The IRISH RUGBY thread

[Il Bomber Destro]

You just have to laugh at anyone who has so much bile in them against something that they feel the continued need to go on a forum to spew it out, when the sensible thing to do would be to ignore it, dont watch the sport in question and dont go to website forums where people who love it are hanging out ... Why put yourself through all that hassle 

Jeez, its worse than the DUP Councillor Maurice Morrow's constant whinging about no traffic wardens in Coalisland ... Just bitter aul sh1te 

There's definitely a deeper reason behind all this hate against Rugby by some lads though.. ... and the same boys love the saccer ... you have to laugh at them for sure !!!

Football is the greatest sport on the earth.

Rugby is a game taken seriously by 7/8 different countries who have links to the British commonwealth. Only one of those countries have it as their main sport.

[lenny]

You just have to laugh at anyone who has so much bile in them against something that they feel the continued need to go on a forum to spew it out, when the sensible thing to do would be to ignore it, dont watch the sport in question and dont go to website forums where people who love it are hanging out ... Why put yourself through all that hassle 

Jeez, its worse than the DUP Councillor Maurice Morrow's constant whinging about no traffic wardens in Coalisland ... Just bitter aul sh1te 

There's definitely a deeper reason behind all this hate against Rugby by some lads though.. ... and the same boys love the saccer ... you have to laugh at them for sure !!!

Football is the greatest sport on the earth.

Rugby is a game taken seriously by 7/8 different countries who have links to the British commonwealth. Only one of those countries have it as their main sport.

Only an imbecile would try to argue that it isn't the national sport of Wales. It is also the national sport of Fiji and Samoa. It is one of the very top sports of England, France, South Africa.

[Il Bomber Destro]

You just have to laugh at anyone who has so much bile in them against something that they feel the continued need to go on a forum to spew it out, when the sensible thing to do would be to ignore it, dont watch the sport in question and dont go to website forums where people who love it are hanging out ... Why put yourself through all that hassle 

Jeez, its worse than the DUP Councillor Maurice Morrow's constant whinging about no traffic wardens in Coalisland ... Just bitter aul sh1te 

There's definitely a deeper reason behind all this hate against Rugby by some lads though.. ... and the same boys love the saccer ... you have to laugh at them for sure !!!

Football is the greatest sport on the earth.

Rugby is a game taken seriously by 7/8 different countries who have links to the British commonwealth. Only one of those countries have it as their main sport.

Only an imbecile would try to argue that it isn't the national sport of Wales. It is also the national sport of Fiji and Samoa. It is one of the very top sports of England, France, South Africa.

Football outweighs it in participation and attendances in Wales. Only an idiot would completely ignore facts when making a conclusion. Like in Ireland, soccer is by far the greater sport but the national rugby side are the darlings of the nation because they play in a niche sport so the bandwagoners will be there due to the chance of success.

[imtommygunn]

Only an idiot would say paul o'connell is a giant freak who has achieved nothing though bomber

[Il Bomber Destro]

Only an idiot would say paul o'connell is a giant freak who has achieved nothing though bomber

Why? I'd say O'Connell would struggle to trap a football, I'd say he'd struggle with anything that would involve anything technical. He'd probably make a decent weightlifter of something.

[lenny]

Seems like he did destroy him on facts to be fair.

Hard to come back from that mauling with any dignity.

Only a mauling if you haven't the intelligence to interpret those said facts. Bomber said that rugby is a niche sport and I argued that it is one of the most popular team sports in the world. I stand over my statement that the national sport of Wales is rugby and arguably France and South Africa also. Participation levels are only one measure of how popular a sport is and IMO isn't the most important. To give you an example would anybody seriously try to argue that soccer is more popular in the US than American football. Yet there are 50% more people who play soccer in the US than American football. Television viewing figures, numbers of spectators at matches, sponsorship etc are all better measures of where a sport stands in the hearts and minds of the population. American football is part of American society in a way that soccer never will be and yet 50% more people play soccer. If you do any search of the most popular team sports in the world rugby will be in the top 5 or 6 every time. That means it is way more than a niche sport. Only a complete stubborn idiot like bomber would try to argue that rugby isn't the national sport of Wales and isn't its most popular sport. Bomber likes to state "facts" which have absolutely no basis in reality like "rugby has really taken off among housewives" and "loads of people have started to like rugby in their 20s, 30s and 40s". These are rubbish "facts" and that's why I haven't bothered responding before now.

You laughed when I said baseball was more popular than rugby, I think you have quite a contorted version of rugby's standing in a global sense, it is only popular in some commonwealth and ex commonwealth countries and only one country in the world has it as their main sport - New Zealand with a population of about 4.5m.

