Click here for the pre-match HarpinBoo podcast “McLaughlin All Over The World”
If this match were an episode of the sitcom Friends it would be titled “The One That Wasn’t On Telly”.
But for Leinster fans, the news seems to be all good – four more Magners League points secured, so a win vs Glasgow in our final match will clinch the home semi. Plus the squad seems to have gotten through the game unscathed ahead of the big match next Saturday.
I didn’t see the action myself, so I can’t really comment. But if you click where it says “Thinking Outside the Box” above, you’ll go to the official Leinster website where they offer a full report of the action. You will also see ads for such quality institutions as UPC, Bank of Ireland and Nivea for Men.
So that’s that then! Nothing more I can say, right?
Hang on, let’s just back up the truck a moment.
THE MATCH WASN’T ON TELLY. Think about that.
When it comes to mobile phones, every so often I still hear people say with great sarcasm “Oh, Lord, how did we ever survive when we didn’t have them?” Well, that is true. There was a day when none of us had them, and the earth still turned.
But now we DO have them, we wouldn’t want to go back to the way things were, right? And the same goes for telephones in general, same goes for televisions, same goes for computers, the list is endless.
And so the same goes for live coverage of Leinster rugby matches.
There was a time not too long ago when live rugby was restricted to the RBS Six Nations and more recently the Heineken Cup. But over the past couple of seasons first Setanta and now RTE/TG4 have provided coverage of every Magners League fixture home and away from week to week.
So I suppose in a sense it could be said that last Saturday’s absence of broadcast could be considered a bit of “market research”. Care to venture a guess as to the findings?
(Before I proceed, I’d like to point out that up to now, I’ve already named a cider manufacturer twice and a lager one once. Not to mention the products on the Leinster website and a bank PLUS a famous TV show which is available on Blu-ray from leading stockists like HMV)
By using a statcounter to monitor traffic on HarpinOnRugby.net, I can see what people Googled to arrive at the site. Between Thursday and Saturday morning, I received well over 100 hits from people who had searched for something along the lines of “Aironi Leinster TV”.
That’s just on my humble little blog. So what that tells me is that there must have been thousands scrambling around looking for the chance to watch Leinster play an away fixture against the Magners League’s bottom team in a match we were heavily favoured to win.
So when I hear the “official” reason for the match not being shown, ie the company that had the rights Dahlia TV going into liquidation, I have to ask myself…is that really good enough?
Apparently, we’re in a recession. Now I certainly couldn’t call myself an economist, but I can’t help feeling that if so many people are willing to shell out for Leinster season tickets before the season even started, a large proportion of those people will be also willing to stare continuously at a TV screen for an hour and a half to watch Leinster play, assuming of course they were unable to travel to the match.
So with over 10,000 pairs of eyes guaranteed, are you telling me there isn’t a single company out there willing to hawk their goods during that time????
Maybe RTE wasn’t to blame. Maybe Leinster Rugby wasn’t to blame. Maybe the Magners League wasn’t to blame. Fine.
But we as fans have gotten used to our weekly fix of pro rugby on the box and it’s up to all of them to get the job done to sort it out for us.
Instead of everyone holding up their hands and saying it wasn’t their fault, it was one of those situations where heads needed to knocked together and told : “Just Do It”. [This paragraph of common sense was brought to you by Nike]
And this is a timely discussion to be having. Apparently, Magners are ending their association with the League, which makes sense, since with the addition of Italian teams there’s a need for a sponsor whose product has a reach across all four of the associated nations.
So I’d like to think that a company looking to fund the tournament for the next few years would be saying to the league’s blazers : “Eh, yeah, you see the way that match with one of your most heavily-supported teams wasn’t being televised last April? Don’t let that happen again.”
At least we had the saving grace that when conventional media failed to deliver, there was social media to step in and fill the void. Full kudos to the Official Leinster Supporters Club for both arranging and promoting the live Twitter updates, it was great to see. Plus on a personal level, the texts from Noel and the super photos by Ken (click the pic above for the full set which, by the way, were taken with a Canon EOS 50D) were much appreciated.
But this issue should make us as Leinster, Munster and Ulster fans realise…our clubs are known in rugby circles throughout the globe in a manner similar to the likes of Manchester United and Barcelona in soccer (I know nowhere near in money terms but I’m talking about prestige within the sport) .
Look at all this talk of the Irish provinces poaching New Zealanders. Whatever about its rights and wrongs, that’s US doing it! Little ol’ Ireland! That’s the net result of the sport’s popularity on these shores! It’s not just the Top14 with the major league sheckles anymore!
Therefore we should expect a certain standard of the sport’s presentation to be maintained and guaranteed coverage should definitely be part of it.
Having said all of that, I’m willing to assume that Saturday’s “black-out” was but a blip. That’s not naïve of me, is it???
And so we move on to preparations for next Saturday’s big Heineken Cup semifinal at the Aviva. Not sure why, but typing that last sentence has made me incredibly thirsty…
One thing is for sure…you can bet that Rupert Murdoch’s minions will make sure ad revenue is maximized for that one. (And if you DO bet, make sure it’s with a quality bookmaker like Paddy Power)
By the way – this post filled with free plugs to make a point about how easy it is to get your company exposure in rugby these days was brought to you by me.
