As ever, it's worth pointing out that we don't have private schools in the same way you do down South. This isn't the nineteen seventies, and the NI school system has changed considerably. We do have grammar schools, half of which are Catholic, very few of which have any kind of rugby tradition or even teams.
I just make these points to say your expectations and assumptions about the schools system in Ulster are a bit outdated and fairly wide of the mark, and don't reflect how schooling up here works.
Wales 19 Ireland 29
If they are under 20 then they are in the Ulster academy so they are Ulster academy players and that's all that matters.
2 of the ulster lads arent from Ulster and came through English academies.
It's not quite as lopsided but still dominated by Leinster. For example the 23 named to play Wales U20 this weekend is broken down as follows:
10 Leinster (43%)
5 Munster (22%)
4 Ulster (17%). Interestingly all are starters.
3 Connacht (13%)
1 Sale Sharks (4%). Will Wooton. Is he related to Alex Wooton who played for Munster and Connacht?
That split is probably a fairer representation of population density and demographics. I'd expect Ulster perhaps to have a larger proportion than Munster given there's a more established private school system in the greater Belfast region.
There's definitely still opportunity though for the IRFU to create more equity through funding for the other 3 provinces at schools level. Dublin and it's environs are by far the wealthiest areas on the island and this translates to huge funding for rugby programs in private schools. Nothing wrong with that but the IRFU should be looking to balance the books in the other 3 provinces with respect to schools rugby.
This says more about the people in the bar than anything else. I know this will come across as holier than thou but I was going to the Leinster Bath game, and was genuinely struck by the level of cheers from Leinster fans watching Munster start to come back against Northampton (in both Smyth’s on Haddington rd and Ryan’s Beggars Bush). That was my first game in Ireland after living abroad the past few years where my only experience of Irish rugby fans was online. The in person experience was a pleasant surprise, but mostly a shock because I really didn’t expect it.
That was provincial rugby, never mind the National side. Anyone who can’t support Irish lads representing their country just because they don’t come from x or y, needs to take a good long look at themselves.
I'm a Connacht fan, season ticket holder, and everybody I know is fully behind Ireland. I also know six or seven Munster fans, living in Connacht, and they are all big Ireland fans too.
These Munster fans are disappointed with how things are right now but they fully believe that Munster will be back on top in a few years.
We have these soccer type fans who hate their rivals and they won't shout for players from the other province in a green shirt. These are almost all Munster and Leinster fans. It'd be great to see them lose interest in the game tbh.
You also have these really annoying Leinster fans with the 'we are more important than everyone else' attitude. That's fine when you are talking about your province but it's not okay when we are talking about Ireland.
Ireland is a green shirt representing the island, there's no Leinster blue, Munster red, Ulster white or Connacht green. It doesn't matter where the player was born or what province he plays for, he's an Irishman when he puts on the shirt. It's got nothing to do with provinces.
the Dublin media
None of the OTB guys in that piece are from Dublin. Literally not one.
Ireland should be aiming for a try bonus and concede no tries.
Which precisely?
This is not a Limerick or Munster thing, I've said it before and again only a few posts up, on this very forum we had fans stating they couldn't support Ireland because of how many Munster players or how few from their province were on the national team
As for fans in pubs watching different games, when all our H/Cup games were on Sky, we used to go to Scots in Limerick and it regularly had a soccer match on some TVs and an away Munster game on another.
There was one occasion where Man U & Liverpool were playing against each other on the same day Munster were away, so there were 3 sets of fans in red supporting their teams in Scots.
As for bandwagon fans, that's hardly a new concept now, is it
Surely that says a lot more about the type of “fans” there are in Limerick than it does about the team or the IRFU?
Obviously hurling has never been as strong in Limerick as it currently is and it’s only natural that has taken over somewhat but I would suspect a lot of the people telling you about their disenchantment were only the sunshine supporters in the first place and as soon as it’s not to their liking they turn to something different.
If hurling in Limerick goes downhill in a few years time what will the switch to then?
When the previous presenters of OTB were trying to wind up the Welsh, it was funny, because the two teams were evenly matched. Unfortunately, the Dublin media are turning a lot of other nations fans against us. It was a horrible and smug piece.
we were absolutely not happy about alot of that though
Ireland reproduce the performance up front that they did 2 weeks ago v Scotland and be more clinical in their 22 and I think we win at a canter. Wales being better at 10 12 13 shouldn't really matter if they dont have a platform
How many times have you seen four Connacht in an Irish squad?
You can talk about Ulster and Munster all you want but Connacht has improved and have more players in contention than ever before. And it's not just the ones that are there now, we have players coming through. There's a few others there who are being considered, we have six in the A squad.
We have a very talented 21year old who plays 13. He's not in the Ireland picture yet but he will be very soon.
I don't want to be talking Wales up, they're in a state but I can't see them being as bad as they've been so far. Their pack are hopeless but they'll be much improved at ten and centers and they've got speed. For whatever reason Gatland was playing a ten who doesn't even play there for his club side so Anscombe (even out of form) will be a significant improvement, even just by trying to play in the right areas. And Anscombe's last 6N game was the gland slam winner against Ireland.
