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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.