I love France to be honest and my Tallaght roots and socialist tendencies and mean I can never fully warm to Rugby Ireland Inc.
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Rugby Union 21/22/23 Discussion | RWC time!
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I love France to be honest and my Tallaght roots and socialist tendencies and mean I can never fully warm to Rugby Ireland Inc.
We've lost a stack of matches now because our depth is pitiful. It's tragic really.
Oh I enjoy watching them when they're playing someone else. All ideology tends to go out the window for me when Ireland are playing and the nationalism takes over, apart from cricket or something cos feck that.
I see rugby only slightly less crickety than cricket.
there’s quite a stretch between polo seasons. need to fill it with something.
I suppose the days are harder to fill the more the commonwealth dwindles.
I actually think the core Irish rugby fans from the pre Pro days are worse than your lot.
they’ll all come begging to join again, jealous of our rocketing inflation, interest rates and goods shortages.
They can get that anywhere these days.
It can be a bit wankery alright. My childhood introduction to rugby was watching Munster in the Heineken Cup with my grandmother from Bruff. Big John Hayes fans. I don’t think I ever recovered from the emotional trauma of the Hand of Back.
Dupont is almost unbelievably class, but he's class at doing scrumhalf / back shit.
Furlong does all mighty, ugly, painful work of a tighthead prop, while carrying like a backrower, stepping like a centre and also being one of our go to first receivers, instigating loop moves and sleights of hand.
When Dupont locks down a scum I'll give him the same credit I give Furlong. The man is a phenomenon.
Munster was always the saving grace of Irish Rugby to me. Proximity to Leinster Rugby and a lot of what defines it was hard to deal with though.
Dupont is genuinely awesome to watch. That level of excellence is immensely watchable in nearly any sport.
Silky skills from a back is something we’re used to though.
I agree with @diarm that there’s something completely unprecedented about the skills that Tadgh can produce, while looking like he does, playing in the front row. He’s like some sort of superhero. It’s mad to watch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it, in any sport. Have you seen the clip of him hurling, as a 13 year old?
No but I really want to see it!
I'm a rugby ignoramus though in fairness, so most subtleties are over my head.
Yeah cos everyone in France is a socialist. Jesus wept.
Don't be silly. I like the way they play and dislike the rugby culture here so have no real national affiliation. It's a bit less serious than you took it.
Ellis Genge?
You've lost me.
I think I know where you’re going with it. It makes sense to me anyway.
Ah I don't think it's an uncommon sentiment from my generation. It's much less exclusive in its reach these days.
Ireland did their job and they could only beat what was in front of them but Wales were pretty shite. Good to see Aussie born Mac Hansen to play well on his test debut. It was a bit weird seeing Wales play a Six Nations match without Alun Wyn Jones playing.
Got to laugh at Aussie Eddie joking that he's going to do a 'Rassie' and prepare a video. England had enough territory and possession to be winning at half time. As it was, they were trailing 10-6 at the break. Aussie Eddie thought it was a good idea to take Marcus Smith off who I thought was solid enough, while George Ford did bugger all when he came on at flyhalf.
Got to laugh at Aussie Eddie joking that he's going to do a 'Rassie' and prepare a video. England had enough territory and possession to be winning at half time. As it was, they were trailing 10-6 at the break. Aussie Eddie thought it was a good idea to take Marcus Smith off who I thought was solid enough, while George Ford did bugger all when he came on at flyhalf.
There are different rugby cultures here.I presume you dislike the elitism of some of the private school class associated with the sport?
I am working class and a socialist and I played rugby.I admire teams that play the game well but I’m Irish and proud of it and always support Ireland.
I think he's explained himself fairly well and not sure it warrants a row about.
It's pretty natural that if you grew up in Dublin without a trust fund and a crosshairs for poor people on the end of your nose, you'd have a healthy dislike for the types of bellends rugby would've been synonymous with up here for several decades.
If you're from outside Dublin, the game has always been quite different and Leinster themselves have made huge strides towards cutting that shit out. Not just in the fact that roughly 50% of their current squad come from non traditional rugby towns and areas from around the province, but also that the kids they're bringing up within the D4 ghetto itself are far more rounded and pleasant individuals.
