A company I worked for in London were a major sponsor of Quinns. It meant I got tickets one year for their end of season dinner at Roehampton Club. Great evening chatting with the likes of Robshaw, Care and Brown. Sarries man when I lived in North London though. Always enjoyed a good afternoon at The Stoop. We had a box facility in the LV stand. Saw Madness play in the concourse after one match.
Better than football. More interaction with the players afterwards Too.
It’s not as good as it was. We used to go into the bar after the match, live band in one room and the players having a meal in the other room, just roped off as us fans chilled at the bar. I like the access and have found many players personable. From Curtley Beale to Chris Robshaw, they’ve all be nice when you meet them off the pitch. We went to an away match at clermont once and we were just chatting with some other fans after the match in the stadium. All the players who had taken a knock came one by one out of the tunnel and headed for, I presume, their post match meal. Each one of them came over to shake our hands and thank us for making the trek. Joe Marler damn near crushed my hand!
Nice! Have had a few chats with Robshaw after games. He was a great ambassador for the club. I was gutted he didn’t get a send off on his last match.
It's the culture of boozing after a game in the clubhouse, never been part of football, at all levels.
I disagree. It’s completely accessible for all the reasons I’ve described in this thread. Yes it started elitist no question. It really isn’t now
Then why are the RFU looking to make it less of an elite sport?
It's drilled in even at the lowest levels.
good point but doesn’t it depend sometimes where you are Holgate. I suspect more people like that in Bath and Gloucester because they are not football towns. But these people are farmers, many working class rugby fans — people in London and Leicester less so as they have both.
I like both. I just prefer rugby. I just think it’s a better atmosphere in the ground. A place you can share a beer with your rival fans. Mingle after the match in the bar. I like the ethos of rugby.
It’s not though is it? I played rugby at school. I don’t mean any disrespect Corcaigh but I genuinely think you don’t understand modern rugby. You seem to be talking of the rugby that existed about thirty years ago. The “old farts” rugby. You don’t seem to be referencing the modern game.
Sounds like the football games I go to in the Northern League.
You can do it at all levels in rugby. Good example: again from Clermont. After the match all the Quins fans were invited to the Clermont supporters bar. Where we were given free bottle of Kronenberg. Did that happen to any of us Boro fans in Europe?
I had to, we were a rugby school as far as the head of PE was concerned.
You are probably right but I lived in Leeds for a good few years when I was a young man and found a good bit of anti football feeling amongst the more working class rugby league followers as well, but maybe it was due to the hooligan era football had been through in the 70‘s and 80‘s and in particular Leeds United’s fans less than wholesome reputation.
I drank with opposition fans in Middlesbrough and abroad before and after the European games. The same in the European championships in Portugal. I couldn't get tickets for the England v Portugal game but in the bar we'd been using they refused to let us pay for drinks until after the game finished.
I think, a lot of that has to do with the conduct of football players though. Even the great Nigel Owens (who come from a country where rugby definitely isn’t elitist) had to tell players having a strip this was rugby not soccer.