this has come up many times in the past..only people who really follow rugby knows that there is not enough room to develop thomond to 50k (like the new lansdowne road) and the developers didnt want to make it any bigger as it would lose its intimate hostile atmosphere..thats actual fact but iv a feeling all you gaa people wont believe that at all :rolleyes:

Ummm, don't develop Thomond Park into a stadium the size of Lansdown Road because it will lose its hostile atmosphere (by the way, a hostile atmosphere is nothing to be proud of) and instead forgo a couple of extra million euro for every game.

Are the same people who made this call the same people who wanted to sell the naming rights of the stadium until public reaction stopped them??

By the way, this is the first time I have ever even heard that there were people talking of building TP bigger.

You can be sure that if that was on the table and was ever a reality it would have happened and the "hostile atmosphere" would not have been an issue. This is a business after all. If the people in Munster rugby cared about the atmophere and not the money, we whould have half the amount of big business there.

And no I'm not a GAA head! I support GAA the same way I support Munster Rugby!!

D-A-V-E

tommy249 wrote: »

Ummm, don't develop Thomond Park into a stadium the size of Lansdown Road because it will lose its hostile atmosphere (by the way, a hostile atmosphere is nothing to be proud of) and instead forgo a couple of extra million euro for every game.

Are the same people who made this call the same people who wanted to sell the naming rights of the stadium until public reaction stopped them??

By the way, this is the first time I have ever even heard that there were people talking of building TP bigger.

You can be sure that if that was on the table and was ever a reality it would have happened and the "hostile atmosphere" would not have been an issue. This is a business after all. If the people in Munster rugby cared about the atmophere and not the money, we whould have half the amount of big business there.

And no I'm not a GAA head! I support GAA the same way I support Munster Rugby!!

augh..your misinterpreting this completely! BEFORE the plans were final and BEFORE they built the new thomond park..it came up to have a 50,000 stadium but they thought 26 was better as it would be big enough for demand yet still retaining its small atmospheric feel..its not getting "expanded"!

Itsdacraic

D-A-V-E wrote: »

augh..your misinterpreting this completely! BEFORE the plans were final and BEFORE they built the new thomond park..it came up to have a 50,000 stadium but they thought 26 was better as it would be big enough for demand yet still retaining its small atmospheric feel..its not getting "expanded"!

There you go.

tommy249

D-A-V-E wrote: »

it just bewilders me as to why we have a 50,000 stadium that has never been full. where as if thomond was that size it would be full every game..fact, !

D-A-V-E wrote: »

it came up to have a 50,000 stadium but they thought 26 was better as it would be big enough for demand !

Sorry - Not trying to start an argument - Just had to point that out!!!

D-A-V-E

tommy249 wrote: »

Sorry - Not trying to start an argument - Just had to point that out!!!

ya for heineken cup games and one or two magners you would deffinately fill it but it wouldnt be worth the vacancies on the other magners league for the smaller games..26,500 is the perfect in between

4tothefloor

Liam79 wrote: »

Which is bigger lads? Tom Ryan and Len Dineen had a cat fight about it on the radio the other day. I would think Rugby by a MILE! I cant stand hurling, 30 farmers with sticks!! I prefer gaelic football, but Rugby is superior to both and far more popular in the city!

Firstly, the biggest sports in Limerick by a MILE are football (soccer) & hurling. Rugby is miles behind junior/schoolboy soccer, hurling and even gaelic football. Don't kid yourself!

If it's flavour of the month you're on about, it's definately rugby (by rugby I mean Munster, not the local AIL clubs). But judging by the many clueless "fans" who were out on Saturday to watch the game, it's very much a false perception. I also know of a huge number who were at the game in Croke Park, my own father included, who wouldn't know a rugby ball if it smacked them in the face. First game this year, never set foot in a club rugby ground before yada yada yada.....A few years of Leinster being dominant and the French/English actually taking the Heineken Cup seriously would sort a lot of the huge "fanbase" out It'll be interesting to see where Munster will be when they inevitably go through a sticky period on the pitch and the success evaporates.....

Finally, to say that rugby is superior to hurling, gaelic football or football is hilarious. Granted you have to admire the toughness of the players, their honesty and the war of attrition that they go through in a game, but in terms of field sports rugby is easily the least skilful of the lot. Ball in hand bashing off each other might be exciting, but it's not skillful. I'm not saying that it's skill-less, you have to admire players like O'Driscoll, O'Gara, Wilkinson etc. But you cannot compare the skills in rugby to what DJ Carey or Lionel Messi can do in hurling and soccer. It's not even the best rugby game, rugby league is far superior as a game, both on the pitch and in the stands. Remember when you were young and you were picking teams for field/street games? Well all the lads that were always left till the end to be picked, they were your future rugby players. Skill and finesse - hurling, soccer. Big awkward mullockers, the toepokers - rugby.

4tothefloor

Itsdacraic wrote: »

The AIL League is the biggest club rugby tournament in Ireland. The two two biggest clubs in Limerick, Shannon and Garryowen played the semi final of that competition last weekend. Where was it played? In a field in Coonagh with about 2k spectators. Pretty poor for a game that is MASSIVE in a city of 165k.

+1. Ironically this isn't a reflection on the REAL rugby fan, as the hardcore who actually know the game would've been out in Coonagh. What it is a reflection of is the blatent bandwagon jumpers who form the majority of the Munster support. In truth rugby (AIL) is no better supported in Limerick than the local League of Ireland soccer team. Munsters support is inflated by event junkies who all go missing for Magners league games and who don't support local rugby either.

Declan30 wrote: »

The Reason those 15-25 would be able to name 5 munster Players over 5 limerick hurling players.
Is because Munster Rugby is always in the media in Limerick.Everyone has jumped on its Bandwagon.

Ask the 15-25 yr olds to name 5 AIL Players in Clubs From Limerick

Exactly

tommy249 wrote: »

Take out big business, take out the girls who have no interest or clue about rugby and only want to watch the players and see how full Thomand Park would be.

+1. I'd also add the fact that if you open the local Post or Independent in the lead up to any game, every second pub/club/business is falling over themselves running competitions for 2 tickets to the game. It's a very cute and well run PR machine.


As for D-A-V-E, you keep contradicting yourself in your posts. Your assertion about Thomond Park being full every game is delusional as well, especially when the very reason that Thomond Park Stadium put in those god awful multi-coloured seats is to mask the fact that the stadium is half empty for Magners League games. Seeing as you're one of the people that "really follow rugby", surely you'd already have known this?!?