Rugby:A better class of arrogance by Eamonn Sweeney

blue note

Just wondering what people's views are on this.

By Eamonn Sweeney

Sunday April 01 2012

*mod edited* as we are no longer allowed post up full articles, if someone has a link to the article let me know and I will edit that in

So one person "an Unnamed" representative of the sport gives it a bit of spiel, and this "journalist" decides that a physical game is rotten? You would find similar waffle-ology in almost every sport, without fail. People make themselves look better than they are.

please.

Insert Helen Lovejoy Photo here.

OldRio

Sounds like this buck didn't make the first 15 at school.

GerM

Independent.

No heed need be taken.

irishbucsfan

Seems like he's painting rugby fans with the same brush based on one report written by the IRFU, who everyone knows are out of touch.

JustinDee

"For that matter you could spend a lifetime in Croke Park without seeing anything like Trevor Brennan's assault on a spectator in Toulouse"
Why wait for the players to come to you when you can invade the pitch and do it yourself?

Just an hypocritical waffle pad in support of another particular code of football.
As someone else says, no need for too much attention. Would be a good chuckle to read if sitting on the dunny, which is probably where it was written.

Junior

Lads, ye do realise this was written

A] In the Independent
B] On the first of April

CatFromHue

"There are few things I dislike more than people trying to glorify their own sport by slagging off other sports. And there are few articles more boring than the one which explains why a columnist dislikes rugby, soccer, golf, cricket or whatever else"

Why didn't he pay attention to his own advice!

He seems a bit naive in taking the report as Gospel. Most reports like this in all woalks of life are PR spin and marketing, this includes the world of business as well as sport. No one pays any attention to them as they are usually rubbish.

Big Nelly

POintless article, someone who couldn't think up of something proper to write so jump onto the standard bangwagon in knowledge thread like this would be started on forums and get the paper more advertisement

shuffol

Seems to me to be someone who's been itching to have a gripe about rugby for a while, spotted the IRFU report and decided nows my chance.

yosser hughes

shuffol wrote: »

Seems to me to be someone who's been itching to have a gripe about rugby for a while, spotted the IRFU report and decided nows my chance.

That's it in a nutshell shuffol.

His opening line:

There are few things I dislike more than people trying to glorify their own sport by slagging off other sports

is there to say ''look I am pointing this out so therefore I am completely objective and can't be accused of bashing a sport"

I'm glad the OP didn't post the link as clicking on this clowns witterings would give it the oxygen it does not deserve.
It reminds me of Tom Humphries.

Quint2010

Well despite his waffle he does have a point. If the IRFU is coming out with such statements it is pretty petty of them. Depends on your perspective though.

John_C

Quint2010 wrote: »

Well despite his waffle he does have a point. If the IRFU is coming out with such statements it is pretty petty of them. Depends on your perspective though.

It's fairly similar to the report the Dubs did a few months ago about 'a certain professional outfit, playing in Dublin and wearing blue'.

CatFromHue

Quint2010 wrote: »

Well despite his waffle he does have a point. If the IRFU is coming out with such statements it is pretty petty of them. Depends on your perspective though.

FIFA and UEFA would bring out similar reports in to how great their game is. These reports are like the blurbs you see on a book, largely ignorable.

JustinDee

Quint2010 wrote: »

Well despite his waffle he does have a point. If the IRFU is coming out with such statements it is pretty petty of them. Depends on your perspective though.

This is the first time that this kind of engagement has taken place. A report giving the clubs' side of the story and an overall overview of the club game compiled from grass-roots upwards.
Neither petty or arrogant.

Flincher

Eamon Sweeney wrote: »

GAA and soccer may still have their clashes but neither sport bears any animosity towards rugby. How sad that the reverse isn't true.

Doesn't the GAA still prevent clubs from allowing other sports use their facilities? Nemo Rangers were in a spot of trouble a year ago for letting Munster use their gym, while Dublin were using London Irish's facilities shortly afterwards.

It is in every sport's interest to have as many people playing their game. That is obviously going to lead to conflict, especially in traditional strongholds. Some of the Kerry GAA clubs weren't exactly accommodating to lads who wanted to play rugby, while there has always been a bit of pressure on lads to play a certain sport, depending on which school they go to.

But for the most part, I think the sports get along fairly well. I know most of us played at least 2 of soccer, rugby and GAA until our mid-teens, and then would have focused on one over the other. I think the governing bodies in general need to realise that it shouldn't be a competition, and the important part is that kids at a young age are playing a sport that they enjoy, and not brag about a 5% increase in 7 year olds playing soccer.

[Jackass]

Holy sh*t, that was written by someone with a job?? I thought I was reading a kids blog entry or a feckin school news article or something.

The most pointless piece of literature ever published. Amazed that amature drivel was in a paper and convinced that's an april fools...no way that was in a national newspaper or written by a professional journalist...

Eoin

yosser hughes wrote: »

It reminds me of Tom Humphries.

That's exactly who sprung to my mind as well.

blue note

So does no-one think there's some truth to what he's saying? i.e. that there is an arrogance to rugby support that could do with being reigned in?