Of course I will argue rugby is not the national sport of Wales when attendances at weekly football matches outweigh rugby and three times more people play football than rugby. The only sign that rugby is more popular is that the national team tend to draw bigger attendances due to the fact they have a much better chance of winning something, rugby in Wales much like Ireland attracts the event junkies.

Bale probably earns more than the whole rugby team together.

Rugby is played worldwide and on all continents. Baseball has no participation levels anywhere in Europe, Africa or the Australias. It's only played in America, Latin America and Japan and isn't the national sport of too many countries. By any measure rugby is in the top 5 or 6 team sports in the world in terms of popularity. For such a terrible sport as you claim you take an awful big interest in it.

[lenny]

You just have to laugh at anyone who has so much bile in them against something that they feel the continued need to go on a forum to spew it out, when the sensible thing to do would be to ignore it, dont watch the sport in question and dont go to website forums where people who love it are hanging out ... Why put yourself through all that hassle 

Jeez, its worse than the DUP Councillor Maurice Morrow's constant whinging about no traffic wardens in Coalisland ... Just bitter aul sh1te 

There's definitely a deeper reason behind all this hate against Rugby by some lads though.. ... and the same boys love the saccer ... you have to laugh at them for sure !!!

Football is the greatest sport on the earth.

Rugby is a game taken seriously by 7/8 different countries who have links to the British commonwealth. Only one of those countries have it as their main sport.

Only an imbecile would try to argue that it isn't the national sport of Wales. It is also the national sport of Fiji and Samoa. It is one of the very top sports of England, France, South Africa.

Football outweighs it in participation and attendances in Wales. Only an idiot would completely ignore facts when making a conclusion. Like in Ireland, soccer is by far the greater sport but the national rugby side are the darlings of the nation because they play in a niche sport so the bandwagoners will be there due to the chance of success.

You keep talking about Ireland underachieving and in the same breath you say that people are only interested in rugby because they are jumping on the bandwagon and want the chance of success. That's totally contradictory but it's typical of your arguments.

[Il Bomber Destro]

Seems like he did destroy him on facts to be fair.

Hard to come back from that mauling with any dignity.

Only a mauling if you haven't the intelligence to interpret those said facts. Bomber said that rugby is a niche sport and I argued that it is one of the most popular team sports in the world. I stand over my statement that the national sport of Wales is rugby and arguably France and South Africa also. Participation levels are only one measure of how popular a sport is and IMO isn't the most important. To give you an example would anybody seriously try to argue that soccer is more popular in the US than American football. Yet there are 50% more people who play soccer in the US than American football. Television viewing figures, numbers of spectators at matches, sponsorship etc are all better measures of where a sport stands in the hearts and minds of the population. American football is part of American society in a way that soccer never will be and yet 50% more people play soccer. If you do any search of the most popular team sports in the world rugby will be in the top 5 or 6 every time. That means it is way more than a niche sport. Only a complete stubborn idiot like bomber would try to argue that rugby isn't the national sport of Wales and isn't its most popular sport. Bomber likes to state "facts" which have absolutely no basis in reality like "rugby has really taken off among housewives" and "loads of people have started to like rugby in their 20s, 30s and 40s". These are rubbish "facts" and that's why I haven't bothered responding before now.

You laughed when I said baseball was more popular than rugby, I think you have quite a contorted version of rugby's standing in a global sense, it is only popular in some commonwealth and ex commonwealth countries and only one country in the world has it as their main sport - New Zealand with a population of about 4.5m.

Of course I will argue rugby is not the national sport of Wales when attendances at weekly football matches outweigh rugby and three times more people play football than rugby. The only sign that rugby is more popular is that the national team tend to draw bigger attendances due to the fact they have a much better chance of winning something, rugby in Wales much like Ireland attracts the event junkies.

Bale probably earns more than the whole rugby team together.

Rugby is played worldwide and on all continents. Baseball has no participation levels anywhere in Europe, Africa or the Australias. It's only played in America, Latin America and Japan and isn't the national sport of too many countries. By any measure rugby is in the top 5 or 6 team sports in the world in terms of popularity. For such a terrible sport as you claim you take an awful big interest in it.

More lies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_of_European_Baseball

Venezuela is a country of 30 million, Dominican Republic, a country of 10 million - baseball is the biggest sport in these countries and few other nations in Central America.

The only country with a population of over 1m that rugby is the main sport in, is New Zealand - that's a fact. I know you're not too good as grasping them and your usual response is misinformation.

