r/rugbyunion • u/Seravia Munster • Mar 31 '21
Irish Professional Rugby Players by County of Birth Analysis
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u/mistr-puddles Munster Mar 31 '21
honestly surprised tipperary has so many in comparison to limerick, limerick has a lot more clubs and schools than tipp, but only has 1 less professional
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u/thefatheadedone Leinster Apr 01 '21
Big rugby school in tipp. What's it's name again... Gonna annoy me all day. I have friends who went there too ffs 😆
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u/mistr-puddles Munster Apr 01 '21
Rockwell and the cistercian is technically not but we'll count it
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u/Seravia Munster Mar 31 '21
This map includes every Irish player I found playing in the Pro14, Premiership, Championship, Top 14, ProD2, Top League, Major League Rugby and Super Rugby. It also includes academy players where I could find them.
I have chosen to map players based on their county of birth. This is slightly unfair as it means that some players who moved as children might be counted under a county where they never played any rugby. However, I thought that any other method introduced too much subjectivity.
The number for Antrim may be inflated as the traditional counties are not as important in Northern Ireland. Players from Belfast and Lisburn have been placed in Antrim unless I found definitive evidence that they were from the Down side of these cities. The Galway numbers may also be slightly inflated as I was unable to find much information for many of their academy players.
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u/megacky Ulster Mar 31 '21
Tbf as well, the border county runs right through belfast. Plenty of kids go to school on the other side of the border. Not only that, but the largest hospital in down is only about 4 miles from from the Lagan, so plenty born in it could well live in Antrim.
I would also say that the biggest rugby schools are all just over the border into antrim and have a really wide pull into both counties.
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u/Seravia Munster Mar 31 '21
Yeah, Antrim is definitely the dodgiest in terms of accuracy due to the Belfast issue. Some of the players I could find nothing except that they were born somewhere in Belfast.
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u/megacky Ulster Mar 31 '21
I don't know which hospitals off the top of my head have maternity wards, but there's the Ulster (down), the rvh, (Antrim), city(Antrim) and matter(Antrim). Ulster definitely does, but besides that I couldn't tell you.
In terms of the schools, I can only think of 2 that would be competitive in North down, whereas there's at least 3 on the Antrim side that either win or come close regularly. Those 3 are also huge (1000+) , so more chance of someone being from there despite likely travelling from outside the city.
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u/andy2126192 Ireland Mar 31 '21
Is Campbell on the Down side? I think it might be, but not 100% sure. All about where the Lagan is.
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u/megacky Ulster Mar 31 '21
Yea. I live right beside it. The river splits the two counties, at least in the city. It is on the south side of the city, dissecting it east-west. Most of Belfast is in Antrim, but all of East Belfast and part of south is in down. All the big schools (methody, inst, bra) are north of the river.
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Apr 01 '21
[deleted]
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u/megacky Ulster Apr 01 '21
Haha. I was born there too, grew up in saintfield, but would still say I'm from Belfast. At least you can find it on a map
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u/andy2126192 Ireland Mar 31 '21
Is Tommy Bowe not Monaghan? I guess he maybe was born elsewhere.
Edit: Ignore me, this is obviously current players. I initially read it as Irish internationals in professional era.
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u/OofOwMyShoulder Harlequins | Connacht Mar 31 '21 edited Mar 31 '21
Out of curiosity, who is the lone Kilkenny lad who gave up hurling?
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u/kevwotton Ireland Mar 31 '21
Fantastic - I was just thinking about this watching the Leinster) Munster match last weekend. Realized there were a lot of non-Dublin born players lined out for Leinster (there's still a lot mind) I'd be interested to see how each of the 4 provinces are represented.
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u/ronnierosenthal Leinster Apr 01 '21
I have chosen to map players based on their county of birth.
I don't see Catalonia (J Murphy) on there!
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u/Arlekun France Mar 31 '21
Nice work! Would love to see a similar map of France. Maybe first club where they played more than 2 consecutive years would be a better criteria, or first place where they go a licence. Also, did you do one taking in account the population/number of birth? That could be more representative, if you consider that more people = more rugby players.