There'll still always be a few gobshites in the stands, but we all have those.
Yeah, that's it. Primarily, I was never exposed to it first hand. It was alien and the gap seemed to be class. I grew up in Tallaght in the 80's when the gap between there and Leinster Rugby was a chasm. Opposite ends of the spectrum and famously so. So it was very hard to be fully objective in such an obvious them/us situation.
Also I'm not a nationalist or patriot, I have a closer affiliation to the soccer team than any other sports because I was practically reared by the DDSL. In most sports I will support Ireland of course but I'm more defined by my class than by my nationality by a good distance. So the formative feelings for Rugby remain though now, even in Dublin that is much less the case. And I live in Sligo where it's even less so because of the Connaught success over the last while.
And France in the 80s were the only ones playing a running game so I've always liked them. It's a mesh of things, but I was still screaming encouragement at the TV v New Zealand. And of course, I would cheer for a representative side from Mars against England in any code, existing or yet to be invented.
I do like the game of Rugby and I went through a major break from being a lifelong United fan for a year or two and watched more Rugby than football, which I thought would never happen, but I watched all of it as neutral, which I rarely do with football, no matter who is playing, Although I'm not sure what that's about.
Who’s having a row ?
In Limerick it was always a game everyone played.One of our best ever props , Tom Clifford, was a coal man.
Lately I’m watching more and more rugby and less football ( my playing days are long gone)as I find you get more honesty in rugby & less money.
It’s harder and harder to relate to football players as the years go by and the cash gets even more obscene.
It'd be lovely if we could have a tournament where Italy's future in the competition isn't a talking point.
Ah yeah, I'm a fan of the long form sports journalist so the legend of Munster Rugby and especially Limerick has not escaped me.
There's just less bullshit on a Rugby Pitch, GAA too.
So many aspects of football depress me.
It would be nice to see Italy just compete today. They're not getting anything out of the game, I know that. But just...be in it. They haven't been great for the tournament, to be honest, but I'll be rooting for them today.
1. We're on a 9 match winning streak and have played some bloody brilliant rugby during that spell.
2. Yesterday was the first game back after an extended break for the squad. First game of the 6N is always a little rusty.
3. The conditions yesterday were manky. Even the mighty Connacht (5 wins and 9 losses this season) struggle to play champagne rugby in similar wind and rain.
4. International rugby is harder than URC and even European Cup. There is less time and space to exploit and teams trying to play pretty rugby, often get their arses fed to them by bigger, stronger packs. In test rugby you have to earn the right to play the expansive stuff by dominating up front - see how the All Blacks have struggled (relatively speaking) in the last 12 months with a slightly weaker pack of forwards than in years gone by, despite having talent like Smith, Mo'unga, Barrett, Jordan, Ioane, Mckenzie et al behind them.
Andy Friend is a good coach, doing good things with Connacht. But he has proven absolutely nothing to warrant being talked about for the Ireland job yet, particularly not when Farrell is doing such a fine job. We are playing a far better brand of rugby than we did under Schmidt, and he deserves time to see whether or not that brand can be as or even more effective.
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They at least have a very good and young fly half. Garbisi has been very good for the MHR.
I'd love to see Italy turn Wales over. It would be good for the game like.
Go on Italy!
EDIT: oh maybe not... Try given.
EDIT: oh maybe not... Try given.
That was great.
Was at Murrayfield last night. We need more songs as the atmosphere is pretty poor.
Been a while since I’ve been to a Scotland game though so might just have been a reflection on the quality of the game.
England really didn’t do an awful lot with the amount of ball they had either. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of our defence, hopefully bodes well for an always tricky trip to Cardiff next week.
Been a while since I’ve been to a Scotland game though so might just have been a reflection on the quality of the game.
England really didn’t do an awful lot with the amount of ball they had either. I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of our defence, hopefully bodes well for an always tricky trip to Cardiff next week.
Italy getting timely penalties here. If they are smart they might be able to annoy France off their stride.
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