Between lectures
That’s true. At least in fairness to most GAA players (from decent counties anyway) at least you have to be at a decent level to get to that point. In rugby there are guys who need to put in serious commitment to a sport that they’re not particularly good at - it’s just easy to make it to a decent level in a sport short on numbers, and certainly short on talented players.
[quote=“Rocko, post: 862865, member: 1”]Apologies for joining this thread late, but as someone who has made the largest swing on the rugby issue in recent years, I feel my opinion will be invaluable.
I played rugby when I was growing up. I’m not entirely sure why. Both my brothers played at various stages - one was banned from the sport for life when he refused to leave the pitch after being sent off and tried to attack a referee in the dressing room. The other one was a top quality prop who lacked the size to play at the top level but had terrific technique.
In my days playing rugby I think I only ever once came across someone who had more ability than me. He went on to be an All Black. In fairness to New Zealanders, because it’s the main sport over there it does attract their best sportspeople. The opposite is quite clearly the case in Ireland. I remember when I was 16 or 17 and there was a star out half a few years ahead of me who was the pride of the club. He left to play junior GAA when he was about 21 - that was about his level when he was mixing it with acutal sportspeople.
I did enjoy the physicality of the sport when I played it but in terms of skill level, it was hopeless. You had guys joining rugby clubs who had no co-ordination or any sort of athletic ability other than size. We had a winger who apparently had brilliant hands. He did in his shite. He clapped hands to catch the ball. In fairness he was good at timing that but he was quite clearly an awkward fucker who hadn’t a clue how to catch a ball. If he played basketball (along with everyone else surveyed by the ESRI in recent years) he’d have been a figure of fun and derision.
There were guys I played with who got professional contracts and they had nothing going for them. We got a few quid for playing which was ridiculous considering the standard, but those who went on to play it and make a living from it were even more of an indictment for the sport.
I gave it up when I was 20 or 21 - got injured, recovered and was never bothered about going back. There was an awful lot of fake importance attached to it. Training 4 or 5 times a week, playing in provincial academies and crap like that. And I couldn’t get over the lack of ability of some people who were playing at a supposedly elite level. It wasn’t just one or two lads either, there were dozens of these guys. Lads who couldn’t kick a ball, couldn’t catch, couldn’t pass, had no idea how to do anything other than run diagonally.
I remember my first game of rugby. I was 16 and I played outside centre. The other team had the ball and they did some of sort of dummy switch thing when they got the ball. I asked the guy beside me if I was supposed to go after my opposite man or if I was to switch onto the inside centre when he came outside. He didn’t know. I asked the “backs coach.” He didn’t know either. They thought it odd that I’d ask. I played under coaches who were getting paid full-time salaries to do this. A coupe of them were decent at some aspects of the job, and most of them were sound enought. But they didn’t seem to bother explaining anything to anyone. In time I realised that the Irish coaches didn’t know the answers to lots of questions, the NZ lads seemed to know but couldn’t be bothered explaining anything to hopeless cases anyway. And this was at provincial academy level.
I watched the sport for a good few years after I gave up playing. The European Cup co-incided with the growth of Sky and the 6 Nations was always a convenient watch on a Saturday afternoon. But at some stage the fraud of the competitions just becomes too much. The European Cup is a horrible mixture of franchise provinces and clubs who aren’t on a level playing field and who must be sick of the sight of eachother at this time. And a good percentage of the teams don’t take it seriously and you can only gloss over that for so long. The 6 Nations is a harmless distraction, an opportunity for Ireland to pretend at being competitive on the international stage. It’s a second tier competition and Ireland are invariably miserable in it.
If I had a choice now between a rugby league game and a union one I’d watch the league match every time. The sport is a better test of athleticism, is far less subjective to the whims of a referee and doesn’t attract the same iflux of charlatans cheering on teams and not understanding a thing about it.
As I posted on the relevant match thread the other day, nothing exposes the sham of the sport more than commentators not knowing basic rules. Both RTÉ and BBC commentators spoke at length about the need for “downward pressure” on the Australian try early in the second half. That’s not a requirement in rugby union and it’s a fairly important exclusion from the rule considering it governs a scoring play. It’s a bit like NFL commentators saying the TD shouldn’t be awarded because the receiver didn’t get 3 feet down. It’s bizarre.