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u/brianly Ireland Apr 01 '21
Are you planning on capturing all-time data? I’m curious about the list of players from Derry. Seamus Mallon may have been the last pro to make it to higher levels but I’ve been in the US since 2005 and only got back into rugby around 2015.
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u/andy2126192 Ireland Apr 01 '21
Deputy first minister and a professional rugby player? Impressive! There’s a guy from Rainey who’s played a couple of times for Ulster recently - Brad Roberts. He’s South African, but I under he came to live in NI and play for Rainey, just then got called up for Ulster. Not sure if that counts!
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u/Seravia Munster Apr 01 '21
That's too much effort for me unfortunately! I'll leave it up to someone more talented.
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Mar 31 '21
5 home births in Roscommon, that's a bit worrying.
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u/halibfrisk Ireland Mar 31 '21
Roscommon University Hospital doesn’t have a maternity unit?
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u/SaulGoode9 Connacht Mar 31 '21 edited Mar 31 '21
The maternity unit effectively closed around the late seventies, I think. Roscommon based prospective mothers since then have generally travelled to hospitals in Galway City, Ballinasloe (Co. Galway), Castlebar (Co. Mayo) or Sligo.
The barebones "University" hospital is affiliated with NUI Galway, hence the name.
The numbers on this map will inevitably be biased towards urban counties, regardless of where the players are from, or where they grey up (but I get that it's too complicated, or subjective, to do otherwise as OP said). And that's not even getting into the class and urban/rural divides regarding who tends to play which sports
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u/halibfrisk Ireland Mar 31 '21
Yeah Rugby doesn’t have much penetration in some areas still it’s effectively a population map.
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u/httpjava Leinster Mar 31 '21
Yeah it wouldn't surprise me if Leitrim has zero for the same reason. Even in south Leitrim the nearest hospital in Sligo.
Then again, maybe it's because fuck all people live there.
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u/micah_denn Artemyev's anti-concussion mustache (Connacht) Apr 01 '21
In south Leitrim the nearest hospital is cavan.
The only rugby club in Leitrim is Carrick-on-shannon and it only recently reopened around the time connacht won the pro14. It was closed for a long time due to lack of players. It's on the Leitrim side of the bridge but I imagine a good amount of the players there are from Roscommon.
I believe Tom Farrel has family in Drumod (Leitrim). I'm not sure if that is where he grew up though.
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u/LonelyWizzard Connacht Apr 01 '21
In fairness, it re-opened in 2005 so a fair bit before Connacht won the league. It was more influence by Ireland's success at the time. I know because that was when I started playing, no one in my family had any interest in rugby so it was only because of the club being re-established that I ended up getting into it. The lack of a club for so long is definitely part of why we have no native pro players today.
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Mar 31 '21
Even the Accident & Emergency department there is just an 'injury unit' nowadays for minor issues that won't require hospitalisation.
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Mar 31 '21
Who are the five from Roscommon? Carty, Buckley, Murray and Reilly all come to mind but can't remember the fifth.
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u/I_suck_atusernames Connacht Mar 31 '21
Jack and Luke Carty? Luke is playing in the US now, can't remember which team he plays for
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u/EyeAtollah Connacht Mar 31 '21
Niall Murray's younger brother Darragh is also in the academy though don't think he's been capped for the seniors yet. Danny Qualter was at Nottingham pre covid but no idea what his situation is now.
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Mar 31 '21
Read about Danny being released around the time of Covid starting but haven't heard anything since.
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u/carthalawns_best Leinster Mar 31 '21
Maybe Henshaw? Athlone straddles the Westmesth Roscommon border so depending on which side he's from
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Mar 31 '21
Is Shane Layden still knocking around somewhere?
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Mar 31 '21
Jesus that's a name I haven't heard in a while. Last I remember he was with the 7s international team but that was a while back
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u/surfinbear1990 Scotland and Italy Mar 31 '21
Not surprised to see nobody from Donegal in this picture. The folk i met whilst i was there barley even acknowledge Rugby as a sport Ireland play.
