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

Micky Dolenz · 13-02-2014 01:17PM

Rightwing wrote: »

I don't think it really depended on where you lived. You either liked the game or not.

But I know what you are saying.

If you lived 20 miles from a club you probably weren't exposed to it. I played with a club up the road that all my mates played with. As a child you are less likely to be allowed to do something that is going to inconvenience the ould pair.

CrabRevolution · 13-02-2014 01:25PM

Fratton Fred wrote: »

You'd never get a good Catholic like Sam Maguire playing rugby.

Five Irish winners of the Heineken cup in eight years and people wonder why it is becoming more popular? Success breads success both on and off the pitch. If you're a 15 year old in Dublin, would you rather watch Leinster play Racing metro in the semi of a European cup, or Dublin play Cavan, again.

Dublin havent played Cavan in the championship since 1942, probably more recently in the league, but most GAA fans wouldnt really mind missing that anyway.

Besides, Rugby and Football/Hurling dont clash most of the time, the main stages of the HC are in winter and spring, with maybe the semis/final of it and the Rabo in May. Hurling and football dont get going till June, when there are second rate summerrugby internationals.

I doubt even the draw of Ireland vs the mighty Canada or Georgia would be enough to win the floating fan from the GAA though.

Femme_Fatale · 13-02-2014 01:31PM

Rightwing wrote: »

I don't think it really depended on where you lived. You either liked the game or not.

It has to be admitted that where you're from can have a strong bearing on how much you'd follow rugby, if at all.

Rightwing · 13-02-2014 01:35PM

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

If you lived 20 miles from a club you probably weren't exposed to it. I played with a club up the road that all my mates played with. As a child you are less likely to be allowed to do something that is going to inconvenience the ould pair.

No doubt about that. I misunderstood what you were saying.

Femme_Fatale wrote: »

It has to be admitted that where you're from can have a strong bearing on how much you'd follow rugby, if at all.

People in all the suburbs in Limk play rugby. MD's point, is if you lived out in the county where there's no club, then it's more likely GAA/soccer.

HooohRaaah · 13-02-2014 02:02PM

CrabRevolution wrote: »

Dublin havent played Cavan in the championship since 1942, probably more recently in the league, but most GAA fans wouldnt really mind missing that anyway.

Besides, Rugby and Football/Hurling dont clash most of the time, the main stages of the HC are in winter and spring, with maybe the semis/final of it and the Rabo in May. Hurling and football dont get going till June, when there are second rate summerrugby internationals.

I doubt even the draw of Ireland vs the mighty Canada or Georgia would be enough to win the floating fan from the GAA though.

I wonder if Fred has ever been to Croke Park for a Dublin vs Kerry game in the Championship. Best atmosphere in the world.
I doubt many kids grow up dreaming of playing Zebre in the RDS.

Inner City Hedgehog · 13-02-2014 02:09PM

Rugby's popularity is based on a thin veneer. Below the Irish international team and the provinces, there is virtually no interest in it from the wider public. That's basically five teams in the country that anybody cares about.

Club rugby attracts paltry attendances. Even the AIL final only attracts a couple of thousand people at most.

Contast that to GAA where club championship matches in most counties can often attract up to eight or nine thousand people at least. GAA goes way, way deeper into Irish society and the Irish psyche than rugby.

The streets of Dublin were thronged the night Dublin won the All-Ireland in 2011. 60,000 turned up to the celebration in Merrion Square the next night. How many people turned up to welcome the Irish rugby team home after the Grand Slam in 2009, or Leinster after their Heineken Cup wins?

GAA and soccer team attract genuine cross-community support, and attract players pretty evenly from every spectrum of social class. When the Irish soccer team qualify for a major finals, there's a buzz throughout the country that dwarfs any excitement about the rugby team playing in the World Cup. That's just the reality, and a few token rugby teams in working class areas doesn't change the fact that rugby still has a huge way to go to penetrate into areas outside its traditional strongholds.

People who follow GAA and soccer also tend to be more knowledgeable about those games than most rugby followers. Few people genuinely understand the technicalities and rules of rugby.

Rugby has also become a less attractive game to watch since it went professional and the players started bulking up into gargantuan sized monsters. There's too much emphasis on physicality. I'd make the same criticism of American football, which is also a triumph of marketing and is a game with very little skill, outside of the quarterback position.

Fratton Fred · 13-02-2014 02:17PM

HooohRaaah wrote: »

I wonder if Fred has ever been to Croke Park for a Dublin vs Kerry game in the Championship. Best atmosphere in the world.
I doubt many kids grow up dreaming of playing Zebre in the RDS.

Last time I was in Croke Park was the Dublin v Donegal semi. Great atmosphere, not as good as when we drew 2-2 with AC Milan though.

asteroids over berlin · 13-02-2014 02:24PM

I don't take to the game, I have never played it, have little idea of the rules. Naturally I appreciate and respect those who play/have played it and indeed genuine supporters of the game regardless if they played it or not, it is simply not always possible to play certain sports but you can still have genuine supporters of such.

