The IRISH RUGBY thread

[Walter Cronc]

As an aside, as an Ulster man, I will never support the Ulster rugby team in its current guise. The selection processes, coaching, administration and governance is inherently sectarian and no serious attempt has been made to address this. Of course plenty of Catholics don't care and go to ravenhill for the spectacle but personally I wouldn't go near it until I see some fundamental change in culture from the top down.

Explain all these reasons before making such a hideous claim.

[Milltown Row2]

As an aside, as an Ulster man, I will never support the Ulster rugby team in its current guise. The selection processes, coaching, administration and governance is inherently sectarian and no serious attempt has been made to address this. Of course plenty of Catholics don't care and go to ravenhill for the spectacle but personally I wouldn't go near it until I see some fundamental change in culture from the top down.

Explain all these reasons before making such a hideous claim.

Yeah, I mean to be fair rugby is played in tradionally Protestant Grammer schools up north and not played in Catholic schools at any level as far as i know, Ulster rugby pick from these schools and they represent Ulster at school level and then make it (if they are lucky) to get on to the Ulster set up.... There has been many attempts from catholics in the past that set up rugby teams and such but lost a lot of interest as they were mainly GAA men and never really commited to it...

Ive never heard of a bias to be honest and thats from lads i know personally who over the years have been involved with coaching at schools and ulster levels

[JoG2]

As an aside, as an Ulster man, I will never support the Ulster rugby team in its current guise. The selection processes, coaching, administration and governance is inherently sectarian and no serious attempt has been made to address this. Of course plenty of Catholics don't care and go to ravenhill for the spectacle but personally I wouldn't go near it until I see some fundamental change in culture from the top down.

Explain all these reasons before making such a hideous claim.

Yeah, I mean to be fair rugby is played in tradionally Protestant Grammer schools up north and not played in Catholic schools at any level as far as i know, Ulster rugby pick from these schools and they represent Ulster at school level and then make it (if they are lucky) to get on to the Ulster set up.... There has been many attempts from catholics in the past that set up rugby teams and such but lost a lot of interest as they were mainly GAA men and never really commited to it...

Ive never heard of a bias to be honest and thats from lads i know personally who over the years have been involved with coaching at schools and ulster levels

wrong...as I mentioned to the thread dose a while back, a couple of catholic schools in Derry now field rugby teams

[Milltown Row2]

As an aside, as an Ulster man, I will never support the Ulster rugby team in its current guise. The selection processes, coaching, administration and governance is inherently sectarian and no serious attempt has been made to address this. Of course plenty of Catholics don't care and go to ravenhill for the spectacle but personally I wouldn't go near it until I see some fundamental change in culture from the top down.

Explain all these reasons before making such a hideous claim.

Yeah, I mean to be fair rugby is played in tradionally Protestant Grammer schools up north and not played in Catholic schools at any level as far as i know, Ulster rugby pick from these schools and they represent Ulster at school level and then make it (if they are lucky) to get on to the Ulster set up.... There has been many attempts from catholics in the past that set up rugby teams and such but lost a lot of interest as they were mainly GAA men and never really commited to it...

Ive never heard of a bias to be honest and thats from lads i know personally who over the years have been involved with coaching at schools and ulster levels

wrong...as I mentioned to the thread dose a while back, a couple of catholic schools in Derry now field rugby teams

Couple, do they play in the schools cup or the lower level competitions? How have they fared?

[JoG2]

As an aside, as an Ulster man, I will never support the Ulster rugby team in its current guise. The selection processes, coaching, administration and governance is inherently sectarian and no serious attempt has been made to address this. Of course plenty of Catholics don't care and go to ravenhill for the spectacle but personally I wouldn't go near it until I see some fundamental change in culture from the top down.

Explain all these reasons before making such a hideous claim.

Yeah, I mean to be fair rugby is played in tradionally Protestant Grammer schools up north and not played in Catholic schools at any level as far as i know, Ulster rugby pick from these schools and they represent Ulster at school level and then make it (if they are lucky) to get on to the Ulster set up.... There has been many attempts from catholics in the past that set up rugby teams and such but lost a lot of interest as they were mainly GAA men and never really commited to it...

Ive never heard of a bias to be honest and thats from lads i know personally who over the years have been involved with coaching at schools and ulster levels

wrong...as I mentioned to the thread dose a while back, a couple of catholic schools in Derry now field rugby teams

Couple, do they play in the schools cup or the lower level competitions? How have they fared?

that's 2 in Derry, I'm not sure about other areas. Schools Cup level, no, be a fair bit off that level at the minute. There's a few of our minors playing, I'll get the low down as to how they are progressing.

