Unpopular Rugby Opinions

I've seen these "unpopular opinion" threads pop up in a few various sections so why not get the ball rolling here?

My unpopular opinion would be that the Gallagher Premiership isn't as good as its made out to be and ringfencing it won't do it any good.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058247137/unpopular-rugby-opinions

Not sure that would be unpopular on Boards. It’s probably widely held.

My unpopular opinion is, Sexton will be our first choice 10 in 2023 and rightly so.

Former Former Former

Peter O'Mahony is very good.

Come at me.

pickarooney

Unpopular opinion : Seán O'Brien was overrated and cost as many penalties as he won.

pickarooney

Unpopular opinion : with the style of play Farrell is favouring, it's far more important to have a reliable, steady 10 than a flaky genius. The other backs, and even forwards, are tasked with creating more and more. Ross Byrne should travel to the World Cup.

Connacht get a free pass from most Pundits.

Some of their fans care more about what players they can sign from another province or from abroad than those Connacht actually develop themselves.

errlloyd

Players are effectively indoctrinated from a young age into believing that being professional rugby players is a desirable lifestyle, when it is not. It takes a brutal human toll on men, and not just the Steve Thompson's of this world, but also the Ian McKinley's who will never see properly again, the Dan Leavy's who may struggle to hike a mountain with hids kids when he's forty. Almost all of them will live with physical pain for the rest of their lives, and many of them will have cognitive loss and sensitivity to light for life. And the vast majority of them are bit-part pros who will end their careers without the fulfillment of success or material financial reward for what they sacrificed career-wise.

And we, the fans, are the cause of that.

SqueakyKneecap

The Munster Supporters Choir is unbelievably cringey

Buer

There is no country in the world that is worse for talking up their players than Ireland. We tend to ignore the shortcomings of some players or change the narrative to ensure our pet players are coccooned from criticism. New and shiny toy is a massively prominent mentality within provincial fans.

Leinster/Ireland have a scrum problem. But you'll rarely if ever see if commented that Furlong was bested. After the England game, the finger was correctly pointed at the officiating but, in terms of Irish players, all the focus was on Healy/Sheehan when Furlong was the one whistled 4 times. It's not the first time and won't be the last. Furlong is currently in sacred cow territory and can do no wrong (he is a world class player, for the record).

Craig Casey is never going to be in the same bracket as Conor Murray was. His decision making and kicking is miles off. He played against 13 men away to Exeter and couldn't steer his team over the line. He played against an exhausted Toulouse team and lacked control, getting caught in possession on more than one occasion in ET and kicking it away aimlessly multiple times. If Murray had been on the field and not gassed, Munster would have won.

Leinster will have a post-Schmidt type period once Sexton retires. Similar to the exodus of BOD and Nacewa, there's going to be a significant drop in standards and they will fail to replicate the current performances regardless of talent coming through.

Billy Burns is, quite comfortably, the only outhalf in Ireland who can hold a candle to Sexton in terms of linking up with his back line and attacking the opposition.

Clegg

ROG is not one of the best Irish players of the professional era. He had too many mediocre and outright awful performances to be considered on the level of BOD, POC or Sexton.

He peaked in the 06/07 season and declined rapidly after that.

Buer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058247137/unpopular-rugby-opinions

I'll disagree as I believe the prevailing opinion in Ireland is that the GP is a poor league which is overblown by BT. And I think the truth is somewhere in the middle. All the leagues have their moment in the sun.

My unpopular opinion on it is that it was comfortably the best league last season in terms of entertainment but many Irish fans will utterly refuse to drop the chip on their shoulder and admit this. The final weeks were incredible.

Some years the GP is brilliant, some years it's crap. Same with URC (more often crap than not in recent years) and same with T14 (generally the most competitve overall consistently).

RichieRich_89

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119106384#Comment_119106384

And even after all that you'll still get some people calling players 'gutless' if they lose a match they were expected to win.

Wombatman

Unpopular opinion: Being a rugby player or fan does not convey moral or any other superiority over soccer players and fans.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119106520#Comment_119106520

So what you’re trying to say is, Furlong is no John Hayes?

Buer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119106807#Comment_119106807

Too far.

jacothelad

Unpopular opinion. Billy Burns is the second best starting 10 in Ireland. Watching him play behind a mediocre Ulster pack and seeing how he is creative and effective is interesting. Despite the widely held view to the contrary, he can goal kick. Just that Cooney and Doak are better. Burns has great pace and is a fine passer of the ball and he doesn't hide 20 metres behind the gain line. He isn't Sexton though and that seems to be his greatest crime. I don't think he is brilliant but he doesn't deserve his current reputation as being shyte squared.

TRC10

Nice to see I'm not the only one who thinks Billy Burns is actually a good player

Clontarf_Jazz

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119106999#Comment_119106999

The problem is his goal kicking stats are NOT up to International Standards therefore he's a liability as neither our current 9 or 15 kick - and its like saying Sean Cronin is good around the park (but he can't throw and he's a crap scrummager) - He's a poor man's Paddy Jackson.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119107680#Comment_119107680

Burns is a very capable goal kicker.

In the two seasons where hes taken more than 10 kicks at goal hes been above 80% for both.

2017: 85% (40 / 47)

2020: 83% (10 / 12)

hes also 100% for Ireland in 2020 with 7 from 7

his issue is, at times, he hasnt been the main kicker in the teams hes played for.