A pet favourite of mine is when some lad jumps up and taps the ball back into play when his feet are off the ground and he is astonished when the flag goes up and there’s a replay and the commentators share his surprise and confirm his feet were off the ground when he batted the ball back into play. It’s not relevant at all and never has been. What hope does the girlfriend of a tag ruby playing muldoon have of understanding a ruck if the commentators and ex-pros don’t know the basic rules?[/quote]
So you played rugby when you were growing up yet you had your first game when you were 16? :rolleyes:
[quote=“Rocko, post: 862865, member: 1”]
In my days playing rugby I think I only ever once came across someone who had more ability than me. He went on to be an All Black.[/quote]
Use the app.
Yes mate. I was growing up when I was 16. It wasn’t unusual back when I was young for people to grow up right up until they became adults.
mate, sandymount road is working class, they have a different experience of growing up than normal people like us, sadly scumpot was sweeping chimneys, collecting glass bottles, working on a stall etc since he was 7 years old, he had no real childhood in the normal sense hence his bitterness at you here
Why are you taking potshots at scumpot when it was Sandymount Red who asked the question?
That’s true. What is unusual is for people who allegedly grew up in Dublin playing rugby to make their debut when they are 16. Forgoing your junior cup eligibility and missing out on most of your secondary school playing experience is a rather strange way of growing up playing rugby.
Rocko is the supposed champion of salt of the earth working class Dub types (in true patronizing north county Latte Socialist fashion**). A bit of false empathy on his part wouldn’t go astray, mate.
**witness his attempt to disavow his upper middle class Rugger upbringing.
Poor scumpot
Not unusual in Fingal mate. We didnt have a glut of rugby schools to choose from.
One of the reasons so many people latch onto rugby football is that (from the media hype) every game is given do or die importance. Look at the friendly internationals on now - beat a Samoan pub team and all was rosy in the garden. Lose to Australia and it’s the end of the world. A semi decent display against New Zealand and they’ll be dark horses in England in 2015 once more…
Every single match is crucial to the cunts so there is a steady amount of games for these new age rugby football fans to attach themselves to.
The social element is huge. Look at GAA supporters when they are knocked out of the championship or lose a final. The sickening feeling stays with you for days or even weeks. Same for football fans when pipped in a tight battle for a league title or they lose a cup final. With rugby football they are over the disappointment within five minutes of the full time whistle and looking up some hilarious clip on youtube of some cunt called Donners playing for Munster in his red underwear.
There is no real rivalry in rugby football either. Lost count of the times I’ve heard lads in work say “I’d love to see Leinster and Drico go on and win it now that Munster are out of it.” Actively cheering for your biggest rivals to go on and be successful? Fucking madness. Wanting your biggest rivals to succeed? The mind boggles.
As bad as it is now imagine what it will be like if “we” manage to host the fucking thing in 2023? Would be unbearable. Fuck the economic benefit argument, we’ve shown the IMF the door and don’t need these egg chasing pricks from elsewhere infesting the country - we have enough of our own already.
Any political party who opposes the hosting of the said tournament would clean up on the vital TFK vote.
says the fuckin queer trying to align himself with shamrock rovers, celtic and Alan ryan…you have nothing in common with them you sad bastard…you´re a waste of skin waiting your time in a shithole in Oz until your inheritence comes in so you can return to malahideshire because you couldn´t make it there off your own bat…go set up yet another alias for here you jokeshop…
Presumably why you left the fingal education system and went southside private at 16.
Would you ever fuck off-within hours of getting their arses handed to them by the bogmen of Clare, most of the Limerick posters here were on laughing and joking and contributing to the Limerick chippers thread. Lads like the @The Runt[/USER] and @[USER=168]ChocolateMice were off in Vegas on their stag or slipping a length to one of the local itinerant girls, not a fucking care in the world.
In his defence, he said GAA Supporters, not bandwagon jumpers.
GGA fans where the average league crowds are a couple of hundred, the rest are bandwagoners