Iâm actually chuckling at poor you making an utter idiot of yourself.
Are you going to continue in this vein or will you give me the authority to spare you and let me lock the thread?
I think it would be the wise thing to do on your part.
Not able to do it yourself?
Is the new forum search function (FSF) confusing you?
Itâs the source of your stat mate.
Is it? Iâve never heard/read/seen it before.
Okay
Those the fact the vast majority of the rugby players live at home contribute to the easy ride they get from the press?
Also the fact 90 percent of the media is ex players and they would have played with lads on the team. Surely this contributes as well.
You see this with the Liverpool clique on sky sports.
Nice hush-hush job by the media given the widespread circulation of this incident, compare and contrast with the good natured tomfoolery Phil Babb and Mark Kennedy indulged in all those years ago.
There is truth in that with Thornley. He writes opinion and is on the beat so needs to keep his sources sweet. Contrast his treatment of Eddie OâSullivan for years vs Declan Kidney. One leaked the team to him weekly and the other told him to fuck off in 2005.
That said, Neil Francis and George Hook are two of the most prominent mainstream rugby pundits and regularly slag players. Hook is far worse than Dunphy who directs the majority of his ire at the management and FAI when he wants to have a go.
@ChocolateMice and @Tim_Riggins - I believe the true number of players at the RWC who werenât born in or associated with the country they represented is around 100 which is still very high.
Someone who plays club rugby here for a few years having moved from another country shouldnât be allowed to represent our country in the same way as I donât think the likes of Houghton and Aldridge should have been allowed represent us. Both systems are completely flawed. Trying to argue that one is more flawed than the other is all a bit stupid really but sure its entertaining reading all the same.
1 Like
Donât forget the Eire soccer team overcoming Iceland and Czechoslovakia to win the 1986 Iceland Triangular Tournament.
2 Likes
With all due respect thatâs complete horseshit mate.
Ray Houghtonâs father was Irish. He has every right to consider himself Irish. It would be farcical if FIFA didnât allow him to play for Ireland. Alan Kellyâs father moved to England to play professional football. Are we then to believe that Alan Jr shouldnât play for Ireland because he was born abroad?
You donât need to be madly patriotically Irish to consider yourself Ireland or to represent Ireland. That gobshite waving the Union Jack in front of the Queen of England down in Cork is every bit as Irish as I am. And itâs not for anyone else to decide whether they should have that right or not.
But, the big objection for me is when someone only qualifies to represent a country because of their professional career. Thatâs very different and is pure opportunism. Professional sportspeople are, by their nature, mercenary. Their place of employment should not determine their right to represent a particular country. That applies to the likes of Diego Costa and the very odd exception in soccer. But it is widespread in rugby.
Comparing Nathan White to Ray Houghton is, frankly, stupid. Please withdraw immediately.
5 Likes
You tit.
1 Like
Agree rating.
Houghton annoys me so Iâll withdraw nothing. I threw his name out as the first that came to mind but replace him with McAteer or another from that era - what was Terry Phelans connection? Or more recently Cyrus Christie? Iâll accept the Alan Kelly example but stretching it to grandparents isnât right in my opinion. We must be the only country in the world that use this in a proactive way. The system has given us great days but I believe its wrong but Iâve still enjoyed the days regardless.
The rugby system is also wrong - my sister was good friends with Ben Gissings wife and he used laugh at the fact that he was âIrishâ or could have represented Ireland, almost to the point of being embarrassed.
Anyway, I donât really know what my point is other than both systems are wrong and I donât really know who Nathan White is.
1 Like
Terryâs mother is Irish. If youâre going to pursue this Iâd suggest steering clear of racial profiling.
3 Likes
Heâs making a holy fucking show of himself.
1 Like
My point is that it is laughable for association football fans to drone on about grassroots football and disparage rugby football when;
- rugby have better facilities all over Ireland. These were built by the grassroots by and large. The FAI required the use of the IRFUâs stadium for 20 years to facilitate their games
- the majority of rugby players learned their rugby in Ireland. They were brought through Irish academy system and win or lose, are Irish
- calling Italia 90 the greatest ever achievement in Irish sport when you are going on about grassroots is hilarious. The majority of the squad learned their football elsewhere and came here for jollies
As for the rest. The grandparent rule is a perfectly acceptable one. It is good enough for a passport in many countries.
World Rugbyâs residency rule should be extended to 4 years in my opinion. That is fair. If you come to a country and make that level of professional commitment then I donât see the why you shouldnât. In rugby terms that is at least 2 playing contracts. That is a good level of commitment to somewhere. FIFA raised theirs from 2 to 5 in 2008.
100 players is not that shocking. Many of the Welsh players were simply born across the âborderâ. The UK in itself means it is always going to happen there. Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia are right beside each other with transient populations. It is hardly a surprise there are so many players eligible for so many different countries. And of that 100 they are including the likes of Heaslip and Stephen Moore.