[Milltown Row2]

As an aside, as an Ulster man, I will never support the Ulster rugby team in its current guise. The selection processes, coaching, administration and governance is inherently sectarian and no serious attempt has been made to address this. Of course plenty of Catholics don't care and go to ravenhill for the spectacle but personally I wouldn't go near it until I see some fundamental change in culture from the top down.

Explain all these reasons before making such a hideous claim.

Yeah, I mean to be fair rugby is played in tradionally Protestant Grammer schools up north and not played in Catholic schools at any level as far as i know, Ulster rugby pick from these schools and they represent Ulster at school level and then make it (if they are lucky) to get on to the Ulster set up.... There has been many attempts from catholics in the past that set up rugby teams and such but lost a lot of interest as they were mainly GAA men and never really commited to it...

Ive never heard of a bias to be honest and thats from lads i know personally who over the years have been involved with coaching at schools and ulster levels

wrong...as I mentioned to the thread dose a while back, a couple of catholic schools in Derry now field rugby teams

Couple, do they play in the schools cup or the lower level competitions? How have they fared?

that's 2 in Derry, I'm not sure about other areas. Schools Cup level, no, be a fair bit off that level at the minute. There's a few of our minors playing, I'll get the low down as to how they are progressing.

Was talk of brining it into a lot of schools but to fit it in with their current soccer and gaelic games set up would put more strain on timetabling and getting staff to get involved... most parents that are involved with rugby do send their sons to particular schools with the tradition, Inst, Methody, BRA, and the rest and the training facilities at these schools is on a par to professional clubs, directors of rugby brought in to do just that, no teaching just coaching....

[Frank_The_Tank]

That's a really stupid argument. How many lads have boxed, done MMA, played American football, drove a formula 1 car etc etc?

I don't agree.

Loads of people have became big rugby fans in their 20s/30s/40s despite the fact that.

I would say most of the people who are big rugby fans now had little to no interest in the game 15 years ago. The only reason it has became popular is due to the fact it is only taken seriously in a handful of countries, making success a lot easier to achieve - the national side had an upturn in results and the people in the media pushed. The impressionable, naive, folly people bought into this as a result and are now big rugby fans.

Irish rugby fans tend to be like cult members- "Everything is great about rugby football, criticism of the game is not wanted or needed". The national team are lauded as sporting giants, despite the fact they rank somewhere between 5th and 8th in a sport that only 8 countries take anywhere serious.

If I had an interest in sport and it was accessible for me to play then I would take it up when I was in a position, I'm sure most normal people would as well.

Give us some data, bomber
Rugby was always on the telly. In the 80s and 90s Ireland might win 2 matches in the 5 or 6N with occasional class like 82 or 85

But then O'Driscoll rolled up
He  scored 3 tries in PARIS to beat the French in France for the first time in 30 years in 2000
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWr9Oz-cnzI
I remember pulling into a pub in Tipp to watch it.
Rugby has been on an upward curve since then

Back in 95 Leinster played in front of a crowd of 4k at Landsdowne Road in the Heinken Cup.

http://origin-m.ercrugby.com/matchcentre/16914.php

Nobody cared then obviously.

Except you

No one cares about Scottish football bomber! Even the famous Celtic couldn't fill Parkhead when the sectarian fun was missing for 3 or 4 years!

A team as opposed to a sport.

On a bad day Celtic Park is about 60% full. Imagine playing in the echelons of European club rugby (after you've amalgamated all the clubs on the island into four sides) and playing in a stadium where 3/4 of the stadium didn't even open.

Rugby had no following in Ireland and then overnight half the country were big rugby people who were blowing excessive money following the fortunes of the bottlers. I wonder how many of our Ulster rugby fans on here set foot inside Ravenhill before the mid 2000s?

It's a bit like when the junior and intermediate club teams go to Croke park on finals day... 10th of the capacity but for the players amazing.... nowadays it's nearly full houses so hey everyone come on well

But we agree that game had no mass appeal 15-20 years ago. Strange how there are all these ardent rugby lads here now saying that they were always into the game - that is out of shape with the pattern.

You have made it quite clear you don't have any time for the sport of Rugby.  Why then do you feel the need to post on a thread about rugby?  Do you just enjoy trolling that much? 