Doak and Cooney are better kickers for Ulster.

aloooof

Unpopular opinion (he says, bracing for the backlash…):

Leinster underperform with regards their numbers thru the gate.

molloyjh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119108072#Comment_119108072

Probably true. Although when games are dead certs 95% of the time they don’t tend to be too interesting.

Mine would be that Irish fans are actually pretty rubbish. Very conservative and happy to sit and watch games quietly.

sydthebeat

Unpopular opinion.... I don't have an unpopular rugby opinions

😜

crisco10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119108180#Comment_119108180

We are certainly the best band wagon fans around.

Podge_irl

All fans are bandwagon fans

Drinking in your seat should be banned

busy bee 33

Abolish Ireland’s call. Amhrán Na bhFiann or nothing.

StevenToast

Unpopular opinion.....The Lions tour is outdated and should be binned...

It has served its purpose but is irrelevant now....

Just Like the Barbarians....

Digifriendly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119109243#Comment_119109243

Even as someone from a unionist background I never had any problem before Ireland's call was introduced to just the Irish national anthem being sung.

BTW I've watched the Angelus on RTE before the evening news bulletin on many occasions and it never has bothered me doing so.

The better you were at rugby the less likely you are to wear branded gear from your province.

A surefire way to know if someone is talking nonsense in analysis is if they start to question the moral calibre of a player (ie they resort to words like cowardly, gutless etc). This should be self-evident considering the bravery they show stepping onto the pitch, but it's a very common trope in professional and amateur analysis.

RAKM

Paddy Jackson should be playing for Ulster and Ireland.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119106413#Comment_119106413

There's nothing unpopular about that opinion.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119110200#Comment_119110200

He's not good enough for Ireland but think if he'd taken an unfair dismissal case against the IRFU he'd have won, presume he was paid off big money to leave tbh.

roverjoyce

Team with no Salary Cap wins a competition where all other teams have a salary Cap

cuttingtimber22

Leinster’s three most astute signings were Mick Dawson, Joe Schmidt and Stuart Lancaster.

arsebiscuits1

The biggest hindrance to Womens rugby is not disinterested unions but their own fanbase and the delusions of grandeur associated with it.

It is not sustainable to have fully professional teams at the moment and calls for it redirect the much needed focus away from grassroots funding for the womans game.

A top down approach is almost never a successful model in these circumstances.

Deluded fans with no understanding but an ability make noise in the right places is directing people away from the actual issues at hand.

Furthermore there are far too many people calling themselves "fans" of womens rugby and only rearing their head if there is an eye catching controversial headline that they can share on their Instagram stories or comment under on Facebook or forums. These fans are subsequently nowhere to be seen when there is actual success to share or encouragement to be gotten. They have all moved on to the next source of controversy to focus 5 seconds of their time on in a desperate need to appear like they have causes and values.

Buer

Dupont is not the be all and end all of rugby players. He's had a fairly mediocre season by his standards.

Pundits just automatically put him in a god tier out of laziness/ignorance. He was on the long list for EPOTY after only playing a single game in the tournament against the Cardiff third string. He's now on the shortlist after being far from his best in the knock outs for Toulouse. There's a half dozen players who were outperformed him in the last month of European rugby and featured in the semi finals (which is normally the minimum stage required to be nominated).

Johnny Sexton is the most influential player in Irish rugby history

AbusesToilets

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119111360#Comment_119111360

Just from a Leinster perspective, JGP has been more impactful this season.

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119111603#Comment_119111603

Unpopular?

it is arguable. Perhaps but the likes of Keith Wood, BOD, POC paved the way.

Dubinusa

Andy Friend is a good coach! So is VanGrann!

Tombo2001

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119111718#Comment_119111718

What does influential even mean in this context.....

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119112311#Comment_119112311

Number of followers on TikTok. What else could it mean?

StevenToast

Jamie Heaslip was hugely overrated...

cuttingtimber22

Peter stringer should have got a Lions cap.

cuttingtimber22

A lot of complacency in Leinster. La Rochelle will win on Saturday.

StevenToast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119114859#Comment_119114859

We are looking for unpopular opinions please.

TRC10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119114859#Comment_119114859

You've been in with the squad and coaches?

molloyjh

ROG was good but wasn’t a great. And he also had an attitude problem (I don’t want to play on this team any more because I’m not getting what I want).

Pussyhands

I have a few so I'll put them in seperate posts.

The Lions tour is outdated and doesn't make sense anymore. I can see the appeal of it decades ago where the southern hemisphere teams were miles ahead of the northern hemisphere and players from the 4 countries came together to try and beat the far greater side.

Nowadays, the 4 sides players know each other inside out. They're playing each other pretty often at international and club level plus the Irish/Welsh/Scots teams are getting more regular playtime in the southern hemisphere at altitude with the SA making the challenge down south less and less tough over time. There's also social media where they get to know them more, similar to how the England football team used to have rivalries due to club football but now they're all pally.

I honestly don't see what the challenge is when you get the best players out of 2 or 3 of the best sides in the world and play them against one country.

It's all a money making thing. You can come at me with stats on win % but I don't buy it.

Pussyhands

Rugby is an incredibly dangerous sport to play physically. Physical injuries are inevitable in every single match and head impacts are doing massive damage. I cringe when I see players like Jamie Roberts or Robbie Henshaw used as battering rams off scrums or lineouts. Every time there's an impact, their brains are bouncing around their skull giving them mini concussions. And players are getting bigger every year.

Pussyhands

Finn Russell is a liability and is the rugby equivalent of Paul Pogba, a player with great skill but can't be trusted to do the basics.