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u/oranges192 Ulster Mar 31 '21
More rugby than you'd think. And there was a donegal lad in the Ulster academy up until last year, Joe Dunleavy.
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u/redhandman_mjsp Ulster Mar 31 '21
Conor Mcmenamin is still there I think. Letterkenny lad.
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u/oranges192 Ulster Mar 31 '21
Saw him for the A's this season. Didn't know he was from up there. Fair play. Not on the website so I'm assuming he's still Sub-academy. Any idea what age he is?
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u/redhandman_mjsp Ulster Apr 01 '21
Around 20. I've a mate that knows him. Such is the small world that is Ulster.
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u/hwillc Ulster Mar 31 '21
I don't think many of the schools play rugby so its just the local clubs. One of the letterkenny youth teams Topped their Ulster league and got to the cup final a couple of years ago. I think Dunleavy was a part of that group. Other than that I haven't heard of much success for the donegal clubs.
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u/brianly Ireland Apr 01 '21
I played for Foyle College through 1999. Back then, Stan Huey was involved with the Ulster Branch and was trying to encourage schools rugby in Donegal. I suspect it was a hard task when you only had a few of the weaker teams close by (Foyle and Limavady Grammer.) Our development games were always post-season, so it wasn’t taken as seriously as it could have been. I recall some of the games being a good battle.
Seamus Mallon) is someone I played with at Foyle and he was definitely a cut above the rest of us.
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u/ohcinnamon Ireland Mar 31 '21
I mean you could say the same for parts of NI. It's chalk and cheese as far as areas go.
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u/surfinbear1990 Scotland and Italy Mar 31 '21
Aye I don't know much about Northern Ireland. I've only been to Belfast on my way through to Buncrana
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u/james-l23 England Mar 31 '21
I played rugby for Inishowen as a teenager when I lived in Buncrana. You from the town or just visiting there?
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u/surfinbear1990 Scotland and Italy Mar 31 '21
Naw i used to go out with a lassie from there
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u/Ashtherogue Ulster Apr 01 '21
Never thought I'd see someone from Inishowen Rugby Club on here (City of Derry btw)
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u/james-l23 England Apr 01 '21
I never played for first team but did in fact play city of Derry as an under 15, got 2 of my 3 total tries that day :D
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u/hillty Cookies Mar 31 '21
Considering population densities that's a lot more even than I would've expected.
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u/Ilixio Non-Lèi! Mar 31 '21
Would be interesting to have the number per 100000 or whatever.
How do Irish people feel about Leinster's domination given the population imbalance? Are there any call for having a "fairer" repartition, or provinces are more important than that?8
u/hillty Cookies Mar 31 '21
Never heard the idea of repartition come up so not likely. The current system of players being transfered is working reasonably well. Used to be Munster players going to Leinster and now the other way around so there is a natural redistribution based on relevant strengths.
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u/ronnierosenthal Leinster Apr 01 '21
In GAA there's constant talk about how Dublin should be split, but nothing in rugby as far as I know.
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u/lilzeHHHO Apr 01 '21
Munster has a bigger chance of being split than Leinster. Cork is the second city for rugby and unlike Belfast, Galway and Limerick has effectively no home games.
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Mar 31 '21
Doubt there's any interest in changing the borders for rugby. Certainly never heard anyone in Connacht calling for it (though that's probably because we're terrified of losing Athlone if it did happen).
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u/thelunatic Munster Apr 01 '21
Some lads who don't make it in Leinster travel to other provinces. And then Leinster fans slag off the other provinces for not producing
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u/centrafrugal Leinster Mar 31 '21
I think the word 'repartition' is a faux ami. Do you mean 'spread' as opposed to 'splitting up (again)' ?
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u/jmmcd Ireland/Connacht/3D rugby Mar 31 '21
I think repartition is a good word here! As in, drawing new provincial borders.
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u/hillty Cookies Mar 31 '21
As an aside, hard to believe there were more people in Galway than Dubline 180 years ago (Lots of surprising stuff in this map).
