Irish Rugby and Sevens

First Up

D14Rugby wrote:

To only lose to the 2nd and 3rd best sevens teams this season in London is a pretty good achievement. To back it up in Paris would be a serious statement.

Think Conroy pulled a hamstring so he won't be in Paris. A test of our depth.

2smiggy

Fiji are so good to watch. Some men!!

Lucas44

First Up wrote: »

A shame Conroy didn't get another chance on the big stage. He has made quite a name for himself.

And to think connacht didn’t renew his academy contract after 4 tries in 2 eagles games and too try scorer in AIL

First Up

Lucas44 wrote:

And to think connacht didn’t renew his academy contract after 4 tries in 2 eagles games and too try scorer in AIL

He has serious pace but I don't know enough about the rest of his game to comment on his potential in 15s. You'd have thought he was quick enough to merit a spot so maybe he has a few flaws?

You can get by on pure speed at school level (and 7s) but you need more to hack it at the top level.

He's fun to watch though.

The Lost Sheep

Lucas44 wrote: »

And to think connacht didn’t renew his academy contract after 4 tries in 2 eagles games and too try scorer in AIL

But they never really tried him at the higher levels for good reasons....

First Up wrote: »

He has serious pace but I don't know enough about the rest of his game to comment on his potential in 15s. You'd have thought he was quick enough to merit a spot so maybe he has a few flaws?

You can get by on pure speed at school level (and 7s) but you need more to hack it at the top level.

He's fun to watch though.

Speed mightnt be enough to cover up any issues.
You can get by on pure speed at age grade and in 7s but yeah top level it isnt enough. Look at Greg O Shea who was in Munster's academy. He's represented Ireland at age grade in athletics in 100m/200m but never progressed in same manner as Conroy.

D14Rugby

Lucas44 wrote: »

And to think connacht didn’t renew his academy contract after 4 tries in 2 eagles games and too try scorer in AIL

It wasn't really a case of Connacht outright saying there wasn't anything there it was a bit more mutual than that.

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

But they never really tried him at the higher levels for good reasons....

Speed mightnt be enough to cover up any issues.
You can get by on pure speed at age grade and in 7s but yeah top level it isnt enough. Look at Greg O Shea who was in Munster's academy. He's represented Ireland at age grade in athletics in 100m/200m but never progressed in same manner as Conroy.

Yeah the good reasons being he went to focus on 7s...

Greg had a couple of reasons for that.

Squidgy Black

Pool draw for next week is fairly tough.

Fiji, Argentina, England.

Lucas44

D14Rugby wrote: »

It wasn't really a case of Connacht outright saying there wasn't anything there it was a bit more mutual than that.



Yeah the good reasons being he went to focus on 7s...

Greg had a couple of reasons for that.

He’s a much better prospect than niyi was when he was brought in and he went on to get capped

The Lost Sheep

D14Rugby wrote: »

Yeah the good reasons being he went to focus on 7s...

Greg had a couple of reasons for that.

Not really just a focus on 7s. Just didnt make/not able make a step up in 15s game....

Squidgy Black wrote: »

Pool draw for next week is fairly tough.

Fiji, Argentina, England.

Great to get test against Fijians.

D14Rugby

The Lost Sheep wrote: »

Not really just a focus on 7s. Just didnt make/not able make a step up in 15s game....

Yeah that's why he was given the choice between one, the other of trying to balance them...

Squidgy Black

Also will be interesting to see if we can get a win and prove we're consistently able to put in a performance against the England sevens side, who would likely be our closest match in terms of union setup etc.

Considering the money the RFU has pumped into the sevens programme, including a separate sevens academy setup and some fairly large contracts for some of the players (reportedly up to 100k a year for the likes of Norton and Burgess).

First Up

The Lost Sheep wrote:

Great to get test against Fijians.

We're at "invitation" status so always going to get tough groups. Its all prep for next season.

The Lost Sheep

First Up wrote: »

We're at "invitation" status so always going to get tough groups. Its all prep for next season.

I know. We're still one of the invitational sides but point still stands. Great we're getting Fijians. They were so good this weekend and in such good form that it will be such tough test.

First Up

The events at Twickenham were ignored entirely by RTE radio sports yesterday. Oh well, its GAA season and we know thats all that matters in Donnybrook.

Then I open my Irish Times this morning expecting to find a good report on Ireland's excellent effort and guess what? - nothing.

