The D4 Media/ Posh Boys and Irish Rugby – Spoon feeding the masses

SQ2 · 12-02-2014 10:22PM

Something we regularly get the opportunity to beat the English at?? I'm surprised it's not even bigger!

Chips Lovell · 12-02-2014 10:23PM

mariano rivera wrote: »

The D4 Media...Protestant areas...all the goys......D4 Posh boys.....snobby...Old School tie Club...

I don't know OP. I reckon you could have squeezed a few more clichés in there if you'd tried harder

Artful_Badger · 12-02-2014 10:43PM

Well op if its mostly prods and west brits that follow rugby then there cant be much wrong with prods and west brits.

I think the problems here lie with yourself I'm afraid. Its a popular professional sport that has high level competition regularly. If the Irish soccer team were competing on such a level as often then they would be promoted just as much. If they came anywhere close to being consistently competative with the top teams in the sport too the coultry would be awash with talk of Irish players being world class, outstanding, brave, phenomenal, fantastic performance etc etc

The Irish rugby team too are only ever promoted when there are games on, because its a business and those games attract a lot of viewers and pull in a lot of advertising revenue. So its not spoon fed to anyone, the demand to watch it is there.

And not all fans are posh boys from d4. Some of us are penniless, uneducated boggers from the back are of nowhere. Simply fans of what is an entertaining sport played by great players that actually have the potential to win competitions.

detective monkfish · 12-02-2014 10:48PM

This thread might make more sense if it was about the GAA, 'The Gooch' and Paul Galvin. A sport that only Irish people play and are the best in the world at it because of it.

stretchdoe · 12-02-2014 10:48PM

Whatever about the decision of privately of privately owned media-outlets, RTE's focus is certainly worthy of comment.

Since RTE's latest head of sport was appointed, it certainly seems to me that particular attention is paid to rugby, to the cost of other sports

A particularly galling/strange decision, imo, was the dropping of the coverage of the National cup semi-finals/finals in basketball which have since been picked up by Setanta.

For around 30 years Irish basketball got one weekend of coverage a year, at little cost to RTE i'd imagine, and provided many great games over those years.

The new head of sport comes in and it's dropped for no discernible reason.

This despite the fact that basketball is, by many estimations, the third largest participation numbers in the country, is significantly larger than Rugby in that regard and also has a fairly long history as a spectator sport in Ireland.

Dick phelan · 12-02-2014 10:53PM

Our Rugby team is massively over hyped and glorified in this country, i like my bit of Rugby but let's be real despite the number of teams in the IRB rankings only 10 or 12 play Rugby to any decent level, Even Scotland or Italy are hardly amazing. The idea of a Golden Generation is laughable, The current crop have won only 1 GS/ SN, hardly anything Golden, Triple Crown well that's a joke of a thing Scotland are **** and what beating 2 decent teams is somehow an amazing achievement. Ireland have never gone beyond the QF of the WC hardly great when as i said about 10 decent teams. In Amateur boxing for example we have 5 men currently ranked in the top 10 of their divisions, We also have the number 1 Female boxer in the world. Yet were is the coverage for these guys they have brought home several Olympic medals in recent years and world championship medals as well yet its the rugby lads who get fawned over and for what winning 1 Grand Slam. A bit of a rant i know but another point is fawning over Drico, now Drico is a great player no doubt but let's be real he isn't the greatest Rugby player ever, nor is he the greates Irish Sportsperson ever, 8th highest try scorer hardly the greatest ever FFS.

detective monkfish · 12-02-2014 11:03PM

At least the players on the Irish Rugby Team have Irish accents. The same can't be said for the plastic paddies who inhabit the cricket and football teams.

Dyr · 12-02-2014 11:05PM

I didnt mind rugby back in the day when it was only the sheepskin brigade who watched it. Nowadays it's nothing but bandwagon jumpers attracted by the ABC1 morketing.

Rugby is the Anglo irish bank of sports

12-02-2014 11:08PM

Dick phelan wrote: »

Our Rugby team is massively over hyped and glorified in this country, i like my bit of Rugby but let's be real despite the number of teams in the IRB rankings only 10 or 12 play Rugby to any decent level, Even Scotland or Italy are hardly amazing. The idea of a Golden Generation is laughable, The current crop have won only 1 GS/ SN, hardly anything Golden, Triple Crown well that's a joke of a thing Scotland are **** and what beating 2 decent teams is somehow an amazing achievement. Ireland have never gone beyond the QF of the WC hardly great when as i said about 10 decent teams. In Amateur boxing for example we have 5 men currently ranked in the top 10 of their divisions, We also have the number 1 Female boxer in the world. Yet were is the coverage for these guys they have brought home several Olympic medals in recent years and world championship medals as well yet its the rugby lads who get fawned over and for what winning 1 Grand Slam. A bit of a rant i know but another point is fawning over Drico, now Drico is a great player no doubt but let's be real he isn't the greatest Rugby player ever, nor is he the greates Irish Sportsperson ever, 8th highest try scorer hardly the greatest ever FFS.

