Another mediocre writer looking for some seasonal clicks with patter from here?
Thatâs very offensive.
Plenty of rugby clubs are the centre of communities particularly in urban areas.
What even is a community any more? Church is on its knees and people are living anywhere and everywhere nowadays and going to school somewhere else too.
Col should know that if losing to Japan and taking a shellacking against the kiwis in 2019 didnât kill Irish rubby, nothing will. In fact 20% of all income into IRFU coffers comes from hatewatchers (report submitted by KPMG for Q4).
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Correct the more the gaa hate on soccer and rugby the
More they encourage people to take up soccer and rugby.
If they spent half as much time on growing the game of hurling it would be played in 32 counties now.
It is played in more than 32 counties.
When it comes to the Irish rugby team playing rugby, I feel honesty is the best policy. I donât mind them winning, but itâs much more fun when they lose. It was not always this way. There was a time when their losses impacted my mood, however fleetingly.
I used to ruminate over squad selections. I lamented our style of play. I knew IRFU blazers by name. I read Mick Doyle. Rugby country was not a thing back then, or if it was, it was subterranean. Being a citizen was an admission of guilt rather than a point of pride.
Maybe the struggle made it more authentic. Now it just seems like an AI generated experience, dreamed up by somebody on a graduate programme in Deloitte, manufactured on a 3D printer. I donât know why I feel this way, but I know Iâm not alone.
I donât think itâs the players fault. They seem, more or less, like admirable human beings. They come across well in interviews and conduct themselves admirably on the field. They are incredibly impressive athletes, and by any metric, tough bastards.
The few Iâve met off the field are almost disappointedly likeable. The money they make is not otherworldly enough to alienate them like professional footballers. They even drink pints in between matches, something that normalises them in an elite sporting context.
Most intercounty footballers have to emigrate to have a night out in-season. Most rugby players drink wine with dinner, like normal people.
The much talked about sledging, too, only makes them more relatable. Itâs real, even if it isnât pleasant. I grew up at a time when Sean Fitzpatrick had his ear bitten by Johan le Roux, so Peter OâMahony saying some mean things about Same Cane in the heat of battle is hardly worthy of a tribunal. Animus between competitors is healthy. Knowing about it enhances the spectating experience.
It must be the pundits, then? But itâs not. Take Virginâs coverage of last Friday nightâs game versus the All Blacks.
Joe Molloy is a rightly celebrated presenter. He could quarterback election coverage, and not appear condescending or out of his depth. If you really hated Rugby, Rob Kearney would be an easy target for that hate, but thereâs nothing dislikeable about him.
Both he and Shane Horgan give astute analysis. They have personalities and rarely get carried away, always qualifying the World Number One nonsense. Mattie Williams is not everybodyâs cup of joe, but I love to see him coming. Heâs got swagger. So too Ronan OâGara in these pages and on the radio. Roy Keane-like honesty. An earned arrogance.
While Iâve lamented before about the lack of a Dunphy-esque dissenting voice in the media, ex-players are not to blame for this. Most of them are critical, even if the criticism comes from that most human of places - that is, they donât want Ireland to be that much better than when they played themselves. Again, relatable.
So, what the hell is it, then? Itâs not the players and itâs not the coaches, and it not the pundits. Itâs not even the sport. Sure, rugby can be dead boring, but did you watch the Derry senior football semi-finals? They were an argument for euthanasia.
England versus Australia at Twickenham on Saturday was the best game of anything on all weekend. Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and Len Ikitau were a joy to watch. Itâs not always like that, but when it is, itâs wonderful stuff.
After such an arduous process of elimination, the temptation here is to just blame the fans. And, while I think thereâs something to it, it seems a tad harsh to focus on the Irish Rugby Fraternity Inc. but give a pass to coked up English football fans who stick firecrackers up their arses while ransacking foreign cities.
Itâs not a playoff between the two, I understand, and even if it was we wouldnât even win it, because even the coked-up hooligans have kicked a ball at some stage in their lives, while most rugby fans wouldnât know a skip-one-two if it rang the doorbell and introduced themselves as an election candidate.
And therein lies the rub. Rugby is not a played game. Run around the parks of Ireland on any given Sunday and you just wonât see it.
I respect and salute those who play and coach, even support teams in the AIL, but they are in such a minority they deserve a tax exemption. Compared to practically every other team sport played by kids around this country, it is a game that is propped up - not by community - but by commerce. Itâs one big marketing strategy and has been for over a decade.
Itâs as if Don Draper had a dream one day and went into Sterling Cooper and pitched âRugby - For the Man who never Did.â
I donât blame James Lowe for over-celebrating kicking a ball out over the sideline on Friday night. I literally fist pump when I remember to lock the door. I blame the marketing strategist who labeled it as the work of a genius.
And yes, I blame the insecure sycophant who propagates the myth that the game of rugby union is much more than it really is.
It is fine. No more. No less. Spare me the nonsense that says otherwise.
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Thatâs a great article.
I agree entirely.
Thereâs also the especially Irish trait of feeling hard done by over every decision.
I was like this but Iâve grown as a poster since. Except in the heat of battle from the ditch/couch.
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A lot of that makes sense but the pundits are part of the issue for rugger. They hype up every game, every player, every win, every world cup winning opportunity while gently sweeping aside the defeats and disappointments. Thismis the opening for which Pat Spillane has been casting about these past few years. Add in Joe Brolly and I might even watch some of the coverage.
Malahide RFC is thriving & at the centre of the community
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comparing hobbyists with pro sports people is laughable
Between winning European Cups with Man United and representing his country 124 times at the highest level of rugby how did George best find the time for all the carousingâŚand lads talk about dual players in the GAAâ:joy:
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Rory perhaps? Amazing tally given he wasnât the most accomplished of players and had plenty of competition
Orange quota.
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GAA and soccer are the games of the people.
And that will never change.
Rubby is an elitist sport.