Is English Rugby Union an elitist sport?

[SmallTown]

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.

You’re an odd kitten you are Corcaigh. You seem to think that a praise of rugby is an attack on football.
You seem personally offended by rugby. You can defend rugby without it being an attack on other sports, such as football. You do know that don’t you?

Also you seem to be basing your argument on rugby not being elitist on things that happen in football. Yet, weirdly, when people point out the good things that happen in rugby you say they happen in football too. So do you think football is elitist?

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

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.

Stripping off?

Sounds like typical rugby behaviour from when I was involved .

 

[SmallTown]

Stripping off?

Sounds like typical rugby behaviour from when I was involved .

Strop. Sorry.
Good deflection though. Just to bring the thread back on track. No, rugby has elitist roots but it’s not an elitist sports these days. It’s got a distance to go but it’s well on the way to being an every mans sports. The fact that even someone like Corcaigh is trying to attack it yet often concluding “they do that in football too” shows this. Because football definitely isn’t elitist

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

You’re an odd kitten you are Corcaigh. You seem to think that a praise of rugby is an attack on football.
You seem personally offended by rugby. You can defend rugby without it being an attack on other sports, such as football. You do know that don’t you?

Also you seem to be basing your argument on rugby not being elitist on things that happen in football. Yet, weirdly, when people point out the good things that happen in rugby you say they happen in football too. So do you think football is elitist?

That's not elitism though, it's an argument you introduced to show that rugby fans were better people, which is nonsense.

As I said earlier, the RFU have acknowledged there's a problem with elitist, Cardiff Daffs explained that professionalism had reduced that but the problem is still there.

 

[Corcaigh_the_Cat]

Strop. Sorry.
Good deflection though. Just to bring the thread back on track. No, rugby has elitist roots but it’s not an elitist sports these days. It’s got a distance to go but it’s well on the way to being an every mans sports. The fact that even someone like Corcaigh is trying to attack it yet often concluding “they do that in football too” shows this. Because football definitely isn’t elitist

I'm not attacking it, I'm simply agreeing that it's an elite sport. I've played it, at school and club, I still knock about with the lads and occasionally pop to the club, some of my family play and sponsor the game, but it is an elite sport.

 

[Cardiffdaffs]

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?

Not really on topic so apologies but our trip to Graz we were taken in by a number of AK supporters who bought us drinks all night. Remember reading some accounts from Rob also being taken around the training ground in Graz by supporters.

 

[buffaloboro]

You think a quarter of an England international is hospitality? Also how does this compare to the “club Wembley” circle of shame?

So have I, but you don't get over 20,000 at an England football match paying for hospitality packages.

There's loads of hospitality in football. The corruption within FIFA highlights just how much money people are making from it.

 

[S7DiscoDown]

The majority of the professional game has blokes of good 'stock'. You can tell just listing to them.

I imagine a good 'rugger' school can only help.

 

[buffaloboro]

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’

Not really on topic so apologies but our trip to Graz we were taken in by a number of AK supporters who bought us drinks all night. Remember reading some accounts from Rob also being taken around the training ground in Graz by supporters.

Less likely to happen at a football game than rugby.

 

[buffaloboro]

I'm not attacking it, I'm simply agreeing that it's an elite sport. I've played it, at school and club, I still knock about with the lads and occasionally pop to the club, some of my family play and sponsor the game, but it is an elite sport.

Cat , it's 'exclusive' I would argue, because there's still fewer state schools playing it and it's viewed less on TV than football but not elite.
I think there's been some good evidence in this thread to suggest that it's not, nor does it need to be, an elite sport.
Actually in terms of what the game can offer to various levels of players, I think it's more open to players of different skill levels than football. We just don't see it because football is the money God at the moment.

 

[SmallTown]

I'm not attacking it, I'm simply agreeing that it's an elite sport. I've played it, at school and club, I still knock about with the lads and occasionally pop to the club, some of my family play and sponsor the game, but it is an elite sport.

I disagree. Every argument you've had that it is an elite sport has been countered. I know it used to be and its not as accessible still as football but in no way is it still an elite sport.

 

[SmallTown]

Cat , it's 'exclusive' I would argue, because there's still fewer state schools playing it and it's viewed less on TV than football but not elite.
I think there's been some good evidence in this thread to suggest that it's not, nor does it need to be, an elite sport.
Actually in terms of what the game can offer to various levels of players, I think it's more open to players of different skill levels than football. We just don't see it because football is the money God at the moment.

Pretty much this. It's a minority sport not an elite one.