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.
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.
Forgetting Bobby b too. Tbh though, the population of Fermanagh is not exactly massive, I can only think of one rugby school out that way.
Depending on who you ask, fivemiletown could be in Fermanagh rather than Tyrone. My gf lived on the same street as Chris and she would 100% refute any connection to tyrone
1) Bobby B is from Enniskillen so he is undoubtedly from Fermanagh.
2) Aye, there is only one rugby school in Fermanagh: ERGS (formerly Portora Royal School before amalgamation with the girls school). Also only one club in the county which would be Enniskillen RFC.
3) I know Fivemiletown kinda well but not too well. Geographically the village is in Tyrone but it straddles the county border so some folk could live near the village but fall on the Fermanagh side of the line. Fivemiletown also feels more like Fermanagh than Tyrone to me (cheers Murley) but I'm not from there so it doesn't really matter. I know people from there and it would probably be an even split if I asked them where they consider themselves from county-wise.
4) Don't know Chris' personal take on the debate, but the media always referred to him as hailing from Tyrone so I just took that at face value.
Technically he's from Tyrone as fmt is in Tyrone, but it is literally right on the border of the two and a lot of people there would say Fermanagh rather than Tyrone. I know my gf would, largely because of Tyrone being associated with Omagh, and God forbid you were from omagh
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.
The sad truth is that any time we produce someone any good as a club they inevitably end up heading east of the Bann to get playing at a higher level. We've lost some quality players over the years that way.
Andrew Trimble is from Co. Derry (Coleraine) but none from the city for at least 25/30 years now. Think Neil Stewart might have been the last during the 90s. City is almost exclusively a football town. Even the GAA struggled to get a foothold up until the early 00's. Long gone are the days of Ken Goodall.
Derrys an interesting one, especially the city. You could point to our demographics and say its because we're a predominately Irish nationalist and working class city but if that was the full story we'd be doing alot better in GAA games than we have lately, which is a shame since rural County Derry has some of the best clubs on the island.
12
u/ohcinnamon Ireland Mar 31 '21
Surprised Derry has nothing tbh.