Alan Quinlan had a point about Irish rugby fans but there’s more to be made, writes Kate McEvoy…
“I don't like criticizing supporters who've paid up to €90 for a ticket and gotten rained on for their troubles.”
You and me both Gerry. You and me both. There's been a shift in the conversation this week and I find it interesting. I find it interesting in conflicting ways. That's why you'll find a lot of conflicting views in this article. Because, in my opinion, we've been oversimplifying some complicated issues this week. To recap, these issues have been brought under the spotlight after the Irish rugby team lost a game to England on their home ground on Sunday. With it, they lost the Grand Slam & the Triple Crown, but not yet the 6 Nations Championship. There has been coverage aplenty as to the reasons for this loss and you can seek out brighter minds than mine on the subject. For the record I reckon it's a little something to do with a lack of recognizable tactics, an inability to hold onto the ball & the fact that the English were the better team on the day. Little things like that.
Funny thing is, the loss is not the issue du jour. Over the course of the week, the issue has become the conduct of the Irish rugby fans in the Aviva stadium, which has been a springboard to meditations on the very nature of what makes an Irish rugby fan in the first place. In some ways this is a long overdue conversation. I have discussed here and elsewhere that my absolute pet peeve is people leaving a game early. Twice at recent fixtures (last Sunday and at the South Africa game in November for those taking notes) I've been lucky enough to be there live & in person, yet unlucky enough to be surrounded by fellow supporters making for the exit with 10 minutes on the clock and Ireland less than a score down. And by God do I hate it. There are two acceptable reasons for leaving a game early. Heart failure and labour. I'm pretty confident that, should the day come, I'll be able to hang on through both through sheer force of will.
There has been much debate as to where all these so-called fair-weather fans have come from. First things first a little nostalgia is a dangerous thing. Bathing the age of terraces in a golden light of superior rugby fandom, well I wasn't on the scene much in those days, but for me there's an inherent danger there. However there are clearly flaws in both the activities in the Aviva on game day and the clientele in attracts. For the purpose of this article, I'm going to speak from my own experience. The intention of this is not to assume I speak for a majority in or outside the ground, or to imply those who have written on the subject so far are incorrect. I'm just going to play it Catchphrase style & say what I saw.
Regarding our most recent outing in the Aviva, there has been talk of seats being empty as the teams ran out. I'm not saying this is a desirable state of affairs but I'll point out the lack of public transport on a rainy Sunday can slow these things down. There's been talk of supporters spending too much time at the bars or concession stands at half time. I can tell you my father queued to buy hot whiskeys for himself & my mother but when he got to the top of the bar there was only one left, yet rows of untouched pints were still for sale. My neighbor in the south stand went to buy some hot dogs. After handing over his cash for two he had to wait for a refund when his server discovered none remained. I can tell you a bunch of toilets in one of the blocks flooded. Is it really so unreasonable to think we should be looking at the larger management of the Aviva and perhaps it's not running as it should be rather than assuming the majority of ordinary fans aren't interested in watching some rugby? Or more accurately, yelling about the latter while ignoring the former?
As has been discussed, I'm not sure how much the Aviva is meant for ordinary fans. In Fever Pitch, Nick Hornby talks about the changing nature of fans attending football matches. I'm not one for the Arsenal, or in fact, roundy ball sports in general but in terms of a meditation on what it means to be a sporting fanatic you can't do better. He talks about the shift of football towards corporate culture. He posits the notion that part of the allure of all the big fancy tickets is the atmosphere created by the everyday fans. The clubs then bend over backwards to accommodate the bigger money punters, sometimes at the expense of others. Talking about his beloved North London club Hornby bemoans “The club sold the boxes on the understanding that the atmosphere came free, and so the North Bank generated as much income as any of the players ever did. Who’ll make the noise now? ... Because in effect the clubs have sold them tickets to a show in which the principal attraction has been moved to make room for them.” Is that what we're looking at here? Is the Aviva doing its best to appease corporate attendees at the expense of the experience of regular punters?
I watch live rugby on a regular basis with a group of dedicated fans. So why is it I'm often the only one who gets tickets for internationals? Firstly, there's the cost issue. This currently comes hand in hand with the quality of rugby on offer. If you can pay €20 or €30 to see high level provincial rugby or €70 plus to see the national team grind out of second gear, there has to be a touch of cost benefit analysis in play. I wish we were all so fortunate that an additional €50 a ticket meant nothing But we're not and it does. And that's nothing to be ashamed of. It doesn't mean you don't love your rugby or you don't get behind your national team. It means the tickets to Ireland games are pretty damned expensive.
