The IRISH RUGBY thread

[The Trap]

I am a rugby fan and I enjoy watching the games but I was listening to RTE Sport yesterday and they had Reggie Corrigan and Hugo McNeil on and I have to say they were talking out of their arses........
They said that Ireland now have 2 players for every position and could deal with injuries............may I remind them of the World Cup game against Argentina.........
I know there is a lot said about RTE bias towards rugby but I think what the rugby people do well is talk themselves up whereas GAA people talk themselves down...........

[Walter Cronc]

I am a rugby fan and I enjoy watching the games but I was listening to RTE Sport yesterday and they had Reggie Corrigan and Hugo McNeil on and I have to say they were talking out of their arses........
They said that Ireland now have 2 players for every position and could deal with injuries............may I remind them of the World Cup game against Argentina.........
I know there is a lot said about RTE bias towards rugby but I think what the rugby people do well is talk themselves up whereas GAA people talk themselves down...........

I think Schmidt has learnt his lesson from the Argentina game but he's also been fortunate that we've consistently had excellent u20 sides now for the past 4/5 years. Looking at the '2' or more players in each position in certain positions the quality in 1st/2nd/3rd choice is greater than others and also there are overlaps.

15. Kearney/Payne/O'Halloran/Zebo
14. Trimble/Gilroy/Adeolokun - Sweetnam in 2017 in my opinion
13. Payne/Ringrose/Marshall
12. Henshaw/Marshall/Olding/McCloskey - Aki in 2017
11. Zebo/Earls
10. Sexton/Jackson/Carberry
9. Murray/Marmion/McGrath - Huge fall off here in terms of talent
8. Heaslip/Stander/O'Donoghue
7. O'Brien/Van der Flier/Murphy
6. Stander/O'Mahony/Leavy
5. Henderson/Ryan
4. Toner/Dillane
3. Furlong/Bealham
2. Best/Cronin
1. McGrath/Healy/Kilcoyne

I'm sure there are more I have missed but thats off the top of my head.

[AhNowRef]

Superb effort by the Irish side. New Zealand physically upped their game and inflicted serious damage on the irish players. Ireland I would imagine will be well short next week.
Ireland did everything but cross the line as New Zealand seemed happy to concede penalties to prevent what looked like inevitable irish tries.

Hilarious - glory in yet another home defeat to one of their only competitors in this niche sport.

The attitude in this country to failure in such a shallow pool is probably unique in sport.

You keep saying it's a niche sport. Which suggests that there are numerous other sports which are more mainstream. Apart from soccer name me another sport which is the national sport of 6 countries (Wales, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Fiji and Samoa) and is played professionally in at least 10 countries that I know of.

Rugby is the national sport of 1, yes 1, country with a population of over 1 million and that's New Zealand which has a similar population to Ireland.

Soccer is more popular in Wales, South Africa and France. Fiji has a population of under a million and Samoa has a population similar to that of Donegal.

It very much is a niche sport.

In terms of team sports, it ranks far behind the likes of soccer, basketball, cricket and baseball. There are more professional soccer players in America than their are pro rugby players on the entire planet.

Complete rubbish. Soccer I already said is definitely the most popular team sport worldwide. Basketball might possibly be next with rugby and cricket enjoying similar popularity in terms of being played in roughly the same number of countries. Baseball is really only played seriously in the USA. Even if you were correct you were only able to name 4 sports which means it is hardly niche. Also rugby is far more popular in Wales than soccer. Wales has more professional rugby teams than soccer and when the international team plays rugby is by far the best supported. In France also the rugby team enjoys far greater and more passionate support.

You're lying and I will destroy you on facts here.

Baseball is the most popular sports in countries like Venezuela (population of 30m), Dominican Republic (population of 10m) and a few other central American countries. You're lying

As outlined already New Zealand is the only country in the world with a population of over 1m where rugby is more popular. You're lying

On Wales, once again you are lying. Soccer dominates rugby in participation of adults (210,000) play soccer in Wales compared to rugby (70,000). That's 3:1 in any man's language. You're lying

As for professional teams, rugby has 4 professional sides - the same as soccer has - Swansea, Cardiff, Newport, Wrexham are all professional sides from Wales playing in the English football league. Attendances from these Welsh football sides also dwarf that of their rugby counterparts. Again, you're lying.

The only place where Wales can claim a more popular source in rugby is the popularity of their national team, but like Ireland this is heavily reliant on their rugby side being a big fish in small pond and the chance of success seems to draw people in. In terms of interest with the actual sport, football far outweighs rugby for the reasons listed above.

Cricket is absolutely huge over in the middle east with enormous countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh being cricket mad and it is definitely the number one sport in those countries.

Basketball is the biggest sport in the US and also in quite a few Eastern European countries, it has a very big following in Spain and far eastern countries.

In France, football is the game of the people by an absolute mile. Rugby only has popularity in southern region of the country with absolutely no impact across the rest of the country.

I would like to thank you for showcasing the depths of lying and manipulating the truth that rugby fans will go in order to justify their bizarre placing on the game in a world spectrum.

Now, getting back to my initials question, can you name me another country with a population of over 1m apart from New Zealand (pop 4m) where rugby is the most popular sport in that country?

Wow  .. how fecked up are you lad .... this is one serious obsession you have ... go see a specialist immediately 

Also, can you move away from Tyrone and support someone else please 

[AhNowRef]

Superb effort by the Irish side. New Zealand physically upped their game and inflicted serious damage on the irish players. Ireland I would imagine will be well short next week.
Ireland did everything but cross the line as New Zealand seemed happy to concede penalties to prevent what looked like inevitable irish tries.