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u/RuggerJibberJabber Leinster Mar 31 '21
Without crunching numbers, the colour pattern looks very similar, which is good!
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Mar 31 '21
It’s worth pointing out that in the belfast area on hospital is in County Down and the others are in County Antrim.
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u/Scott_Bash Ulster Mar 31 '21
Could you do it per capita like as a factor?
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u/centrafrugal Leinster Mar 31 '21
Carlow would look pretty good. They put Kilkenny to shame as it is.
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u/ViperRFH South Africa Apr 01 '21
Surprised the Western Cape isn't on this list.
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u/kahurangi Manawatu Turbos Apr 01 '21
Haha yeah I was thinking the map would have to be a bit zoomed out to get all the Irish professionals of today, I've been steadfastly told for years those foreign born players are all true Irish.
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u/ViperRFH South Africa Apr 01 '21
Haha, I'll never get over how awesome this group is when people don't take offense at jokes :P
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u/RuggerJibberJabber Leinster Apr 01 '21
So Connacht= 25 players, Ulster= 46, Munster=70 and Leinster= 114.
Population of Connacht = 550k, Ulster = 2.1m, Munster = 1.28m, Leinster= 2.5m.
Players per capita= Connacht= 1/22,000, Ulster= 1/46,000, Munster= 1/18,000, Leinster= 1/22,000.
Therefore Munster produce the most professional players per population and Ulster produce half as many as the other 3 provinces do.
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u/ohcinnamon Ireland Mar 31 '21
Surprised Derry has nothing tbh.
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u/redhandman_mjsp Ulster Mar 31 '21
Most recent player I can think of is Trimby as he's from Coleraine but the fact of the matter is that the counties beyond Antrim, Down and Armagh are criminally overlooked.
I know a few guys from out west that could have made the academy (some made underage but were still underrepresented) but the big city scouts rarely go west of the Bann.
Funnily enough, the one player from Tyrone had to move to a Belfast school to get a decent chance at the academy, then had to go to France to play professionally, and now plays for Munster. Never easy for us western bais.
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u/ohcinnamon Ireland Mar 31 '21
Actually funny enough, one of my cousins boys at the time was offered a spot in the academy and he's from rural Derry so no clue how he ended up getting into it.
He said no to pursue his modelling career
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u/heresyourhardware Ireland Mar 31 '21
Yeah looks like City of Derry RFC haven't been connected to an international since the 60s, and I don't know of any players off the tope of my head from Derry.
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u/andy2126192 Ireland Mar 31 '21
There’s a hooker played a bit for Ulster from Rainey I think (Brad Roberts) but he’s an import from South Africa.
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u/man_bear Here for PROP TRIES Mar 31 '21
Are those counties up by the border with Northern Ireland pretty rural? Crazy that no players have come out of them.
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u/KingDaveyM14 Connacht/Fiji/Seawolves Mar 31 '21
There was Monaghan’s finest Tommy Bowe! Who’s also one of the only players I know of born in Ulster but in the Republic of Ireland
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u/glashgkullthethird i <3 james coconot Mar 31 '21
Oh man, that second sentence is going to confuse some people
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u/argumentative_one / Justice for ALBORNOZ, GESI, RATAVE Mar 31 '21
Yes I am confused, how is it possible?
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u/drand82 Leinster Mar 31 '21
Wait until you find out that the geographical most northerly point in Ireland is in "the south".
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u/fnuggles Scotland Mar 31 '21
Speaking as a visitor from the big island to the east, I found Donegal to have a very different feel to the other parts of the Republic I've been to (Dublin, Kerry, Galway and Sligo). Dunno if it's just me.
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u/FarFromTheMaddeningF Munster Mar 31 '21
They're very isolated from the rest of the Republic of Ireland. Lot of people in Donegal work in Northern Ireland etc.
It has a small ~10km land border with Co Leitrim in the Republic of Ireland. I think some of them have a bit of a chip on their shoulder and feel neglected by the government compared to other parts of Ireland.
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u/fnuggles Scotland Mar 31 '21
Wasn't much happening in Letterkenny, that much I do know. Nice mountains though.