However, I have zero time for the sheer magnitude of bandwagon jumpers that this game attracts in Dublin/Ireland - it appears to be "cool" to be into the game, women can be particularly annoying, I have a fair few of the latter species in my office, wearing their Ireland/Leinster jerseys on "casual Fridays" yet these very ones would sneer at a colleague wearing a soccer/gaa jersey, that really says it all to me" Image" these colleagues are clowns, unfortunately for the genuine rugby heads - these people pollute the waters, this stretch of water is more polluted than Chernobyl .

Irish rugby team are rubbish as is the soccer team, at least the soccer heads have more realistic expectations!!!

Anybody for chess?

HooohRaaah · 13-02-2014 02:26PM

Inner City Hedgehog wrote: »

GAA and soccer team attract genuine cross-community support, and attract players pretty evenly from every spectrum of social class. When the Irish soccer team qualify for a major finals, there's a buzz throughout the country that dwarfs any excitement about the rugby team playing in the World Cup. That's just the reality, and a few token rugby teams in working class areas doesn't change the fact that rugby still has a huge way to go to penetrate into areas outside its traditional strongholds.

People who follow GAA and soccer also tend to be more knowledgeable about those games than most rugby followers. Few people genuinely understand the technicalities and rules of rugby.

Great point made there about every spectrum of social class being represented. The current Dublin Gaelic football team truly represent this. The team have a couple of Blackrock College boys from Stillorgan playing alongside lads from Ballymun and being true team mates. The same with the sport. Guys from Cuala GAA in Dalkey standing alongside Erins Isles clubmen from Finglas to cheer on the true "Boys in Blue" You just wouldn't get that social diversity with Leinster Rugby or the Irish National Team.

reprazant · 13-02-2014 02:28PM

The bitterness of people here is hilarious.

Oh noes! Some other sport is getting more attention than mine! Its just not fair!

HooohRaaah · 13-02-2014 02:29PM

asteroids over berlin wrote: »

However, I have zero time for the sheer magnitude of bandwagon jumpers that this game attracts in Dublin/Ireland - it appears to be "cool" to be into the game, women can be particularly annoying, I have a fair few of the latter species in my office, wearing their Ireland/Leinster jerseys on "casual Fridays" yet these very ones would sneer at a colleague wearing a soccer/gaa jersey, that really says it all to me" Image" these colleagues are clowns, unfortunately for the genuine rugby heads - these people pollute the waters, this stretch of water is more polluted than Chernobyl .

Irish rugby team are rubbish as is the soccer team, at least the soccer heads have more realistic expectations!!!

Same with my office. On Goal Jersey Day for charity i wore a Dublin jersey and one girl said to me "Why are you dressed as a knacker". Pure ignorance. This woman was from Roscommon in a Leinster jersey.

Fratton Fred · 13-02-2014 02:30PM

reprazant wrote: »

The bitterness of people here is hilarious.

Oh noes! Some other sport is getting more attention than mine! Its just not fair!

Even worse, some of those people might even be from a privileged back ground.......and protestant!

Tox56 · 13-02-2014 02:31PM

reprazant wrote: »

The bitterness of people here is hilarious.

Oh noes! Some other sport is getting more attention than mine! Its just not fair!

The GAA community really have not taken rugby's rise in popularity well at all (although I'll allow for the fact it may just be a group of muppets dragging the whole thing down)

HooohRaaah · 13-02-2014 02:31PM

reprazant wrote: »

The bitterness of people here is hilarious.

Oh noes! Some other sport is getting more attention than mine! Its just not fair!

Ehh.. I don't think anybody has said that at all.
I've no real issue with true rugby supporters. The guys who help their local club.
It this notion that the Ireland Rugby team can do no wrong whilst slating the national soccer team and other teams is what grinds my gears.

Inner City Hedgehog · 13-02-2014 02:33PM

asteroids over berlin wrote: »

Anybody for chess?

Chess attracts all manner of savages in Ireland these days.

Tox56 · 13-02-2014 02:34PM

HooohRaaah wrote: »

Ehh.. I don't think anybody has said that at all.
I've no real issue with true rugby supporters. The guys who help their local club.
It this notion that the Ireland Rugby team can do no wrong whilst slating the national soccer team and other teams is what grinds my gears.

You're looking in the wrong places, the Ireland team has been deservedly slated for some awful performances in the last few years under kidney

HooohRaaah · 13-02-2014 02:34PM

Tox56 wrote: »

The GAA community really have not taken rugby's rise in popularity well at all (although I'll allow for the fact it may just be a group of muppets dragging the whole thing down)

The GAA community aren't worried at all. I'm actively involved in the GAA.
Dublin vs Kerry in the National League a few weeks ago had an attendance of just under 30,000 in a competition that most teams don't take seriously.

Leinster who have the support of twelve counties get an average of 15,000 for Rabo games. I'm sure the GAA community will be ok.

Dyr · 13-02-2014 02:34PM

HooohRaaah wrote: »

Great point made there about every spectrum of social class being represented. The current Dublin Gaelic football team truly represent this. The team have a couple of Blackrock College boys from Stillorgan playing alongside lads from Ballymun and being true team mates. The same with the sport. Guys from Cuala GAA in Dalkey standing alongside Erins Isles clubmen from Finglas to cheer on the true "Boys in Blue" You just wouldn't get that social diversity with Leinster Rugby or the Irish National Team.

