Neil Francis

[straightred]

He has a point about the provincial finals to be fair.

He has a point about one provincial final and if the likes of Meath and Kildare could get their act together he wouldn't have a point at all. The exact same point could be made about the rugby world cup. The early rounds of that are a farce

[screenexile]

By claiming rugby as the national sport (again) he is simply trying to keep his name in the headlines. Francis is not the worst pundit, at least he gives his opinion but I think he is deliberately trying to wind people up on this issue knowing that he will get a reaction.

The amount of media coverage that an end of season series junket with very little meaning attracts is mystifying.   

You don't understand test rugby if you think get hammered in contact by professional sports men with an average weight of 100kg is a junket. It's fair to say also you don't understand professional rugby or indeed the cultural significance around test rugby period if you think a test win has little meaning.

You're probably right, I don't understand it then.

Die hard rugby followers might understand it but I would hazard a guess that there are an awful lot of 'event junkies' in the country who purely tune in for big Heineken Cup and 6 nations matches and do not really follow the sport outside of those occasions. I would classify myself amongst them but for Neil Francis to claim it as the national sport because of this is just for wind up purposes and I doubt if he genuinely believes his own assertion.

If you get a chance to watch that last Ireland Australia game again you should. . . it was played far from Friendly pace and the hits involved don't seem like they were from lads who were out in Australia just having a bit of craic!!

Francis is a mouthpiece and he's only saying this National Sport nonsense to get a reaction. Who really cares anyway?! Can we not watch both and enjoy them?!

[Dinny Breen]

By claiming rugby as the national sport (again) he is simply trying to keep his name in the headlines. Francis is not the worst pundit, at least he gives his opinion but I think he is deliberately trying to wind people up on this issue knowing that he will get a reaction.

The amount of media coverage that an end of season series junket with very little meaning attracts is mystifying.   

You don't understand test rugby if you think get hammered in contact by professional sports men with an average weight of 100kg is a junket. It's fair to say also you don't understand professional rugby or indeed the cultural significance around test rugby period if you think a test win has little meaning.

You're probably right, I don't understand it then.

Die hard rugby followers might understand it but I would hazard a guess that there are an awful lot of 'event junkies' in the country who purely tune in for big Heineken Cup and 6 nations matches and do not really follow the sport outside of those occasions. I would classify myself amongst them but for Neil Francis to claim it as the national sport because of this is just for wind up purposes and I doubt if he genuinely believes his own assertion.

No argument there, there should be no such thing as national sport, people playing any sport is in the national interest and should be encouraged.

[Dinny Breen]

He has a point about the provincial finals to be fair.

He has a point about one provincial final and if the likes of Meath and Kildare could get their act together he wouldn't have a point at all. The exact same point could be made about the rugby world cup. The early rounds of that are a farce

Love the way the Dublin media have played the game, it's not the GAA's fault, we deserve the millions, I mean if only Kildare and Meath got their act together. Brilliantly played...

[Owenmoresider]

Can somebody post up this deeply offensive article so we can all consider whether he has a point or is just being your average WUM?

Re the Kiernan and athletics thing, he might have a point if it wasn't presented in such a bitter resentful tone. It might be a trend in Irish athletics though - there's a local guy who's heavily involved in running at national/international level who has (or had?) a weekly column in the Weekender where he regularly threw in snide digs at the GAA whenever he could, sometimes subtle and sometimes anything but. Never had a pop at the Rovers funnily enough.

[straightred]

He has a point about the provincial finals to be fair.

He has a point about one provincial final and if the likes of Meath and Kildare could get their act together he wouldn't have a point at all. The exact same point could be made about the rugby world cup. The early rounds of that are a farce

Love the way the Dublin media have played the game, it's not the GAA's fault, we deserve the millions, I mean if only Kildare and Meath got their act together. Brilliantly played...

Dublin aren't the only team blocking their progress. Kildare can still prove me wrong this year and BTW - I'm not a Dub !

I agree with you on the National sport - its an unecessary debate and it smacks of small man snydrome. We are all free to play and watch whatever we want but I wish the likes of Francis would  stop trying to ram his preferences down all our throats just because he has some beef with the GAA

[seafoid]

That wasn't a deliberate wind-up though.
He really does hate the GAA. 
The best bit of that was clowns on social media slagging him off for 'only' finishing 9th in the marathon at the '84 Olympics.

