Silver Lining

Cork Boy

Off the topic kinda but last nights soccer match (Ire v France) was a good thing for Irish rugby! Rugby and soccer are in direct competition (kids can't play both as seasons clash).

Perhaps kids will take more notice of the consistent/professional (though not always the best) rugby teams rather than the shambles that is the FAI and Brian Kerr's chorus line.

RuggieBear

tbh, i don't really think soccer and rugby are in competition with each other in ireland.....they tend to be played by....emm...different demographics, imo.

Steffano2002

RuggieBear wrote:

tbh, i don't really think soccer and rugby are in competition with each other in ireland.....they tend to be played by....emm...different demographics, imo.

This is especially true in France! I once saw two maps of France, one showing all the football clubs per region and another showing all the rugby clubs. The south west had very little football clubs and practically all the rugby clubs!

Cork Boy

In the city this may be the case but down in the REAL CAPITAL
and in Limerick plenty of "other demographics" play rugby. Where there's a lack of posh schoolboy rugby clubs/attitudes a la Clongos, class doesn't enter the equation (eg, M. Galway [muck savage], P. Clohessy [the only man in limerick who can leave his car unlocked], etc)
Rugby is losing its snob image so the more we can get playing the better! Imagine Roy Keane as a scrum half!

Amz

Someone would take one pop at Roy's knee and he'd be out.

RuggieBear

Cork Boy wrote:

In the city this may be the case but down in the REAL CAPITAL
and in Limerick plenty of "other demographics" play rugby. Where there's a lack of posh schoolboy rugby clubs/attitudes a la Clongos, class doesn't enter the equation (eg, M. Galway [muck savage], P. Clohessy [the only man in limerick who can leave his car unlocked], etc)
Rugby is losing its snob image so the more we can get playing the better! Imagine Roy Keane as a scrum half!

so tell me about the attitude of Clongowes? do you go there?

De Deraco

i don't think there is any need for different sports to compete for players in ireland, there are many thousands of people in this country who play no weekly sport. they should be engouraged more to play rather than poaching players from diffrent sports. this woud make a huge difference to all national teams.

KnowItAll

Cork Boy is 100% correct and would you believe that I was thinking the same thing when ireland lost last night! There is always a bright side! I used to really like soccer but every year it's becoming more and more boring. Last nights match was terrible. We were "lucky" to even see 1 goal. 11 men behind the ball. Trying to put the ball in a small goal. Then there is offside. I've had enough! I feel sorry for Roy Keane and Duff because they are trying to carry the whole team. It's overrated.

The FAI IRFU and GAA are in competition with each other. Thats reality and each organisation knows that. I read an article in the Sunday Times before the summer about sport in Tallagh (not sure if thats correct spell). Being a new Dublin suburb it had few sports facilities. The IRFU saw an oppertunity to set up coaching and new clubs there. The GAA are going to pump in over a million euro in the area too. They are in competition with soccer which is the main sport there at the moment.

The class divide is starting to go away in rugby. Theres real talent around the country but they cannot play rugby because they don't go to a certain school. Thats changing now thank god and in the future it will greatly benefit the national team and regions.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

RuggieBear

KnowItAll wrote:

The class divide is starting to go away in rugby. Theres real talent around the country but they cannot play rugby because they don't go to a certain school. Thats changing now thank god and in the future it will greatly benefit the national team and regions.

Are there not rugby clubs to cater for those who don't go to rugby schools....just look at how well some of the former junior/country clubs are doing now

jubbly

Soccer is the game which the public love the most. Rugby is for middle class kids and GAA is largely for rural areas.

RuggieBear

jubbly wrote:

Soccer is the game which the public love the most.

Tbh, I always thought Gaelic footie was the most popular game in Ireland

Steffano2002

jubbly wrote:

Soccer is the game which the public love the most.

I don't know how people can prefer soccer to Rugby but I'm happy they do!

I don't want Rugby to be the victim of its own success by having "soccer hooligans" (you all know what I mean by that: people booing, throwing things on the pitch, not respecting national anthems, etc... Soccer behavior in general) interested in the beautiful game of Rugby and attending Rugby matches whilst behaving like they do at soccer matches.

I really hope Rugby never loses its spirit

Edit: re-read my post and it sounds like I'm insinuating that all soccer fans are hooligans. Obviously this is not the case. I am talking about the soccer fans who don't know how to behave when attending matches...

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

KnowItAll

jubbly wrote:

Soccer is the game which the public love the most. Rugby is for middle class kids and GAA is largely for rural areas.

GAA is popular in Cork city. It's played more than soccer with hurling being the most popular. I agree that rugby is played mostly by middle class kids. Thats not really the case in Munster though (unlike soft Leinster, Munster have a hard, winning mentality).

RuggieBear

KnowItAll wrote:

GAA is popular in Cork city. It's played more than soccer with hurling being the most popular. I agree that rugby is played mostly by middle class kids. Thats not really the case in Munster though (unlike soft Leinster, Munster have a hard, winning mentality).

Well i suppose the limerick element of the munster team gives it that hard edge to make up for the soft corkonion element.....