I play golf and hurling and I think there's usually (not always to be fair) some truth in criticism leveled at both sports. I've certainly heard rugby fans in the office mock soccer support while at the same time planning to start drinking at 12pm for the weekends 6 Nations matches.

Tox56

blue note wrote: »

So does no-one think there's some truth to what he's saying? i.e. that there is an arrogance to rugby support that could do with being reigned in?

I play golf and hurling and I think there's usually (not always to be fair) some truth in criticism leveled at both sports. I've certainly heard rugby fans in the office mock soccer support while at the same time planning to start drinking at 12pm for the weekends 6 Nations matches.

I don't think there are any more muppets supporting rugby than in any other sport.

freyners

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/a-better-class-of-arrogance-3067712.html

this the article?

thomond2006

Eamonn Sweeney wrote:

You could take exception to the implication that other sports lack the qualities of integrity, respect and discipline. But you'd be wasting your time. Because the IRFU have made the implicit explicit by using the following quote from an unnamed Munster club official: "Parents bring their children to rugby due to the implied values of discipline and respect.

These are the two values that many parents want their children to be exposed to. The IRFU needs to work to ensure that these values are explicit, since when we lose them we lose our advantage over other sports."

So there you have it. The IRFU thinks it has an advantage over other
sports in terms of discipline and respect. What a complacent load of arrogant nonsense. I'm not a great believer in going into moral panics about sporting misbehaviour. When there's some high-profile example, I tend to take the view that **** happens and there's no point in taking the high ground because few sports have entirely clean hands in this matter.

But the IRFU's moral posturing makes frankly hilarious reading in the week that England hooker Dylan Hartley was given an eight-week suspension for biting Stephen Ferris and Northampton flanker Calum Clark received a 32-week suspension for deliberately 'hyper-extending' an opponent's arm until it broke.'

.....

You can only hope that the report, trumpeted as the result of an extensive consultation process with rugby clubs nationwide, doesn't give a true picture.

Because if it does, Irish rugby should lose the superior attitude towards other sports and start tackling its own lack of good manners instead.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/a-better-class-of-arrogance-3067712.html

mrpdap

Who is Eamon Sweeney? Is he a sports journalist? The name rings a bell but I can't place him.

ormond lad

Plenty of his points are true.
We dont have enough people coaching underage especially people who have played the game.
Many young lads stop playing at 19/20 compared to gaa/soccer(in my view the structure of schools cups and bonkers media/outside attraction with the same cups help this)
Like its such a shame that rugby in limerick has never went below junior 2 level
Great that you get big crowds going to the schools games but where do all these people disappear for club games. Why do so many of the hundreds of kids who play in the schools cups that are covered to rediculous proportions by cummiskey, ward etc not continue on after school

danthefan

You could take exception to the implication that other sports lack the qualities of integrity, respect and discipline. But you'd be wasting your time. Because the IRFU have made the implicit explicit by using the following quote from an unnamed Munster club official: "Parents bring their children to rugby due to the implied values of discipline and respect. These are the two values that many parents want their children to be exposed to. The IRFU needs to work to ensure that these values are explicit, since when we lose them we lose our advantage over other sports."
So there you have it. The IRFU thinks it has an advantage over other sports in terms of discipline and respect. What a complacent load of arrogant nonsense. I'm not a great believer in going into moral panics about sporting misbehaviour. When there's some high-profile example, I tend to take the view that **** happens and there's no point in taking the high ground because few sports have entirely clean hands in this matter.

He throws the word "nonsense" around a lot, yet it could not apply more to the above articles. He dismisses what I'm assuming is the likes of that huge brawl at the GAA club game a few months back or foorball hooliganism as isolated incidents, yet decides the view of one single Munster official represents that of the IRFU and basically rugby as a whole.

duckysauce

mrpdap wrote: »

Who is Eamon Sweeney? Is he a sports journalist? The name rings a bell but I can't place him.

http://www.obrien.ie/author.cfm?authorid=207

PhatPiggins

duckysauce wrote: »

http://www.obrien.ie/author.cfm?authorid=207

That guy is the head off Bubbles from Trailer Park Boys

[Jackass]

So he's a GAA head who had a swipe at MMA and was put back in his box, and now is trying it with rugby??

Hey Eamon, we all hate a bit of paranoid ranting, not just you!

http://www.joe.ie/rugby/rugby-news/leinster-mystified-by-strange-timing-and-tone-of-dublin-gaa-document-0017750-1

Why don't you review that report in your one eyed, ironicly hypocritical rant...

JustinDee

If even true, alleged complainers of course would realise that Leinster is not representing Dublin alone but the other eleven counties within it too. Its a province. Not Dublin Rugby, and so is its support.

What next? NSW in Origin? Man City?
An blinkered article about nothing and as someone pointed out, an opportunity seized upon in order to have a ridiculous bash.

Unshelved

There's been a vacancy for GAA-loving, salt-of-the-earth, I'm a man of the people-type journo since Tom Humphries got the sack. Eamon is putting himself forward for the job.

Gordon Gecko

Sincerely hope it was an April fool's article, never heard such b*llocks in my life.

tricky D

mrpdap wrote: »

Who is Eamon Sweeney? Is he a sports journalist? The name rings a bell but I can't place him.

Insufferable arsehole. No April Fool, more like all year 'round.