If anything summed up your lack of understanding of the sport its your use of his try count to discount him from being the best player..so utterly moronic.

CatFromHue · 12-02-2014 11:19PM

Damn that rugby game get RTE coverage!

What's worse is that it gets TG4 coverage too!

It's not like it sells 1,000,000 individual tickets to the pro game in the country now is it?

Or is it?

usersame · 12-02-2014 11:20PM

Most irish rugby supporters are allergic to the posh boy goys you described. Don't paint us all with the same brush. Go down to cork or limerick and you'll meet a more salt of the earth fan base. More likely to see a builders labourer wearing a munster jersey than a Celtic jersey. The media have been hijacked by the leinstertainment brigade. I went to an all GAA school and I found the organisation, coaches and selectors that I met toxic. I went playing rugby at the local club and it was a breath of fresh air. Don't judge what you haven't tried!

Id follow peter o Mahoney or Paul o Connell into battle.

usersame · 12-02-2014 11:21PM

AdamD wrote: »

If anything summed up your lack of understanding of the sport its your use of his try count to discount him from being the best player..so utterly moronic.

Best Leinster player ever I'd agree, best irish player maybe, best rugby player not a hope.

SenorMagoo · 12-02-2014 11:22PM

Rugby is totes the greatest sport ever and always will be, Roysh!!

12-02-2014 11:23PM

You should have made this thread in the rugby forum, OP. You'd get a warm welcome from us.

fatbhoy · 12-02-2014 11:27PM

mariano rivera wrote: »

(OK Mods, this a societal question more than a rugby question)

Why do the Irish Rugby team get so much publicity and the publicity they get is nearly always hugely positive?

The fact of the matter is hardly anybody plays the game, especially adults. A few pockets in Cork, Limerick, South Dublin and Protestant areas in the north. Most counties would have the ODD junior team. Compare that to the huge number of GAA teams and junior soccer teams

Most goys I know who will we watching the England game have NEVER played the game. As I would guess most people who attend the Ireland games would be the same.

Ryan Tubridy drools at the mouth whenever he interviews the goys
Brendan O’Connor telling is again what a great performance by the Irish rugby team
Hugely positive reports about our brave Irish team in print, radio & TV (Conor O’Shea I am looking at you)

Yet, the facts are:

Ireland are ranked 6th in the world. Recently up from 7th. There are really only 10 decent rugby teams in the world as such. (Any rugger bugger would tell you that)

Irelands so called Golden generation have won ONE 6 nations Championship in 30 years!

Golden Generation?

Yet Jonny, Jamie and all the goys are world class, outstanding, brave, phenomenal, fantastic performance etc.

Really?

The coverage after the LOST to New Zealand was cringe worthy . A game they LOST

Personally, I think the D4 Posh boys give the sport and team way too much positive publicity when frankly they don’t deserve it

It’s just because they are part of the same snobby/ Old School tie Club. They are all mates, you see

And we as a nation (most of whom have never picked up a rugby ball) are sucking it all up

I agree with most of what you wrote, except that I wouldn't put myself in the "we as a nation ... are sucking it all up" bracket. In fact, I despise the game, the people who play it, and the people who follow it.

Nermal · 12-02-2014 11:28PM

Dick phelan wrote: »

In Amateur boxing for example we have 5 men currently ranked in the top 10 of their divisions, We also have the number 1 Female boxer in the world. Yet were is the coverage for these guys they have brought home several Olympic medals in recent years and world championship medals

There's wall-to-wall coverage of it when it's on, which is rare. Rugby is on all the time.

Chazz Michael Michaels wrote: »

Cheating fairies in rugby too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqOV6FI-2qw

It's even more incongruous in rugby, the sight of a 120kg prop feigning injury is not edifying. This will become more and more common as the profile of the game increases and the reward for winning becomes larger.

We're sort of at the sweet spot at the moment, the game's reach and depth is growing, but vestiges of the amateur ethos and respect remain. It won't be this way forever, enjoy it before the players turn into the primadonnas gracing soccer (or the snarling mouthy ones populating the top level of GAA, I don't really know what to find more unappealing).

colman1212 · 12-02-2014 11:29PM

People have an appreciation for Rugby as it really is one of the greatest sports to watch in my opinion. The hits, the try's, the speed, always something happening. Rugby players have respect for themselves and the people around them. There's no diving, no roaring abuse at the referee and they don't earn bucket loads of money. I went to college in UL and the Munster and Ireland players just train in the gym with everyone else, chat away to the people around them and don't have any notions about themselves. You see them out and about in cities and everyone knows someone who is friends with one of the pro rugby players. It is a really down to earth sport and I think you'll find that most of the lads playing it are good decent lads. I played rugby up in Dublin for a few years and always felt that the clubs really do look after the players, something I never found with Gaa or soccer.

In Ireland we don't have a whole lot of sports where we can really compete on the world stage. In Rugby on a good day, we could beat anyone in the world. We really can. I can't think of any other sport aside from Horse racing that we could say that. We have the potential to win a world cup someday, again I can't think of any other sport we could say that for. The rugby world cup is the 3rd largest sporting event. This would be massive.