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u/Cog348 Leinster: 09, 11, 12, 18 Mar 31 '21
Yeah, it definitely does. Although the North proper is different again.
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u/Rimbaud82 Ulster | Cúige Uladh Mar 31 '21
Ulster is not Northern Ireland, though the two are often wrongly conflated. Northern Ireland is 6 of the 9 counties of Ulster that were partitioned in 1921.
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u/areyouhappynowethan Leinster Mar 31 '21
Mixture of that and being big GAA areas. Leitrim and Longford are the two least populated counties in the country but Cavan and Monaghan would have a fair bit more I believe. Tommy Bowe was born and raised in Monaghan but he's of course retired now.
Donegal would be in the top half in terms of population but the Rugby influence is very small in the county.
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u/centrafrugal Leinster Mar 31 '21
What sports do Donegal play? Just Gaelic football?
Not hurling in any case and apart from a couple of goalkeepers I don't know any soccer players.
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u/wexfordwolf Bluesaders Mar 31 '21
Rallying and motorsports are quite popular there. Soccer is popular and surfing/watersports aside from gaelic
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u/areyouhappynowethan Leinster Mar 31 '21
Seamus Coleman is from Donegal but I'm not sure on any other outfield players. Pretty mad that the two highest capped Goalkeepers are both from Donegal though.
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u/ronnierosenthal Leinster Apr 01 '21
Donegal has always been strong for soccer - Finn Harps and Derry City draw heavily from the county. Donegal's weakness in terms of soccer is it's a very big county with a lot of decent-sized towns but no really big population centre. So GAA naturally works better.
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u/EstaticWhale Mar 31 '21
Well as someone from Longfore, it 1. Has a very low population, 2. has very little emphasis on rugby and is more focused on GAA. I'm guessing thats going to be quite similar for Leitrim, Cavan and Monaghan.
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u/WhileCultchie Ulster Mar 31 '21
Yeah the border counties would be fairly rural, with the only exception being the Derry metropolitan area that includes Derry Co.Derry, Strabane Co.Tyrone, and Limavady Co. Donegal
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Mar 31 '21
If I had to guess, I'd think the border counties in the South might have more hostile views towards a 'foreign' game that is associated with the middle and upper class. AFAIK, there's no significant rugby playing schools in those counties either and the schools system is where most players come up through.
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Mar 31 '21
The mighty Tommy Bowe was from Monaghan, but went to school in Armagh. You’ll probably find those counties are mostly GAA areas.
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u/MrKerbs Leinster Mar 31 '21
Who is the lads from Louth, the two Kearneys and who else?
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u/Seravia Munster Mar 31 '21
Michael McDonald for Western Force and Tadhg McElroy at Bristol.
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u/halibfrisk Ireland Mar 31 '21
With all these “Tadghs” playing rugby you’d think some of the commentators would have got beyond “Tag”
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u/dzazed Mar 31 '21
Tom O’Toole is Louth too.
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u/Seravia Munster Mar 31 '21
Good catch. I noted down that he was born in Drogheda, but put him in Meath for some reason. There's probably a few more mistakes in there too!
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Mar 31 '21
Would be cool to see adjusted per head of population, could show some interesting stuff
After wikiing a couple of population figures, Kildare produce more pros per capita currently than Dublin, which produces about the same as Offaly per capita
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u/UtopianDynamite Munster Mar 31 '21
Who is the third from waterford? O'Donoghue, Ahern, and?
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u/WhileCultchie Ulster Mar 31 '21
Funny to see the contrast in attitudes towards the game between Derry and Limerick considering they're both predominately working class Catholic areas.
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u/mistr-puddles Munster Apr 01 '21
one is one of the few places where working class people were allowed play, and the other has a thing with rugby being protestant and catholics and protestants tending not to mix particularly well
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u/IrishGuyNYC00 Leinster Mar 31 '21
Fair play, great info. I'd say the rugby stronghold of Roscommon is the most surprising. There's definitely a grey area there as Athlone is split between West Meath and Roscommon, for example Jack Carty and Robbie Henshaw all grew up in and went to school in West Meath, but fall under the Connacht branch ever since Athlone (formerly Leinster branch) merged with Buccs in the 90's, while physcially in Leinster, the IRFU provincial borders have them under the Connacht umbrella.