Secondly there's the distribution issue. I cannot overstate how much I appreciate our current distribution system is a source of revenue for our oft-beleaguered clubs. These clubs are the home of the grass roots fans. You know, the ones who are supposed to be missing out on a chance to watch the Irish teams. Or alternatively the ones who get tarred with the “prawn sandwich brigade” brush. They're club men too. Funnily enough it's possible to be both. Similarly it's possible to appreciate clubs need the revenue for international ticket sales yet still ponder why I can buy tickets to Murrayfield next weekend on Ticketmaster but that's not really an option for us at home. And it's also possible to wonder is there not some way we can open up tickets to rugby fans who may not be directly affiliated to a rugby club, without shafting the clubs themselves?
I am lucky enough, through the munificence of my father, to sometimes be the recipient of a pair of international tickets. And in those increasingly far-off days PBH (pre better half) I tried to take someone different to every game I got tickets for. Sometimes they were rugby fans like me. Usually some of the crowd I've mentioned above. By rugby fans in this particular instance I mean they would be reading, if not writing articles like this. They'd be commenting on blogs, debating the issues and have sleepless nights over team selections. They deserve to see their team run out at Lansdowne Road. However I wasn't big on making people sit a written test before I brought them to the big show.
I brought some friends who'd never been to a match in their lives. When I offered a college buddy a ticket to the All-Blacks, her eyes welled up as she told me she never in a million years thought she'd see such a legendary team in the flesh. I brought friends who referred to a line-out as “the jumpy thing” but were bowled over by the experience of being at a live rugby game & screamed till their voices were hoarse. I'm not really interested in telling them them they're fair-weather. I don't like the idea of deciding deserves to be there and who doesn't. For starters I think it's pretty bigoted and secondly I think it's a sure-fire way to stop a the fan base of a developing sport in its tracks. What makes an Irish rugby fan? Someone who comes to the game, through whatever channels, and puts in their shift as a supporter is A-OK by me. I don't need a thesis on the different duties of tight & loosehead prop to think you deserve to be there. I think some of the people who could jot down a few bullet points on that are heading to the exit when the clock hits 70.
Back to Kate's big day out. There was no booing in my section & little booing within my earshot. There was good natured banter between fans of opposing teams who frequently tried to out-sing each other. There was a cracking atmosphere upon my arrival which diminished due to the weather, the performance and the lack of any half time entertainment, coupled with the feeling you had to jump through hoops to get a drink or a hot dog. Yet why is it the behaviour of my fellow fans & I has become the story?
This is yet another issue with a small pool of rugby media. We all need to be talking about what's being talked about. We saw this recently with the captaincy handover. It seemed to me we were doing a lot more talking about who wasn't captain anymore than if we'd picked the right successor. Regarding analysis of the game itself, before we moved onto some spectator sport, we were talking a lot more about the bad performance of a ligind rather than the lack of tactics from our coach or the lack of adaptability from our players. Of course both of the former topics are worth discussing. But so are the latter. Analysis sometimes becomes about one thing way too quickly. In this particular instance I can't help but wonder if it's the right thing.
To conclude, yes I think fan behaviour needs to be looked at. I think we need to ask if people across the board are getting a fair crack at tickets. I think we need to look at how our home stadium functions for the every day fan who's not in a corporate box. But above all, I think we need to ask why our team lost a game that was so eminently winnable. It wasn't because people were late or left early. It wasn't because of some exaggerated errant booing. It wasn't because we lack a decent tune to sing. England didn't win because their fans shouted louder. These may be factors but they're not the reason, much like wet conditions are a mitigating factor for bad handling rather than an excuse.
Alan Quinlan says “You can’t blame the players for not being in your seat as the team walks out and being 6-0 down while playing poorly is no excuse for waiting 10 minutes after half-time to re-join the action.” That is absolutely true but it's a two-way street. You can't blame the fans for losing the game. Here's my overall conflict. Support from your fans is a privilege not a right but so's the performance you're signing up for. Handing over cash is not a contract for greatness. When you're in, you're in. The players may deserve better from the fans in the stadium but the fans also deserve better from both the stadium and the players. Maybe we all need to try a little harder next time.
Kate McEvoy : Munster fan in a sea of Leinster blue. Raised on a strict diet of Bective Rangers. Earliest childhood memory is stud marks in the muck. Former hooker for a father & a mother with an eye for a forward pass bordering on freakish . Often to be found down Monkstown RFC/ A & E on account of the exploits of the better half. Best rugby memory, Toulouse main square, May 24th 2008. Epitaph will read “Knew a lot about rugby for a girl.” Can be found tweeting optimistically at @ImKateMc
