Premier Rugby (U.K.) backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

I only remember Mark2010 doing that with basketball.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

YF may have been speaking a bit tongue-in-cheek, but he has a point.

Rugby has only become particularly popular in Ireland, at least in the Republic and among Catholics in the North, in the last decade or so. Soccer only broke through bigtime in the late '80s, especially Euro '88 and the '90 World Cup.

Like most other things in Irish history, the reasons are intertwined with politics and the English. Especially since the early 20th Century, the Irish focused very consciously on the traditional Irish sports, especially (Irish/Gaelic) football and hurling. "Foreign" sports, which really meant English sports, were frowned upon. That meant no soccer, rugby or cricket.

The Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) runs the Irish sports in the country, and over most of its history it actually forbade its members from even attending, say, a soccer match, never mind playing the sport. There was also a longstanding rule, which I believe is still technically in place, forbidding any non-Irish sport from being played in one of its facilities. Since the GAA owns and operates most of the nation's best fields and stadiums, that helped keep interest and participation low.

The GAA first allowed that rule to be lifted when Ireland hosted a Six Nations rugby match in like 2007 in Croke Park, the 80,000-seat GAA stadium in Dublin that is by far the nicest stadium in the country. I don't believe there had ever been a soccer or rugby game ever held there before. I vaguely remember some brouhaha like 10-15 years ago when the Irish national soccer team, which has become quite popular, wanted to host a charity game there, and the GAA still said no.

Anyway rugby has definitely become more popular, especially because the Irish national team has had some occasional international success in the last decade. (One truism in Irish culture is that if you can beat the English at a sport they care about, you're never have to buy a drink again.) But it's definitely not a traditional Irish sport.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

I know the history of the GAA, and I know the popularity of three of the four Irish teams in the PRO 12 league (Connacht doesn't really count as it has limited funding.)

The success of Irish teams in European rugby has certainly helped. Has it eclipsed GAA? No. But rugby isn't a minor sport, there, either.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

That's what I was getting at Pete.

You explained it well.

When my brother and I were in Belfast a few years ago, we befriended a couple of guys in what seemed like a bit of a rough bar. Rather than ask him whether he was Catholic or Protestant, I instead asked him about the sports he played growing up.

When he told us Hurling and Gaelic Football, we knew he was Catholic. He ended up gifting the hurling stick he grew up playing with to my brother by the end of the night.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

I didn't say it was a "minor" sport.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

We called a cab to get back to our hotel in Belfast, and the cab pulled up, then started to pull away, before stopping again.

The cabbie explained that when he saw the hurling stick, he wasn't going to let us in the cab, as Catholics use them to beat up Protestants. Once he heard our American accents, he realized it was just a souvenir and decided to let us in.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

I've made it several times. You're just trolling now.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

<Sigh>

If you'd like to discuss as an adult why the NFL - the NFL, not me - thinks promoting rugby is a good thing, I'm game. If you want a piss fight, then troll somebody else.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

Nonsense - the collisions are not even close to the same in Rugby as football and almost all of those rugby guys couldn't play in the NFL as they are not fast enough or big enough and the ones who could wouldn't last a season.

And if they tried that tribal mating dance bullshit most of the players in the NFL would laugh in their face and tell them to take that shit somewhere else.

I mean, give me a damn break with this nonsense

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

Rugger is one sport I still have to grasp. I know some of the basic rules (and some of the drinking songs), but I don't see nearly enough of it to get a handle on the nuances of it.

 

Re: NFL backing pro rugby effort in U.S.

You'd cry like a little kid if you tried to play, Internet tough guy.