There’s always plenty of other countries
Maybe an Irish lad?
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Burns doesn’t deserve any abuse he made a mistake unfortunately a costly one. POM was a moron. You are responsible for how you go into contact, hes full blame for his own red card.
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Burns family have a history with this sort of thing.
POM shouldn’t be let near munster let alone the national team.
his cross field kick a few mins earlier was crazy
Exactly he is a young international player
The IRFU need to import another decent young kicker from the southern hemisphere.
If they start now they could get a decent game plan before the end of the decade under the 5 year rule
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There was a snippet of a post match interview with Johnny Sexton on the sports news this morning and one sentence highlights the ott hype that Irish rugby has immersed itself in. To paraphrase Johnny, he opined that France were the “form team in Europe at the minute, but if Ireland beat them well, we’ll be top of the table at the weekend”
“Form team in Europe”. Only 4 countries take it seriously.
“If Ireland beat them well”. Possible, but there’s no evidence that this is anyway likely.
“Top of the table”. The least exagerrated bit of the statement. 2 games in to a 4 game competition.
If It’s a four game competition being top after two games would be fairly significant.
In fairness Billy Burns was very clever there putting the ball out of play to preserve the losing bonus point, like Josie Carmody did in the last World Cup.
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They’ll all be hyping the shit out of the French game I’d say. It will be the last game of any interest for them you’d think. Brand rugby is taking a bating; interest on the wane numbers-wise and all the outrage about concussion reaching the yummy mummies preaching on Insta about protecting Fiachra from the sport. Putting it behind a paywall from next year is a sign they know the game is up for developing the game long term.
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The demise of the open plan office with a water cooler will be the finish of rugby.
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England vs France last season had higher viewing figures than the spud hockey final mate
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Putting premier league behind a paywall hasnt made any difference. Darts is booming behind a paywall. Golf hugely popular. Most sports fans have satellite tv legally or illegaly.
It will affect the auld rural types like Michael Duignan’s auld fella who will be wondering why the hurling isn’t on TV or why the Munster rugby match isn’t on RTÉ.
Yeah the “teamofus” may actually for the first time have to face some objective criticism and face the reality of their true standing in the game instead of hyperbole and gushing praise for being perennial bottlers. It will have an effect on viewing numbers being behind a paywall as it simply wont be as accessible anymore. The sheen has long worn off the 6 nations. Italy have never been at such a low ebb, Wales are as poor as I can remember. Ireland are Ireland and England/France use it as a building block for world cups.
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The belief is that Rugby has a “soft” following. That its popularity in Ireland is a result of a marketing campaign Goebbels would be proud of since the late 90’s. And tbf it was a wonderful marketing campign. Selling the provincial set ups in Munster, Leinster, Ulster and to a lesser extent, or bizarrely an even greater extent Connacht. They sold the ideas of them being clubs of the people, to the detriment of course of the real clubs. This in turn fed into the National side, and the “Team of Us”. You’d have to admire it, it was a masterclass in marketing.
Anyway, the Provinces have suffered a drop off since the Heineken Cup has moved off free to air, it was slow, and it wasn’t all down to the paywall, but it is contributory. The feeling is, if the Team of Us move off free to air, that the house of cards will come crashing down. Combined with the drop in the entertainment ( I know, I know, but still, it was better than it is now, its a game of kicking and collisions writ large now, with little or now line breaks or place for the wee fellas) and the concerns over the concussion factor in and outside the pro game, well it doesn’t paint pretty picture.
There will always be the hardcore, but the hardcore may not sustain it in the manner in which it has grown accustomed to.
It’ll be an interesting watch.
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