[Walter Cronc]

Lenny don't entertain this sectarian bigot! Sure he thinks Celtic are an Irish club 

[Il Bomber Destro]

You just have to laugh at anyone who has so much bile in them against something that they feel the continued need to go on a forum to spew it out, when the sensible thing to do would be to ignore it, dont watch the sport in question and dont go to website forums where people who love it are hanging out ... Why put yourself through all that hassle 

Jeez, its worse than the DUP Councillor Maurice Morrow's constant whinging about no traffic wardens in Coalisland ... Just bitter aul sh1te 

There's definitely a deeper reason behind all this hate against Rugby by some lads though.. ... and the same boys love the saccer ... you have to laugh at them for sure !!!

Football is the greatest sport on the earth.

Rugby is a game taken seriously by 7/8 different countries who have links to the British commonwealth. Only one of those countries have it as their main sport.

Only an imbecile would try to argue that it isn't the national sport of Wales. It is also the national sport of Fiji and Samoa. It is one of the very top sports of England, France, South Africa.

Football outweighs it in participation and attendances in Wales. Only an idiot would completely ignore facts when making a conclusion. Like in Ireland, soccer is by far the greater sport but the national rugby side are the darlings of the nation because they play in a niche sport so the bandwagoners will be there due to the chance of success.

You keep talking about Ireland underachieving and in the same breath you say that people are only interested in rugby because they are jumping on the bandwagon and want the chance of success. That's totally contradictory but it's typical of your arguments.

Not contradictory, I feel you're just showing the limitations of your comprehensions

The West Britain rugby side don't even have to qualify for major tournaments, they play an annual round robin tournament involving 5 other teams (only 3 of those 5 other teams have a reasonable interest in the game) that has bizarre standing in this country. They get automatic qualification to the World Cup and consistently fail to break the top 4 despite them being one of the few teams who take the game seriously.

Of course the rugby side have more chance of being successful in rugby but that doesn't stop them from shitting their togs every time the crunch comes to it.

[Zulu]

Only an idiot would say paul o'connell is a giant freak who has achieved nothing though bomber

Why? I'd say O'Connell would struggle to trap a football, I'd say he'd struggle with anything that would involve anything technical. He'd probably make a decent weightlifter of something.

He played off a 4 handicap in golf and was a notable swimmer too if I'm not mistaken. Soccer is not the national sport of Wales anymore than it is the national sport here. It's odd that you use attendance of domestic soccer in Wales to argue that it's more popular than rugby but dismiss the paltry attendances here.

[lenny]

Seems like he did destroy him on facts to be fair.

Hard to come back from that mauling with any dignity.

Only a mauling if you haven't the intelligence to interpret those said facts. Bomber said that rugby is a niche sport and I argued that it is one of the most popular team sports in the world. I stand over my statement that the national sport of Wales is rugby and arguably France and South Africa also. Participation levels are only one measure of how popular a sport is and IMO isn't the most important. To give you an example would anybody seriously try to argue that soccer is more popular in the US than American football. Yet there are 50% more people who play soccer in the US than American football. Television viewing figures, numbers of spectators at matches, sponsorship etc are all better measures of where a sport stands in the hearts and minds of the population. American football is part of American society in a way that soccer never will be and yet 50% more people play soccer. If you do any search of the most popular team sports in the world rugby will be in the top 5 or 6 every time. That means it is way more than a niche sport. Only a complete stubborn idiot like bomber would try to argue that rugby isn't the national sport of Wales and isn't its most popular sport. Bomber likes to state "facts" which have absolutely no basis in reality like "rugby has really taken off among housewives" and "loads of people have started to like rugby in their 20s, 30s and 40s". These are rubbish "facts" and that's why I haven't bothered responding before now.

You laughed when I said baseball was more popular than rugby, I think you have quite a contorted version of rugby's standing in a global sense, it is only popular in some commonwealth and ex commonwealth countries and only one country in the world has it as their main sport - New Zealand with a population of about 4.5m.

Of course I will argue rugby is not the national sport of Wales when attendances at weekly football matches outweigh rugby and three times more people play football than rugby. The only sign that rugby is more popular is that the national team tend to draw bigger attendances due to the fact they have a much better chance of winning something, rugby in Wales much like Ireland attracts the event junkies.

Bale probably earns more than the whole rugby team together.

Rugby is played worldwide and on all continents. Baseball has no participation levels anywhere in Europe, Africa or the Australias. It's only played in America, Latin America and Japan and isn't the national sport of too many countries. By any measure rugby is in the top 5 or 6 team sports in the world in terms of popularity. For such a terrible sport as you claim you take an awful big interest in it.

More lies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_of_European_Baseball

Venezuela is a country of 30 million, Dominican Republic, a country of 10 million - baseball is the biggest sport in these countries and few other nations in Central America.

The only country with a population of over 1m that rugby is the main sport in, is New Zealand - that's a fact. I know you're not too good as grasping them and your usual response is misinformation.