[theticklemister]

I represented St. Columbs College In Derry City for rugby. I played for four years scoring one try. A break away effort from the back of the scrum in October 2000. Rugby has been played for years in the college,probably the most well-known Catholic School in the north. I gave it up in fifth year to solely put my mind to the GAA and claim my spot on the bench for the two years of McLarnon.

A few Catholic Schools played it in around Derry. Most of the times we played Protestant schools in west Tyrone. There is a tradition after games to applaud the opposition team and gave them three cheers. They use to wind us up by saying:

"3 cheers for St. Columb's College of Londonderry"

Lol

[Milltown Row2]

I represented St. Columbs College In Derry City for rugby. I played for four years scoring one try. A break away effort from the back of the scrum in October 2000. Rugby has been played for years in the college,probably the most well-known Catholic School in the north. I gave it up in fifth year to solely put my mind to the GAA and claim my spot on the bench for the two years of McLarnon.

A few Catholic Schools played it in around Derry. Most of the times we played Protestant schools in west Tyrone. There is a tradition after games to applaud the opposition team and gave them three cheers. They use to wind us up by saying:

"3 cheers for St. Columb's College of Londonderry"

Lol

The sectarian basturds!!

[Tony Baloney]

As an aside, as an Ulster man, I will never support the Ulster rugby team in its current guise. The selection processes, coaching, administration and governance is inherently sectarian and no serious attempt has been made to address this. Of course plenty of Catholics don't care and go to ravenhill for the spectacle but personally I wouldn't go near it until I see some fundamental change in culture from the top down.

Explain all these reasons before making such a hideous claim.

Yeah, I mean to be fair rugby is played in tradionally Protestant Grammer schools up north and not played in Catholic schools at any level as far as i know, Ulster rugby pick from these schools and they represent Ulster at school level and then make it (if they are lucky) to get on to the Ulster set up.... There has been many attempts from catholics in the past that set up rugby teams and such but lost a lot of interest as they were mainly GAA men and never really commited to it...

Ive never heard of a bias to be honest and thats from lads i know personally who over the years have been involved with coaching at schools and ulster levels

wrong...as I mentioned to the thread dose a while back, a couple of catholic schools in Derry now field rugby teams

Couple, do they play in the schools cup or the lower level competitions? How have they fared?

that's 2 in Derry, I'm not sure about other areas. Schools Cup level, no, be a fair bit off that level at the minute. There's a few of our minors playing, I'll get the low down as to how they are progressing.

Was talk of brining it into a lot of schools but to fit it in with their current soccer and gaelic games set up would put more strain on timetabling and getting staff to get involved... most parents that are involved with rugby do send their sons to particular schools with the tradition, Inst, Methody, BRA, and the rest and the training facilities at these schools is on a par to professional clubs, directors of rugby brought in to do just that, no teaching just coaching....

We asked to play it when I was at school 25 years ago but we were told the school wasn't insured for it. Nor would they have had much appetite for it either in a predominantly hurling school.

There is a grain of truth in the increase in interest in Ulster specifically, which I'm sure has lot of it has to do with post-Troubles Belfast. I don't think I would have gone over to Ravenhill in the mid-90s. Belfast is a different place now. I wouldn't have gone to what is now the Cathedral Quarter in Belfast in the mid-90s either.

[Milltown Row2]

Duke of York? God I've been in that old bar since late 80's!!

[Tony Baloney]

Duke of York? God I've been in that old bar since late 80's!!

Apart from The Duke of York and the Front Page or White's Tavern but certainly not much in town back in the day, apart from the risk of a kicking.

[Milltown Row2]

Duke of York? God I've been in that old bar since late 80's!!

Apart from The Duke of York and the Front Page or White's Tavern but certainly not much in town back in the day, apart from the risk of a kicking.

Aye, there was a few areas to avoid for sure

[imtommygunn]

Duke of York? God I've been in that old bar since late 80's!!

Apart from The Duke of York and the Front Page or White's Tavern but certainly not much in town back in the day, apart from the risk of a kicking.

I would have thought the front page would have been a good place to go if you were looking a beating...

[Milltown Row2]

Duke of York? God I've been in that old bar since late 80's!!

Apart from The Duke of York and the Front Page or White's Tavern but certainly not much in town back in the day, apart from the risk of a kicking.

I would have thought the front page would have been a good place to go if you were looking a beating...

more so Frames front page similar locas, from your own too