Looks like the IRFU have other challenges ahead in getting us onto the 7s stage.

troyzer

First Up wrote: »

The events at Twickenham were ignored entirely by RTE radio sports yesterday. Oh well, its GAA season and we know thats all that matters in Donnybrook.

Then I open my Irish Times this morning expecting to find a good report on Ireland's excellent effort and guess what? - nothing.

Looks like the IRFU have other challenges ahead in getting us onto the 7s stage.

Ireland lose quarter-final thriller against Fiji at London Sevens (via @IrishTimes) https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/international/ireland-lose-quarter-final-thriller-against-fiji-at-london-sevens-1.3904777

The Lost Sheep

First Up wrote: »

The events at Twickenham were ignored entirely by RTE radio sports yesterday. Oh well, its GAA season and we know thats all that matters in Donnybrook.

Then I open my Irish Times this morning expecting to find a good report on Ireland's excellent effort and guess what? - nothing.

Looks like the IRFU have other challenges ahead in getting us onto the 7s stage.

all fans complain about rte. Many gaa/soccer fans say rte overly biased in favour of rugby....
Surprised they don't have anything but unless they got a report from elsewhere they wont have anything as the papers weren't going to be sending a reporter to the tournament's

Rigor Mortis

First Up wrote: »

The events at Twickenham were ignored entirely by RTE radio sports yesterday. Oh well, its GAA season and we know thats all that matters in Donnybrook.

Then I open my Irish Times this morning expecting to find a good report on Ireland's excellent effort and guess what? - nothing.

Looks like the IRFU have other challenges ahead in getting us onto the 7s stage.

Sevens is a minority offshoot of what was until recently a minority sport. It will hopefully grow, but to be fair, the level of coverage it has received is proportionate to the level of interest it has in the broader population.

Worth noting that in the last decade, this thread has managed 70 pages, no more. Most ordinary rugby fans on here have no real interest in 7s. Hopefully that will change, but it is not the responsibility of either the Irish Times or any media outlet to act as a cheerleader in that regard

First Up

Rigor Mortis wrote:

Sevens is a minority offshoot of what was until recently a minority sport. It will hopefully grow, but to be fair, the level of coverage it has received is proportionate to the level of interest it has in the broader population.

I'd have thought beating England in Twickenham would have deserved a mention.

Rigor Mortis

We beat England in lots of sports that never get reported. Also, it has been reported in a number of places.

Rugby is in no place to complain about the level of coverage it gets in this country, particularly when it comes to playing numbers. I say that as a fan of both XVs and Sevens.

First Up

Rigor Mortis wrote:

We beat England in lots of sports that never get reported. Also, it has been reported in a number of places.

Name a few.

Rigor Mortis

Happens in Golf frequently. It happens in Squash. It happens at age grade in soccer and rugby a lot. Most of which get zero coverage. The point I am making about minority sports is that they dont get coverage.

You havent challenged the point here which is why does sevens deserve coverage. In an Irish context it is a minority sport, like international squash, basketball, tennis etc.

As a whole, by participation rates, Rugby does incredibly well for coverage.

First Up

Rigor Mortis wrote:

Happens in Golf frequently. It happens in Squash. It happens at age grade in soccer and rugby a lot. Most of which get zero coverage. The point I am making about minority sports is that they dont get coverage.

I'm still waiting for specific examples but Ireland doing well in a top level international event in any sport deserves mention.

The RTE radio sports programme on a Sunday afternoon runs for at least 4 hours. Some of that is taken up with Brian Carty howling about some GAA match and there is usually a soccer pundit (thick Dublin accent compulsory) filling in time too.

That should still leave enough time.

Rigor Mortis

First Up wrote: »

I'm still waiting for specific examples but Ireland doing well in a top level international event in any sport deserves mention.

The RTE radio sports programme on a Sunday afternoon runs for at least 4 hours. Some of that is taken up with Brian Carty howling about some GAA match and there is usually a soccer pundit (thick Dublin accent compulsory) filling in time too.

That should still leave enough time.

I've given you examples of sports where we play home internationals and beat the english. These are minority sports. So is sevens rugby.

You are showing your bias here. 'Howling' and 'Thick Dublin' accents dont hide the fact that these are sports with far greater public participation and interest than XVs rugby.

On one level, i am surprised that it didnt get coverage, but only because of the level of over exposure that rugby tends to get.

First Up

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

I've given you examples of sports where we play home internationals and beat the english. These are minority sports. So is sevens rugby.