Don't think there's any lads from ballymun on the dublin senior panel, Philly mcMahon and Dean Rock play for ballymun kickhams alright, slight difference.

Balmed Out · 13-02-2014 02:35PM

asteroids over berlin wrote: »

Irish rugby team are rubbish as is the soccer team, at least the soccer heads have more realistic expectations!!!

Anybody for chess?

I cant see how you would call either team garbage. Give out about them all you like but for a country our size qualification for euro 20012 was an achievement and losing to Italy and Spain is nothing to be embarrassed about.

HooohRaaah · 13-02-2014 02:36PM

Bambi wrote: »

Don't think there's any lads from ballymun on the dublin senior panel, Philly mcMahon and Dean Rock play for ballymun kickhams alright, slight difference.

Philly McMahon, James McCarthy and Dean Rock all play for Dublin

Tox56 · 13-02-2014 02:36PM

HooohRaaah wrote: »

The GAA community aren't worried at all. I'm actively involved in the GAA.
Dublin vs Kerry in the National League a few weeks ago had an attendance of just under 30,000 in a competition that most teams don't take seriously.

Leinster who have the support of twelve counties get an average of 15,000 for Rabo games. I'm sure the GAA community will be ok.

Ultra defensive stuff like the above is exactly what I'm talking about. I couldn't give a toss whether the GAA is doing well in its attendances or not!

HooohRaaah · 13-02-2014 02:37PM

Tox56 wrote: »

Ultra defensive stuff like the above is exactly what I'm talking about. I couldn't give a toss whether the GAA is doing well in its attendances or not!

Who asked you if you care about attendances or not?

Dyr · 13-02-2014 02:37PM

HooohRaaah wrote: »

Philly McMahon, James McCarthy and Dean Rock all play for Dublin

I don't think any of those lads are from ballymun though.

HooohRaaah · 13-02-2014 02:38PM

Bambi wrote: »

I don't think any of those lads are from ballymun though.

Philly McMahon and James McCarthy are.

Tox56 · 13-02-2014 02:41PM

HooohRaaah wrote: »

Who asked you if you care about attendances or not?

I said GAA has not taken rugby's rise in popularity well at all

You give me figures that show GAA had a big attendance at some game. What has that got to do with anything? The GAA could get 100,000 people every game and it wouldn't change my original point

Inner City Hedgehog · 13-02-2014 02:41PM

Schools rugby gets massively disproportionate coverage relative to the interest in it, with the Irish Times and Irish Independent running 24 or 32 page preview supplements each January, helped obviously by the fact that a large number of media decision makers come from a rugby background.

dub_skav · 13-02-2014 02:42PM

HooohRaaah wrote: »

Same with my office. On Goal Jersey Day for charity i wore a Dublin jersey and one girl said to me "Why are you dressed as a knacker". Pure ignorance. This woman was from Roscommon in a Leinster jersey.

So you have a problem with morons, fair enough, I think we can all agree on that.

Over the years I have been called posh/protestant/west brit/garrison game supporter/not properly Irish/traitor etc by moronic GAA / soccer fans for havig the temerity to wear a rugby jersey.

As you say, pure ignorance

Inner City Hedgehog · 13-02-2014 02:42PM

Bambi wrote: »

Don't think there's any lads from ballymun on the dublin senior panel, Philly mcMahon and Dean Rock play for ballymun kickhams alright, slight difference.

Jason Whelan, although whether he's on the panel at the moment is a moot point due his recent "indiscretion".

Yamanoto · 13-02-2014 02:43PM

reprazant wrote: »

The bitterness of people here is hilarious.

There seems to be a subset of folks with a seething & visceral dislike of the sport, like its very existence is somehow a tremendous threat to everything they hold dear.

Lot of unspoken issues going on with that sorta attitude tbh.

CrabRevolution · 13-02-2014 02:43PM

HooohRaaah wrote: »

Great point made there about every spectrum of social class being represented. The current Dublin Gaelic football team truly represent this. The team have a couple of Blackrock College boys from Stillorgan playing alongside lads from Ballymun and being true team mates. The same with the sport. Guys from Cuala GAA in Dalkey standing alongside Erins Isles clubmen from Finglas to cheer on the true "Boys in Blue" You just wouldn't get that social diversity with Leinster Rugby or the Irish National Team.

Rugby teams are a bit more diverse than people here say. The likes of Tommy Bowe, the Kearneys, Horgan, Toner etc. all come from "out the country" (in the "anywhere except Dublin" sense) and played Gaelic football before concentrating on Rugby,The difference being though that they'd have gone to private schools.

Before I went to college my only knowledge of South Dublin types were the Ross O'Carroll Kelly books (obviously didnt take them seriously now). Once I went to college and started meeting people who went to Blackrock and other private schools I was surprised to hear how many of them played hurling/football before.

Most had given up playing and only followed now, but it seemed that they had given up every other sport too. Seems to be a high drop off rate in sport in the city.

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

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