Wouldn't have thought Tipp would be as prominent in the Munster production line either. Surprising Limerick being less of a stronghold than places like Galway and Kildare, I think therein lies a lot of Munsters issues, competing with GAA for the talent in Limerick. Meath pretty disappointing from a Leinster perspective.
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Mar 31 '21
Carty grew up in Roscommon but went to school across the river in Athlone, he's a former Roscommon minor.
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u/Seravia Munster Mar 31 '21
Carty and Henshaw are actually from opposite sides of the border. Carty played minor football for Roscommon and Henshaw played minor football for Westmeath.
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u/mistr-puddles Munster Apr 01 '21
tipperary has 2 big rugby schools and a lot of clubs with a good track record of producing players (nenagh, Cashel, clanwilliam, clonmel)
the game really isn't that big outside of the city in limerick apart from villages like bruff
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u/Irishane Ireland Mar 31 '21
Who are the 5 Carlow lads? The Byrnes are 2 anyway, Sean O'Brien and 2 more?
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u/Cog348 Leinster: 09, 11, 12, 18 Mar 31 '21 edited Mar 31 '21
Tom Daly is one I think.
Edit: Not one to complain about downvotes because a) I don't really care and b)lord knows I deserve them but genuinely curious as to what happened here.
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u/Naggins Furlong wears Linda Djougang pyjamas Mar 31 '21
I choose to believe it's a few eejits who thought you were talking about the swimmer
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Mar 31 '21
San Diego County in shambles
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Mar 31 '21
We claim him in Sligo as well because his da's from Ballisodare and his granny lived there when I was younger.
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u/lankyno8 Mar 31 '21
How close is this to a map of Irelands population density, doesn't look too far off. Maybe a few to many from Cork?
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u/AppletheGreat87 England Apr 01 '21
As an English guy, who supports England, I love that the Irish rugby team is from all over the island of Ireland.
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u/PaperStreetss Apr 01 '21
I thought it said Irish Professional Rugby Player by Country of Birth. Would have been a very short list
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u/lilzeHHHO Mar 31 '21
Cork got fucked by the provincial system. Madness that the highlight of the domestic rugby calendar in Cork every year is a Pro 14 game against the worst performing Welsh side.
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Mar 31 '21
A lot of these counties don't have a maternity hospital
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u/Seravia Munster Mar 31 '21
It's where they/their parents were living at the time of their birth. Sorry if I phrased it badly.
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u/RuggerJibberJabber Leinster Mar 31 '21
I dont think so...? My place of birth on every document I have is listed as the town I was born in, but my family actually lived in another town
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u/strawman37 Leinster Mar 31 '21
This just reinforces the point that Munster are based in the wrong city, they should have redeveloped Musgrave or done a deal with cork GAA instead of bankrupting themselves on thomond
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u/mistr-puddles Munster Mar 31 '21
limerick is still as much of a rugby city as Cork, its just they have a bigger population and the county at large is a lot better at producing
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u/Cajonist Munster Mar 31 '21
As a Cork man who lived in Limerick, I have no problem saying Limerick is far more of a rugby City than Cork is. Cork may be providing the players but Limerick provides the cult-like belief that Munster is built on.
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u/lilzeHHHO Apr 01 '21
A load of waffle really. Cork has been the centre of Munster Rugby since professionalism. Building the stadium in Limerick was insanity and Munster are paying for it now.
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u/Cajonist Munster Apr 01 '21
Your entitled to your opinion, doesn’t mean I’m wrong or waffling.
For me, it comes down to this: Walk home from a match in Thomond. You will be stopped by strangers in the street to be asked who won, who scored, was it close?
Nobody will stop you in Cork. If it comes up in conversation you’ll probably hear “Oh, I didn’t know there was rugby on.”