Peregrine · 12-02-2014 11:29PM

usersame wrote: »

Best Leinster player ever I'd agree, best irish player maybe, best rugby player not a hope.

Dick phelan wrote: »

now Drico is a great player no doubt but let's be real he isn't the greatest Rugby player ever

How yous even think there can be a "best player" in a sport with 15 different positions, most of them which are poles apart, is beyond me.

Seph503 · 12-02-2014 11:29PM

fatbhoy wrote: »

I agree with most of what you wrote, except that I wouldn't put myself in the "we as a nation ... are sucking it all up" bracket. In fact, I despise the game, the people who play it, and the people who follow it.

Why? What makes you despisethe people who play and follow it?

CatFromHue · 12-02-2014 11:32PM

Chazz Michael Michaels wrote: »

Cheating fairies in rugby too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqOV6FI-2qw

That's quite funny, the ref made them shake hands :pac:

Tin Foil Hat · 12-02-2014 11:32PM

fatbhoy wrote: »

I agree with most of what you wrote, except that I wouldn't put myself in the "we as a nation ... are sucking it all up" bracket. In fact, I despise the game, the people who play it, and the people who follow it.

That's a lot of dispisin'. You must be fairly high-strung.

SimonLynch · 12-02-2014 11:33PM

I read a programme from an Ireland match out of boredom in Madigans of Donnybrook years back, nearly choked when reading the player profiles of lads I went to school with. They were nearly all working in banking/finance/property and I wouldn't have given any of them the key to a piggy bank, bloody egg-chasers.

goose2005 · 12-02-2014 11:36PM

CatFromHue wrote: »

Damn that rugby game get RTE coverage!

What's worse is that it gets TG4 coverage too!

It's not like it sells 1,000,000 individual tickets to the pro game in the country now is it?

Or is it?

More importantly, is that it's good TV and people watch it. You might argue that amateur boxing or athletics deserve more coverage but they don't make for good TV like field sports do.

dxhound2005 wrote: »

I'm educating myself. Wikipedia says the 6 Nations championship has only been going since 2000.

5 Nations before that.

goose2005 · 12-02-2014 11:37PM

JONJO THE MISER wrote: »

I agree o.p, cant stand rugby, always was and always will be a protestant to me, a elitist sport followed by mostly west Brit types.

What about rugby league then, a decent sport for Northern England working men

Peregrine · 12-02-2014 11:39PM

dxhound2005 wrote: »

I'm educating myself. Wikipedia says the 6 Nations championship has only been going since 2000.

Home Nations(England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) in the 1880s, Five Nations when France joined in 1910, Six Nations since 2000 when Italy joined.

Dick phelan · 12-02-2014 11:40PM

AdamD wrote: »

If anything summed up your lack of understanding of the sport its your use of his try count to discount him from being the best player..so utterly moronic.

Well is he the greatest Rugby player ever Answer No, Greatest Irish Sportsperson ever Again No so my point still stands fair enough it isn't all about trys but both my main points are true.

Dyr · 12-02-2014 11:41PM

19543261 wrote: »

You should have made this thread in the rugby forum, OP. You'd get a warm welcome from us.

Interestingly boards is around a decade or so so it would be interesting to see a graphic on activity on the rugby forum over that period, as the bank sponsored we're-behind-the-goys bandwagon gained momentum

ColeTrain · 12-02-2014 11:56PM

detective monkfish wrote: »

This thread might make more sense if it was about the GAA, 'The Gooch' and Paul Galvin. A sport that only Irish people play and are the best in the world at it because of it.

Tbf to the op, he made a fair point in saying that there are maybe 10 teams in world rugby that could give each other a game. Sometimes you'd believe it was more with the way the media go on at times.
However, everyone knows that gaa is a uniquely Irish sport, who has ever said otherwise?

joseph brand · 12-02-2014 11:58PM

The OP is simply saying what a lot of us think.
There are a lot of schools in 'poorer' areas of Dublin where rugby isn't played.

Afaik, BOD's father had to move him to the 'right' school, so that he would be eligible for the Leinster/ Ireland team.

I have a friend over the west of Ireland and he plays rugby. But he laughs at the way many of his team mates have the D4 accent.

I'm wondering if I heard it correctly, but someone on the radio said that tickets for the England match were €2,500!

I've spent most of my life playing football, no interest in rugby, but fair play to the Irish team for their recent success.

The great thing about football, growing up, was 'street soccer'. Jumpers for goalposts. "Watch your house!"

Artful_Badger · 13-02-2014 12:03AM

Bambi wrote: »

Interestingly boards is around a decade or so so it would be interesting to see a graphic on activity on the rugby forum over that period, as the bank sponsored we're-behind-the-goys bandwagon gained momentum

Successful teams rise in popularity shocker :eek:

More success = more interest = more investment = more promotion = more exposure = more fans = more players = more success = more interest etc etc etc

There would be no sport or entertainment at all if it wasnt for "bandwagon" fans gaining interest in teams, shows, bands, technology that get promoted.

The D4 Media/ Posh Boys and Irish Rugby – Spoon feeding the masses

Comments