A lot of people hate the GAA. Mostly in strong and successful GAA counties in my experience. A lot of GAA people hate soccer and rugby also. I just read the Francis column today and see nothing objectionable tbh. The GAA is not a national game because we don't play other nations. Our 'soccer' team seems to be getting poorer with less quality players as the years go by. Often they are unwatchable. They get hammered 5-1 in a WC qualifier and it seemed like the FAI were desperate for the manager to stay on!

Kiernan's criticism was ok too. There are lads in their 40's and 50's that spend more time running training and are fitter than some senior club players and even some senior county players in their 20s. Maybe it is not the GAA players that instigate it but all the talk of 'sacrifices' is wearing.

By that rationale, they are also fitter than the vast majority of professional rugby players.
My issue with Jerry is that he thinks fitness=the ability to run long distances.
Why would somebody playing a team sport on a pitch with set dimensions train to run long distances, when intermittent sprints are the dominant activity?
I know a few veteran marathon runners who are quite happy to pound the roads for hours on end, but they have very little speed or strength.
If you put them on a football field they'd be lost, and probably end up getting hurt.
Does that mean they aren't fit?
Of course not.
Fitness is sports specific.

The voice of reason, Jinxy .

[Jinxy]

He has a point about the provincial finals to be fair.

He has a point about one provincial final and if the likes of Meath and Kildare could get their act together he wouldn't have a point at all. The exact same point could be made about the rugby world cup. The early rounds of that are a farce

Love the way the Dublin media have played the game, it's not the GAA's fault, we deserve the millions, I mean if only Kildare and Meath got their act together. Brilliantly played...

Dublin aren't the only team blocking their progress. Kildare can still prove me wrong this year and BTW - I'm not a Dub !

I agree with you on the National sport - its an unecessary debate and it smacks of small man snydrome. We are all free to play and watch whatever we want but I wish the likes of Francis would  stop trying to ram his preferences down all our throats just because he has some beef with the GAA

I don't think he has a beef with the GAA.
He's just a bit of a rogue and he knows what buttons to push to get attention in a soccer/GAA heavy summer sporting schedule.
Lately though I have found the excessive amount of 'this is why our sport is the best sport on the planet' nonsense within GAA circles really annoying.
I don't get the mentality of someone who would watch an amazing game of hurling and then use it as a stick (!) to beat other sports (usually soccer) with.
Dopes.

[seafoid]

Irish soccer is in a hole at the moment though. I remember when the team got to its first World Cup and all the talk was of the GAA being under threat from a global sport.

Neil Francis can be quite provocative and it has gotten him into trouble recently.

[Solo_run]

He really is a hateful piece of s***

[Itchy]

Who came up with the idea of a scrum in Rugby. A bunch of big strong men, sticking their heads between each others arses and grabing each others crotches. Its like something out of a gay porn movie. I rest my case.

[Dinny Breen]

Who came up with the idea of a scrum in Rugby. A bunch of big strong men, sticking their heads between each others arses and grabing each others crotches. Its like something out of a gay porn movie. I rest my case.

Is it? I have never watched gay porn to compare.

[magpie seanie]

Can somebody post up this deeply offensive article so we can all consider whether he has a point or is just being your average WUM?

Re the Kiernan and athletics thing, he might have a point if it wasn't presented in such a bitter resentful tone. It might be a trend in Irish athletics though - there's a local guy who's heavily involved in running at national/international level who has (or had?) a weekly column in the Weekender where he regularly threw in snide digs at the GAA whenever he could, sometimes subtle and sometimes anything but. Never had a pop at the Rovers funnily enough.

Ya - I'd have huge time for athletics/running and the guy involved for his own career and coaching etc so I was a little disappointed to read those pieces by times. Especially when he has lots of positive things to write about in his own sport. The GAA doesn't have to be "weakened" for other sports to get better.

[magpie seanie]

Neil Francis is just a WUM though. One of my mates described him after last weeks piece of rubbish as "our Stephen Jones" which probably fits just right.

[Baile Brigín 2]

The ultimate issue here for the rugby set is that despite unprecedented success the game hadn't grown significantly. The relative lack of interest in the Melbourne game when soccer and Gaelic games were in full swing tells it's own tale. They are miles off soccers playing numbers, football's crowds and hurling cultural significance, and you can taste the hurt.

There seems to be an orchestrated campaign from the rugby heads to brand their game as the national/people's game. The harder they try, the sillier they look