Hilarious - glory in yet another home defeat to one of their only competitors in this niche sport.

The attitude in this country to failure in such a shallow pool is probably unique in sport.

You keep saying it's a niche sport. Which suggests that there are numerous other sports which are more mainstream. Apart from soccer name me another sport which is the national sport of 6 countries (Wales, New Zealand, South Africa, France, Fiji and Samoa) and is played professionally in at least 10 countries that I know of.

Rugby is the national sport of 1, yes 1, country with a population of over 1 million and that's New Zealand which has a similar population to Ireland.

Soccer is more popular in Wales, South Africa and France. Fiji has a population of under a million and Samoa has a population similar to that of Donegal.

It very much is a niche sport.

In terms of team sports, it ranks far behind the likes of soccer, basketball, cricket and baseball. There are more professional soccer players in America than their are pro rugby players on the entire planet.

Complete rubbish. Soccer I already said is definitely the most popular team sport worldwide. Basketball might possibly be next with rugby and cricket enjoying similar popularity in terms of being played in roughly the same number of countries. Baseball is really only played seriously in the USA. Even if you were correct you were only able to name 4 sports which means it is hardly niche. Also rugby is far more popular in Wales than soccer. Wales has more professional rugby teams than soccer and when the international team plays rugby is by far the best supported. In France also the rugby team enjoys far greater and more passionate support.

You're lying and I will destroy you on facts here.

I have to admit though ... that bit is funny ... what a tool  lmfao

[The Stallion]

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

Hard to come back from that mauling with any dignity.

[Walter Cronc]

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

Hard to come back from that mauling with any dignity.

Slide you on ye bo**ix, masquerading on here as a Glen man. Prat!

[johnneycool]

I am a rugby fan and I enjoy watching the games but I was listening to RTE Sport yesterday and they had Reggie Corrigan and Hugo McNeil on and I have to say they were talking out of their arses........
They said that Ireland now have 2 players for every position and could deal with injuries............may I remind them of the World Cup game against Argentina.........
I know there is a lot said about RTE bias towards rugby but I think what the rugby people do well is talk themselves up whereas GAA people talk themselves down...........

Gaelic football people talk themselves down...


As for the rugby it was very clear from the start that the All blacks meant serious business and the first exchanges were as frenetic as you'll see anywhere. Ireland were doing very well to hang in there, but always in the backs of your mind that the defence would ultimately run out of steam for a barrage of tries. To Ireland's credit in terms of mental and physical strength, that really didn't materialise and Ireland had a good bit of possession in the second half, ideally should have done more with it, but it wasn't the AB romp home that we'd come to expect.

The high arm leading into the tackle needs to be sorted out, Henshaw spiraled into one, but would have got clobbered by it anyway, not sure how it could have been seen as accidental, but alas the referee let it go and the AB's knew where they stood on it, so did Ireland and should have given Barrett a bit of a wallop just to soften a few AB coughs!

[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.

[AhNowRef]

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 !!!

[OgraAnDun]

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 !!!

It's called trolling and enough people here were caught in the trick to make it completely worth his while. I don't for a minute believe he actually holds those views (or views that strong anyway).

[AhNowRef]

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 !!!

It's called trolling and enough people here were caught in the trick to make it completely worth his while. I don't for a minute believe he actually holds those views (or views that strong anyway).

Yeah I thought that at the start too but to keep it going this long ... seems a little much ...

I still think one or two of them either think all Rugby players/supporters are posh t**ts (wrong ..) or got their eyes wiped in some way ... the HATE seems genuine  lol

funny stuff though 

[manfromdelmonte]

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 !!!

It's called trolling and enough people here were caught in the trick to make it completely worth his while. I don't for a minute believe he actually holds those views (or views that strong anyway).

Yeah I thought that at the start too but to keep it going this long ... seems a little much ...

I still think one or two of them either think all Rugby players/supporters are posh t**ts (wrong ..) or got their eyes wiped in some way ... the HATE seems genuine  lol

funny stuff though 

Hilarious to read and hear all the rugby pundits defending the ABs as not being a malicious or dirty team!

They've always been the dirtiest and biggest cheaters in world rugby

[muppet]

I thought our best line against the ABs over the two games, was the back row. And that was without Peter O'Mahony!

Now, how many of them will Gatland start for the Lions?

My guess is none. With maybe O'Brien travelling if fit.

[Il Bomber Destro]

A sport where one team decided to take the opponents out of the game, caused injuries and weren't penalised?

Why would a parent encourage their child to play this game?

Incidentally, how many players were concussed yesterday?

How do you know there were players concussed?

You should just ignore this bigot folks.  Let him rant away but don't reply.  Its pointless trying to argue with an idiot- years of experience will mean they will come out in top.

I think it's pointless trying to argue against facts, that is why you guys are left clutching at empty insults like "bigots".

You also come out with a whole load of statements which have zero factual basis e.g you stated last week housewife viewing figures for rugby were through the roof?  You pick and choose what you want to reply too.  Your an idiot IMO.  You may think the same about me...i couldnt care less.  But no matter about all your facts which I dont dispute you dont seem to grasp that you are not going to change my opinion on rugby and I would say its the same for everyone else on here who enjoys the sport.

Why do you constantly cone on a thread where 95% of people want to talk about the game in a positive light without your constsnt slating of it.  Cant you not create a I Hate Rugby thread for that?

The fact 4 women were interviewed coming out of the stadium on RTE news yesterday gives my point on housewives credence. They also blamed the referee.

did they state they were housewives?

One was an 8 year old girl, the rugby side probably battle for wall space with Ed Sheeran or One Direction.

[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.