Builders walking into a powers with 20k cash lumping on a horse in Taunton and no questions asked.
The Celtic tiger must have been some craic. I was talking to a lad whoād a plumbers business going and a fair few were on four days weeks just because theyād so much money.
Iād say Munster v Leinster 06 was the real peak.
Wasnāt there lads offering holiday homes in the south of France for two tickets.
It was crazy. I canāt recall the last time weād a sporting event where it was really hard to get tickets for in Ireland.
Rubby heads wondering then why they canāt sell out big URC games and they looking for 40 pound a ticket for behind the goal.
There are far too many knockout games now.
Back in 2006 there wasnāt even a playoff for the Magners League.
In the last 3 years the number of potential playoff games has increased from 5 to 7.
Itās crazy stuff.
There were lads in our parish building Thomand Park around 2006/2007. I think they could have been on north of 1k a week after Tax. @Fat_Pox might confirm.
Every Friday, Saturday, Sunday theyād be on the beer in the local. We used be training underage in the field and one time they came up pissed around 7 oāclock in the evening and started a big waterfight.
Great days.
The two days when Munster played Heineken Cup semi-finals in Lansdowne Road in 2004 and 2006 are probably the two most intoxicating rugby days ever on this island, no, they definitely are.
They mixed the best of the old with the best of the new.
The best of the old was the indomitable amateur spirit that existed within that Munster team, the sheer Munsterness of it.
The best of the old was the setting. The two terraces. The three terraces. The venerable stands. The cottages in the corner. A special, special place.
The best of the new was the competition itself. It was new, it was shiny, it was exciting, but it drew from history and from association football. European competition. Football had done this since the 1950s, but Irish teams never advanced past a second round. Now, for the first time, Irish teams were competing in European competition in a major field sport. Against English teams, and French teams. Wasps were like Glasgow Rangers. Leinster were like Chelsea were then or PSG are now. Munster were a fusion of Cork, Limerick, Liverpool and Celtic.
The best of the new was the make up of the crowd. It was basically a GAA crowd. And thatās what you want. Munster at Lansdowne Road had that feral atmosphere of a ye olde Munster hurling final in Thurles. The redness of the colours of the crowd was like Cork on Hill 16 for the All-Ireland hurling final.
RTE. Live. Ads all week. McGuirk, Hook and Pope, Sherwin, Nugent, Ward. Actual physical queues for tickets outside stadiums and shops in the preceding weeks, the way it should be. 3pm on a Sunday, which kept with the GAA nature of it.
Identifiable characters. Foley, OāGara, Stringer, Hayes, OāConnell, OāCallaghan. Galwey and Clohessy still there if not still there. The brutish, Black and Tan like Dallaglio, the bond villain like Trevor Leota. The yeomanry of Simon Shaw and Josh Lewsey, the squaddie like nature of the rest of the Wasps team. Gatty. OāDriscoll, Hickie, Horgan, Darcy, a clash of civilisations.
The sunshine. The heat. Late April. So similar to the best of the September air. Swinging Dublin. These were genuine All-Ireland type days, days to compare with the tension of Ireland v Holland of September 2001, or ye olde FA Cup semi-finals of 1985 to 1990, of Crystal Palace v Liverpool at Villa Park. You know the genuine article of a classic sporting occasion because you feel it - and it feels you, it assaults you.
In Irish rugby history only that Munster team has provoked a feeling of rugby matches genuinely mattering, that the outcome was genuinely important, that if the outcome went wrong, it would affect peopleās moods for weeks and months, that they would quietly mourn.
A time and a place and a crowd and a team and a thing that is never, ever to be repeated.
Brilliant post.
Mad that Baird still hasnāt forced his way into a starting spot, Iād have him ahead of Conan any day. Is he being held back for impact?
This match will be played at test match intensity
Leinster will miss the X factor James Lowe bring to the party
13/5 is a big price for Toulouse. I fancy them to win with the players Leinster are missing.
Talk to me about the clubhouses in the old ground.
Did Lansdowne and Wanderers have separate ones at either end?
The one thats there now is just Lansdowne right or do Wanderers have their own separate part of it?
Big fan of Larmour, could force his way back into the Ireland squad today.
Toulouse refusing to kick will cost them.
Terrible to see so many empty seats.
Woeful defending
I havenāt been in the new ground since June 2015 so I know nothing about it.
The Wanderers Pavilion, right under where the English rioted in 1995.
The Lansdowne Pavilion
The Inter Milan and AC Milan of Dublin club rugby.
Should have played it in Doneybrook or the RDS. Doneybrook was iconic enough in the early 2000ās. It looked very odd playing rugby in a horsey stadium when Leinster started playing in the RDS around 2005.
Newspapers literally referred to āthe Donnybrook Friday Night experienceā.
Eddie Hekenuiās territory.
Iād have thought so
Non home ground venue for semi