You are showing your bias here. 'Howling' and 'Thick Dublin' accents dont hide the fact that these are sports with far greater public participation and interest than XVs rugby.

On one level, i am surprised that it didnt get coverage, but only because of the level of over exposure that rugby tends to get.

I'm still waiting for a specific instance where Ireland beating England (any sport) was ignored by both the main RTE radio sports programme and the next day's print edition of the Irish Times. Going on to lose narrowly to the world's best and finish 6th overall surpasses most of what else went on yesterday. I don't see how expecting it to be at least mentioned constitutes "bias".

7s has been huge in world rugby for a long time. Events like Hong Kong, Twickenham and now the full circuit involve venues and teams from all corners of the rugby world. Ireland was late taking it seriously but now that we have, we have made exceptional progress very quickly. Jordan Conroy is one of the brightest stars on the circuit and it might be among our best prospects of an Olympic medal.

That's newsworthy.

Rigor Mortis

Last one on this.

You showed your bias by your reference to howling GAA commentary and Thick Dublin accents for soccer.

7s has been big, not huge in a small number of countries and not for a long time. The World Series, outside of Hong Kong, does not sell out stadia. Until recently, the only really well known event was Hong Kong. The World Series is changing this but slowly. Saturday's final was played in front of a pretty small crowd as sevens circuits events are. They are self sustaining because HBS and a number of corporates put a lot of money into them and have succesfully flogged them as corporate events. Outside of the Southern Hemisphere there is very little interest in this.

I'd like sevens to do well. In many respects it should succeed because it is simpler, more exciting format, with more scores and fewer rules. The olympics will help it. But just because it is played on a world series doesnt mean it is a big sport.

Anyway, I'm done.

First Up

Rigor Mortis wrote:

You showed your bias by your reference to howling GAA commentary and Thick Dublin accents for soccer.

I referenced both (accurately) to illustrate the sterile and predictable nature of RTE's coverage of sport. Its not like mention of what was happening in Twickers was going to knock the All Ireland final off the air.

S.M.B.

There's a similar level of coverage (ie barely any) here in the UK / London. I always forget this tournament is on and only realised it after the Ireland / England game yesterday. Saw no mention of England's loss or their abysmal placement on my traditional UK sports media sources. It's simply still operating at a level that means it would take a massive result for it to make a blip on some radars, here and in Ireland.

I had more an eye on the Rugby X tournament in London later this year than this.

GavMan

D14Rugby wrote: »

They don't get their food and lodgings paid for and as far as I'm aware the players themselves were under the impression that their wages would rise quite a bit if they qualified for the world series so this could get messy if they don't. The IRFU are asking them for more commitment, more travel, at a higher level, with more money coming into the Union with no extra pay, that won't go down well if that's the case.

I know Jordan Conroy lives across the road from Lansdowne road so he ain't doing that on 20grand a year and feeding himself.

IRFU have a number a properties in the area so I'd imagine they are housing at least those who want to be

The Lost Sheep

First Up wrote: »

I'm still waiting for a specific instance where Ireland beating England (any sport) was ignored by both the main RTE radio sports programme and the next day's print edition of the Irish Times. Going on to lose narrowly to the world's best and finish 6th overall surpasses most of what else went on yesterday. I don't see how expecting it to be at least mentioned constitutes "bias".

7s has been huge in world rugby for a long time. Events like Hong Kong, Twickenham and now the full circuit involve venues and teams from all corners of the rugby world. Ireland was late taking it seriously but now that we have, we have made exceptional progress very quickly. Jordan Conroy is one of the brightest stars on the circuit and it might be among our best prospects of an Olympic medal.

That's newsworthy.

7s isnt big here though. Big in world doesnt mean it will be big here. We arent near getting a medal in Olympics realistically though.

S.M.B. wrote: »

There's a similar level of coverage (ie barely any) here in the UK / London. I always forget this tournament is on and only realised it after the Ireland / England game yesterday. Saw no mention of England's loss or their abysmal placement on my traditional UK sports media sources. It's simply still operating at a level that means it would take a massive result for it to make a blip of some radars, here and in Ireland.

I had more an eye on the Rugby X tournament in London later this year than this.

And there will be significantly less interest in the rugby x tournament even taking into account the sheer uniqueness of that

First Up

S.M.B. wrote:

There's a similar level of coverage (ie barely any) here in the UK / London.

It was live on Sky Sports from start to finish