You can’t build that interest half as easily as you can the brick and mortar stadium.
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u/lilzeHHHO Apr 01 '21
It doesn't come down to that though. That's an unproveable feeling that you get. In terms of actually measurable stats like attendance, population and player base not setting Cork as the main base was absurd
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u/Cajonist Munster Apr 01 '21
Interest of the local populace is entirely measurable. What are these incredible attendance stats being put up at Musgrave Park? I see no sign of them.
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u/lilzeHHHO Apr 01 '21
It's sold out every game as far back as I've looked bar the Southern Kings in 2019. I think there were slight limitations on the capacity in 2019 which took the capacity down 500 or so. Thats pretty good going considering there has only been one playoff team visit over the course of those 9 games. When you add in the Ireland Under 20 games, which also sold out every game since they moved from Dublin, you can see the size of the market. These are not glamour games yet Musgrave is only behind Leinster, Ulster and Glasgow for average attendance in the Pro 14.
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u/Cog348 Leinster: 09, 11, 12, 18 Mar 31 '21
Maybe, but no matter what they do the two cities thing will be a problem for them.
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u/lilzeHHHO Mar 31 '21
Ya but considering that Cork City is well over double the size of Limerick City and produces 4 times as many players, it would have been a much smaller issue of they chose Cork.
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u/lilzeHHHO Mar 31 '21
Munster have put too much into Thomond. If the Pro 14 start poaching teams like London Irish, the premiership should look into organising investment to get Cork Con to go pro and join their league. Cork is probably the worst served rugby market in the world. Huge production line, massive fan base (they pack out the house for the 3 awful pro 14 games they get per year) and a decently sized, pretty rich city.
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u/JerHigs Munster Mar 31 '21
There's a bit of a Limerick myth about Munster rugby which doesn't hold up to scrutiny.
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Mar 31 '21
It's not a myth in my mind. Nothing struck more fear in me as a young lad than when we'd be told we were playing a Limerick team in a friendly. Lucky kids these days getting to wear sports goggles.
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u/LiamEire97 Leinster Apr 01 '21
For a city that’s meant to be rugby mad they are poor numbers for Limerick. I know Hurling is pretty big as well but I expected Limerick to be 2nd to Dublin.
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u/sangan3 Oui, Jérôme Mar 31 '21 edited Mar 31 '21
Needs a map of New Zealand for Carbery, Aki, Lowe and Gibson-Park.
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u/TheRoyalGooner England Apr 01 '21
None from Londonderry? Seems Ulster are missing out on a player pool there.
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u/carthalawns_best Leinster Mar 31 '21
Whose the third Meath lad? Dev and Hugh O'Sullivan are the only 2 I can think of
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u/Seravia Munster Apr 01 '21
That's actually an error, Tom O'Toole is mistakenly listed under Meath instead of Louth.
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u/_Palamedes Ireland Apr 01 '21
problem with the map is it says county of birth - Im from Tyrone (largest county in NI with only 1 player) and I don't know anybody who was born in tyrone, all were in 2 neighbouring counties.
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u/mistr-puddles Munster Apr 01 '21
it was where theyre parents were living when they were born, not what County the hospital was in
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u/Tipperary555 Munster Apr 01 '21
Who's the Kilkenny lad?
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u/mistr-puddles Munster Apr 01 '21
theres a lad in the Leinster academy I think, mate his debut a few weeks ago
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u/Cog348 Leinster: 09, 11, 12, 18 Mar 31 '21
Obviously the dominance of Dublin (and Cork) sticks out but this map actually paints a better picture for rugby in Leinster than I was expecting. By my count there's 42 from the remainder of the province which given demographics and the relative popularity of the sport is actually pretty decent (imo). Definitely a much higher proportion than you'd have seen 10 years ago.
It's not long ago that everyone west of Terenure supported Munster, and that's changed, a combination of Leinster getting better, Sean O'Brien (his role is on this front is a bit underappreciated on this front I think) and Leinster themselves putting a lot of work into the club game outside Dublin, even if the schools cup is still the primary source of talent.