But that detachment comes from within. When Munster fielded a team in the not too distant past with multiple south african/kiwis etc and a few other imports from leinster did Munster fans have the same detachment from the team ??
In November just gone Munster fielded a team with 5 of the 7 starting backs were signings. Do Munster fans feel a detachment from that team??
It's very selective detachment IMO.
What is the breakdown by province in the u20s in recent years?
Is this likely to be a long term thing or is it more even underage?
i usually go out to the pub watch6N matches and meetup with my dad and brothers, and now my Adult sons . None of us have any real interest in doing so this year . It’s a tradition every year that we cherish as my Da is getting on in years and his health isn’t the best lately
I went out to watch the Scotland match in my local in limerick and the owner switched two of the three TV’s over to the hurling at half time , and there wasn’t any objections in the bar.
Speaking to others around limerick in the past few weeks, the disenchantment with the Irish rugby team and #teamofus is very real. The reason why, rightly or wrongly are plain to see.
Go to the rugby pubs on saturday in Limerick and you will have busy bar during the game but also notice a fair amount of detachment in the build up and particularly after the game.
Ive never seen such a focus on the relevance as to what province you play for or where you were born as being meaningful when supporting the Irish rugby team. The waft of arrogance isn’t what we Irish were about . The OTB piece and daily Indo clickbait only reinforce the view.
I will be going out to the pub to support ireland on saturday hope we beat the welsh, who are in a dark place that anyone following the Irish rugby team longer than the last 10 years knows only too well.
He's not. He suffers from having AOC or Sheridan behind him. In the very few times he's been able to play with Henderson, he's looked absolutely fine to pretty good Stick Ryan behind him and he'd be laughing.
Go back to the GS games in 09
V wales Heaslip, Bod, Darcy , Fitz and Kearney were the Leinster representation In the 22. Munster had 11 players.
It's 15 Leinster versus 4 Munster on Saturday so it's not the same but it's not too far off it. And if you go by population the numbers actually reflect roughly pro rata by that metric.
Some Munster fans seem irked by Gavin Coombes omission but I don't see why. Doris is a world class operator, Conan is a better player than Coombes. So we rotate this week and put Coombes in for one game. That achieves very little in the grand scheme of things because Doris is not going to be left out when fit.
The current Domination of the 23 by Leinster players is by and large down to other provinces not producing players of that calibre. Munster have been producing players lately, very good in URC, good in Europe but that'd where the problem lies. European form, a big step up above URC is a telling factor here.
This is nothing new and certainly not new to Boards. When Munster were the mainstay of the pack & the half backs and the other three provinces with a few players coming in from playing abroad making up the rest of the squad this place was awash with dissatisfied fans. There was a time when one group of fans wanted their province to break away from the IRFU.
It probably sounds worse now because you have more social media outlets and mainstream media are using click bait headlines. Not to mention trolls & wums turning discussion forums into mud fests.
They are devoid of any ideas or game plan...look at the france game.
The recognised 10 is way off form, yes they have a few players but ultimately too many that are not test level standard.
Gatland departure & hurt won't get them far when they are that far off game plans & set plays.
References in other posts to 4 slams in 2O yrs is not relevant as that team are all gone & what came behind them are shadows
Right, rugby is generally pretty predictable as team's dominant strengths are very often decisive, but its still sport. I've seen Wales teams who shouldn't have beaten us take their 3s, get to 9 points out and then manage the game sufficiently well to let doubt creep in, followed by mistakes. Throw in a card and anything can happen.
The starting team was never as heavily weighted. Like the current situation is definitely unprecedented. You can argue one way or another about the genesis of it but it's not just a different make up of the same effect from the 2000s. It's a fundamentally different situation.
Interestingly connacht are better represented and Ulster have been here before plenty of times. But obviously the Munster representation is much diminished.
Like I can read stuff online. It's definitely a thing that exists. I don't particularly agree with it and it's hard to argue against the selection policy with our success. But it's just not the same as the Munster dominated teams earlier in the 2000s.
I know Wales are rubbish but this time last year England only beat them by 2 points in Twickenham. An England team that managed to beat us a few weeks later. They have some decent players, a recognised out half and a lot of hurt. And they got rid of Gatland. They have a free shot. If we can avoid yellow/red cards (which we should), it should be a canter but you just never know. I'd rather Keenan and Doris were playing. We cannot be complacent and I don't think O'Mahony will allow that.
Right, I remember not being able to win a game in France or London from one end of a decade to another. Henshaw has never won a test in Cardiff and Wales are shite! Wales are probably worse than they ever been yet they have 4 grand slams in the last 20 years, that tells you how quickly things can turn around. Anyone not enjoying Ireland's purple patch for some kind of parochial reason has got serious problems unrelated to sport.
It's a common theme on other forums/social media. The team announcement threads in recent times are littered with nonsense about fans of "the other 3" losing interest in ireland because of the Leinster players in the team and how it's not good for the game here.
Some fans wish their own star players go to France to cash in because the IRFU have some agenda against themas players and the d4 media pick the team blah blah
I can remember Ireland match day squads of the noughties with 11-12 Munster players. There is 15 leinster players in the 23 for Saturday.
i wouldnt be so dismissive of it, whether you agree with the sentiment or not its definitely a bit more prevalent that just 2 or 3 on here
