Non-football oval-shaped thread

[Jordi Culé]

we had a hard core of Welsh fans who would support the side but once we qualified for euro 2016 people who couldn't give a toss about football jumped on board

And there are plenty of examples of people on here of people who have shouted down when cheering a goal against England in a pub , in Wales

Given that loads of Welsh people support English football clubs its no surprise

As for England, I don't care if they see their main rivals as Germany, they are 40 miles from most of us. Our rivals may be better than us and bigger than us but they are still our rivals .

Leeds United see their rivals as man United, Middlesbrough, Sheffield Wednesday , Chelsea etc

Ask Bradford City and Huddersfield who they hope lose , especially when they are playing them ?

Put it this way , it isn't Halifax Town

Wales football fans are as fickle as City's. Are you suggesting Wales have never attracted large crowds to games during qualification matches?

The Red Wall nonsense grates me but Wales could always attract the attendances when doing well. You're pissing in the wind with your recollections.

Welsh people/fans being shouted down in pubs for cheering when England concede a goal. Where does this happen? Hay on Wye?

Leeds have got a rivalry with Man United. Their fans detest each other.

Rivalry is a two way thing isn't it? It's hardly a rivalry if one of the so called rivals is at best apathetic about the other.

[xsnaggle]

Wales football fans are as fickle as City's. Are you suggesting Wales have never attracted large crowds to games during qualification matches?

The Red Wall nonsense grates me but Wales could always attract the attendances when doing well. You're pissing in the wind with your recollections.

Welsh people/fans being shouted down in pubs for cheering when England concede a goal. Where does this happen? Hay on Wye?

Leeds have got a rivalry with Man United. Their fans detest each other.

Rivalry is a two way thing isn't it? It's hardly a rivalry if one of the so called rivals is at best apathetic about the other.

Newport County are a perfect example of that. City fans tend to watch out for their score and root for them and applaud them when they do well like giant killing in the cup and presently in the league, yet their supporters hate City.
So you're right, that isn't rivalry but I don't know what the heel it is.

[surge]

Rugby seems to be at a low currently. That might be too many sides in transition preparing for the next World Cup, it might be that laws have changed to offer greater protection to players and coaching staff/players haven't caught up so too many red cards and penalties, it might be it's a sport that really needs fans in the stadium to add a level of drama it doesn't have without them but it is definitely at a low point.

Ireland were the better side today but Wales scored two nice tries and most importantly remembered how to win. Apparently, Pivac has a break clause in his contract two years in so we'll see at the end of this tournament whether we're going to continue this route or scramble around for something else.

[the other bob wilson]

Rugby seems to be at a low currently. That might be too many sides in transition preparing for the next World Cup, it might be that laws have changed to offer greater protection to players and coaching staff/players haven't caught up so too many red cards and penalties, it might be it's a sport that really needs fans in the stadium to add a level of drama it doesn't have without them but it is definitely at a low point.

Ireland were the better side today but Wales scored two nice tries and most importantly remembered how to win. Apparently, Pivac has a break clause in his contract two years in so we'll see at the end of this tournament whether we're going to continue this route or scramble around for something else.

I remember the Rugby World Cup from 1994 I think it was when Wales just pumped the ball up the pitch endlessly and, with the opposition doing the same, games were a strange, mind numbing version of tennis. Unbelievably, rugby seems to have got itself into that position again. I don’t think Wales would have had a chance of winning without the, justified, red card, but the odd thing was that, amid all of the boring stuff, Wales scored two sharp tries that Ireland, for all of their domination of large spells of the game, didn’t have the cutting-edge to match.

[delmbox]

Newport County are a perfect example of that. City fans tend to watch out for their score and root for them and applaud them when they do well like giant killing in the cup and presently in the league, yet their supporters hate City.
So you're right, that isn't rivalry but I don't know what the heel it is.

Describing us and England as having a "rivalry" in football is a bit embarrassing because they couldn't care less about us. During Euro 2016 a lot of my English friends were genuinely surprised at how much we wanted them to lose when they were rooting for us to do well.

[surge]

Describing us and England as having a "rivalry" in football is a bit embarrassing because they couldn't care less about us. During Euro 2016 a lot of my English friends were genuinely surprised at how much we wanted them to lose when they were rooting for us to do well.

I have heard that Germany feel the same way and consider their rivalry with the Dutch. Is it really a rivalry if one team is so much more successful than the other?

On the other hand, people in England generally know so little about relationship with Wales (Scotland/Northern Ireland/Ireland) whereas we know a bit more about it, although not always seeing as our media is still mostly from an English perspective and apathy or self-negativity is too often a national trait. How many know for example that time our anthem was banned at Wembley?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.wal...t-12351782.amp

Do things like that mean we have a different view on it whereas lots of them didn't know we existed before 2016? Still, Southgate used the Welsh corner routine in Russian World Cup and credited spending time scouting rugby and basketball without mentioning us and English pundits always quick to point out English born Welsh players whereas they don't do similar for their stars so maybe there is something coming back from that side? Them not wanting us to win isn't the only way it can manifest itself.

Let's be honest though I) the English FA's job is to make England successful and they're quite alright pretending Wales (or a anyone else) doesn't exist if that improves their odds and that can include overriding any thoughts of any potential rivalry and ii) sports rivalry is slowly changing so now more about us winning more trophies rather than having an empty fixture against a neighbour which is a cup final in emotion only. That might change again in a political climate where some Welsh/non-Welsh who don't want Wales to exist in any real way and those who want it be more confident and defined and these smaller things might become more important.