Reply With QuoteAlso not bad from a team that doesn't travel well.Originally Posted by the other bob wilson
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Wales won as well and go to Paris next weekend - I thought England were pretty ordinary against us, but there’s no way I could see them being thrashed by a France side that had not really played that well in their first three matches.
Also not bad from a team that doesn't travel well.
Jonny Wilkinson brushing it off like it was a bad day at the office, "we'll be much lighter next time"
Decent performance in Italy although I thought they were under par themselves.
Didn’t expect England to get slammed like that.
Whilst it's quite funny to see the posh types a bit quiet the vast majority of English people don't have much interest in rugby
The Welsh media try to lay it on but an England Rugby team defeat upsets a few public school chaps and that's about it
I've lived in Stockport for a fair few years and the locals barely register any interest in England rugby round here
Liverpool , Manchester , Leeds , Newcastle, Birmingham, Nottingham no real support for rugby union
Bristol , Leicester, few other places ,that's about it
English people who move to Wales must find it odd when their love is football
I'd say union is pretty big generally in most parts of the midlands and southern England. Not comparable to football in nearly every town or city but it's a pretty big deal in my experience.
Rugby has lost its way a bit mind. 25 years of professionalism has got it so far but it kinda needs to raise it's game and work out what it's doing..still too tied to old boys networks
The only side with any decent crowds is Leicester and they get smaller crowds than the football club
Birmingham doesn't have any big rugby union sides
Derby , Stoke , Nottingham nothing to speak of
It's a very high brow game and that's why when working class English people moved here and were given all sorts of inbred rugby related teasing it was directed at people who wernt interested in rugby at all
Dunno about Leicester being the only well supported English side - Northampton get more than that town's football team I would have thought and Gloucester and Bath are definite rugby cities with Cornwall being more rugby along with teams in Bristol and Exeter which play to large crowds - the west country has always had a rugby tradition.
As far as the Welsh game goes, I watched he first half from about when they scored their first try and the bit of the second half which coincided with half time in the City match and the impression I got is that it was more of an Italian loss than a Welsh win if you get my meaning - italy opened us up plenty of times, but a combination of impetuousness and and a lack of accuracy meant that they were unable to capitalise on lots of opportunities where Wales would have been punished by the other Six Nations sides.
On the other hand, Wales deserve credit for taking nearly all of the chances they had - that said, their first try owed a lot to a lucky bounce of the ball and their second one to woeful defensive play. The third one was a penalty try - I've never been able to claim I knew all of the rules of the game, so I don't have a clue what it was for, but, as the TMO had plenty of looks at the incident, I assume it was a correct decision and I've not seen the fourth one.
The win may have cleared a few off the stormclouds that had gathered for the "national sport", but, based on what I saw, we're still a long way short of being anything more than also rans in the coming World Cup.
One big city in the Midlands? Leicester ....that's it
No major rugby force in Densely populated Birmingham , Wolverhampton , Coventry, Nottingham, Stoke, Derby
Northampton , Exeter ......what sort of crowds do you think they would get if first class football was played there ?
You are clutching at straws here . Rugby is a minority sport and even in areas where they have successful teams they would take a back seat to football
Bristol City and Plymouth could easily command 30000 gates in the top flight . Equivalent rugby sides could never match that . Even in the west country , the one part of the UK where rugby is fairly well supported it takes second prize to football.
The Welsh go on and on about beating England but the reality is they couldn't really give a toss . If they did there would be well supported rugby clubs all over England .
But there isn't. The few they have are better supported than the Welsh teams but our rugby clubs have always been poorly supported so that's not much of a boast .
Yeah Leicester get very good crowds. Northampton, Bristol, Bath, Gloucester, Quin's will typically get close to 15,000 or above. Even Sale had 10,000 last week which is comparable to Wigan or St Helens in League.
Rugby in Wales is stuck in a huge rut. It can't carry on as it is. The best solution for me would be to return to club sides, this increasing competition and simply joining the English league system, even if it's 1 or 2 leagues down. Failing that, keep regions and do the same. It can't carry on as is though and Wales will soon be losing players to Japan let alone England or France.
I enjoy watching Cardiff RFC but few games genuinely matter. Form matters and it's good to see a good game but it's very rare that there is a must win game
National team I am less concerned about. These things go in cycles between the top rugby nations. That said, the sands are slowly shifting and teams like Japan, Argentina, even the US and Georgia are likely to permanently disrupt the old boys club of top nations, and that's no bad thing
You have mentioned Leicester who don't get crowds anywhere near Leicester City and Bristol who don't get crowds anywhere near Bristol City
Sale is the only rugby union team in Greater Manchester which is huge .
If rugby meant anything to the English it would be represented by big clubs all over the land
As for Cardiff Rugby it's got pathetic support considering it's the capital city team ofva country where everyone is apparently rugby mad
Sludge if this is another CCMB binary thread where everything is all good or all bad, ie, where the only question is which is bigger, then there is only one answer - football is a much bigger sport than Rugby Union in England.
But it is more complex than that, as rugby is pretty big in many places and the sporting culture in cities like Gloucester and Bath do revolve around the rugby clubs.
I doubt there is anywhere that would see better rugby crowds for two comparably successful teams. ie, even if Bath City got to the Premier League I suspect their crowds would be higher than the rugby's.
As it is, for those cities with professional rugby snf football teams, only Exeter and Northampton would see higher crowds for rugby..oh and strictly speaking Salford too (Sale second in the premiership get better crowds than Salford City)
I agree. Bar a handful of games a season, Cardiff RFCs support is pathetic.
It is which is why the Welsh obsession with beating England is a one way scrap
Cardiff Rugby seems very middle class . Solicitors , Architects etc
That's the fans .
In terms of local playing talent Cardiff RFC always seem to have been better at scouting the local community than Cardiff City
Quite a few players from Docks, Grangetown over the years
Why haven’t the bods from BBC Rugby stepped up today and step down from Scotland/Ireland. Free speech isn’t just a football issue is it?
Rugby League was always the working class game.
It was the very reason it turned professional all them years ago. To compensate workers for the time they took off work to play. Rugby Union stayed amateur as it was seen as a privilege to play and they didn't think people needed paying any money to miss work. Always a bit easier if you had a shedload of money to start with I suppose.
The union game, especially in England, is very public school orientated. I listen to a few rugby podcasts and the way some of them go on about their prop Ellis Genge (from a rough part of Bristol) you'd swear he was a retired gangster from the Bronx. Makes me laugh every time.
Is that why they sell out Twickenham, brought thousands to Cardiff and the sport is televised internationally?
Isn't rugby a second sport in Wales also? Looking at most meaningful statistics it would be behind football surely.
That's ok, just a shame it's always pushed as the national sport when most people don't think much about it unless Wales are on tele.
Just turned it into a thousand pager 🤣
I started the thread but I am out haha. Could run and run.
Twickenham 3 games a year
We took thousands to France in the euros
Its hardly Wembley, The Emirates , Anfield , St James Park
In terms of people playing the game it is
I think it's possible to enjoy watching rugby without falling for the sideshow bullshit
Like Cardiff Rugby fans thinking they are the most famous team in the world
I agree. And rugby union is much more working class in Wales. But it's not just a bunch of toffs in England.
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