I agreed with you re latin america. If you're going to count european baseball as serious then you have to include countries like uruguay, romania, namibia, uganda and zimbabwe as taking rugby seriously. That's as well as Italy, Argentina, Canada, USA, Japan and all the bigger more traditional rugby teams.

[Il Bomber Destro]

Only an idiot would say paul o'connell is a giant freak who has achieved nothing though bomber

Why? I'd say O'Connell would struggle to trap a football, I'd say he'd struggle with anything that would involve anything technical. He'd probably make a decent weightlifter of something.

He played off a 4 handicap in golf and was a notable swimmer too if I'm not mistaken. Soccer is not the national sport of Wales anymore than it is the national sport here. It's odd that you use attendance of domestic soccer in Wales to argue that it's more popular than rugby but dismiss the paltry attendances here.

The Welsh domestic attendances are even worse than the League of Ireland but the average attendances of Welsh teams in the English League Football would surpass that of the Provinces in Ireland.

Irish football fans are obsessed with English league football because that is where the money is and that is where all the best Irish players, ideally we'd have a thriving domestic league but the landscapes don't allow for that. Maybe Ireland should amalgamate all their clubs into four sides and go and have them compete in a cross channel league? You see what I did there?

[Il Bomber Destro]

Seems like he did destroy him on facts to be fair.

Hard to come back from that mauling with any dignity.

Only a mauling if you haven't the intelligence to interpret those said facts. Bomber said that rugby is a niche sport and I argued that it is one of the most popular team sports in the world. I stand over my statement that the national sport of Wales is rugby and arguably France and South Africa also. Participation levels are only one measure of how popular a sport is and IMO isn't the most important. To give you an example would anybody seriously try to argue that soccer is more popular in the US than American football. Yet there are 50% more people who play soccer in the US than American football. Television viewing figures, numbers of spectators at matches, sponsorship etc are all better measures of where a sport stands in the hearts and minds of the population. American football is part of American society in a way that soccer never will be and yet 50% more people play soccer. If you do any search of the most popular team sports in the world rugby will be in the top 5 or 6 every time. That means it is way more than a niche sport. Only a complete stubborn idiot like bomber would try to argue that rugby isn't the national sport of Wales and isn't its most popular sport. Bomber likes to state "facts" which have absolutely no basis in reality like "rugby has really taken off among housewives" and "loads of people have started to like rugby in their 20s, 30s and 40s". These are rubbish "facts" and that's why I haven't bothered responding before now.

You laughed when I said baseball was more popular than rugby, I think you have quite a contorted version of rugby's standing in a global sense, it is only popular in some commonwealth and ex commonwealth countries and only one country in the world has it as their main sport - New Zealand with a population of about 4.5m.

Of course I will argue rugby is not the national sport of Wales when attendances at weekly football matches outweigh rugby and three times more people play football than rugby. The only sign that rugby is more popular is that the national team tend to draw bigger attendances due to the fact they have a much better chance of winning something, rugby in Wales much like Ireland attracts the event junkies.

Bale probably earns more than the whole rugby team together.

Rugby is played worldwide and on all continents. Baseball has no participation levels anywhere in Europe, Africa or the Australias. It's only played in America, Latin America and Japan and isn't the national sport of too many countries. By any measure rugby is in the top 5 or 6 team sports in the world in terms of popularity. For such a terrible sport as you claim you take an awful big interest in it.

More lies.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederation_of_European_Baseball

Venezuela is a country of 30 million, Dominican Republic, a country of 10 million - baseball is the biggest sport in these countries and few other nations in Central America.

The only country with a population of over 1m that rugby is the main sport in, is New Zealand - that's a fact. I know you're not too good as grasping them and your usual response is misinformation.

I agreed with you re latin america. If you're going to count european baseball as serious then you have to include countries like uruguay, romania, namibia, uganda and zimbabwe as taking rugby seriously. That's as well as Italy, Argentina, Canada, USA, Japan and all the bigger more traditional rugby teams.

Isn't rugby just a subculture for cannibals in Uruguay?

[Zulu]

Irish soccer supporters interest in English soccer has nothing to do with the 'best' Irish players, it wouldn't matter one iota if there were no Irish playing there. Our interest in soccer is wafer thin in reality, if it wasn't we'd support our own teams the way we do in the GAA. The high participation rate is more to do with the nature of the game than it's popularity in Ireland (& elsewhere too probably). I don't mind why Irish people support English or Scottish soccer teams that barely represent their own localities anymore let alone the Irish bandwagoners but I just find it odd that you hammer rugby supporters for recently supporting Irish teams while we've always jumped on the latest soccer bandwagon. Remember when Irish were going by the boatloads to Sunderland games when Keane and Quinn were involved but don't anymore? Thankfully GAA is king here and long may it continue.