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Post by bale-droed on Feb 26, 2023 0:28:32 GMT
Commentator on Australian coverage
“ All you can hear is swing low where are the voices in the valley?”
A. It’s not the valley
B. The ones in the valley can’t afford it unlike the posh English people
C. Watching football probably
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Post by underwood on Feb 26, 2023 2:17:12 GMT
Commentator on Australian coverage “ All you can hear is swing low where are the voices in the valley?” A. It’s not the valley B. The ones in the valley can’t afford it unlike the posh English people C. Watching football probably D. The atmosphere at the rugby is nonexistent anyway. |
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Post by allezlesrouges on Feb 26, 2023 10:07:32 GMT
After every recent rugby match I see posts on twitter about how bad the atmosphere is, and several people agreeing in the comments. It's not a one off now it's a systemic issue
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Post by jimmytaff on Feb 26, 2023 14:13:25 GMT
Absolutely. They sell the myth and history not the reality. Atmosphere has been poor for at least ten years with the occasional exception.
I went to the Ireland game and the anthem was butchered by having a band - it waspitiful compared to the red wall. Yet apparently the commentators were talking up how passionate and rousing it was.
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Post by allezlesrouges on Feb 26, 2023 14:47:06 GMT
There's two types of people;
1) People who say the anthem is better at the rugby
2) People who have been to the football and the rugby
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Post by fiveattheback on Feb 26, 2023 14:58:46 GMT
Calon Lan etc are piped in as well
It's what happens when you put prices up and focus on turning it into a massive pub rather than cultivating a fanbase
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Post by jimexotic on Feb 26, 2023 18:47:14 GMT
I don't think I've ever seen Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau sung in time with a band, I probably have but those memories will have been heavily erased by the amount of times I've been cringing at how bad it is when it's being raced through by brass. My first memories of hearing it was a wind up doll my nan had that would then play out the tune of it, it was more accurate than some of the rubbish I've heard, at the World Cup it hurt my ears. If ever an anthem didn't need a backing track Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau is it.
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Post by allezlesrouges on Feb 26, 2023 19:09:20 GMT
I swear it changes tempo mid song all the time when it gets played. Yesterday it sounded too fast during the first verse and then really slowed down for "Gwlad! Gwlad!" onwards
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Post by jimexotic on Feb 26, 2023 19:28:38 GMT
Yeah that's definitely something that happens regularly, it really messes with my head when I see it and it's made even worse when the camera pans in on players still singing it at the correct speed but out of time to what's playing. I might be being biased but no anthem in the World is as good as the Welsh one sung at football with no music, it's amazing and it evokes all kinds of feelings whenever I see it. In future tournaments, should we qualify, I think the FAW should either ask Fifa/Uefa if we can not have any music or if we have to if they can just submit a version that's recorded at exactly the right speed from start to finish, it's an anthem for the World to saviour, it should never be rushed.
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Post by allezlesrouges on Feb 26, 2023 20:01:30 GMT
I remember Ian Gwyn Hughes saying that the FAW struggled with getting the tempo right before we removed the music, and we do have this issues at away games
I agree we should ask to perform it this way at tournaments, but I suspect there is a rule stating that music must be played
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Post by talyfan on Feb 26, 2023 20:17:02 GMT
Don't listen to Ireland's call in the Italy v Ireland game yesterday absolutely shambolic!!
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Post by robwrecsam on Feb 27, 2023 10:21:06 GMT
I used to go fairly regularly for rugby but haven’t been since 2014. Barring the odd match towards the end the atmosphere was on existent. Only gotten worse since from what I can see.
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Post by aberbeeg on Sept 26, 2023 7:25:51 GMT
There’s are so many Welsh bucket hats and football shirts in France for the rugby World Cup.
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Post by jimexotic on Sept 26, 2023 7:56:19 GMT
Rees-Zammit doing the Ronaldo celebration because he's his favourite player tickled me
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Post by dai on Sept 26, 2023 13:19:13 GMT
The RWC has to be one the most cringe, mickey mouse competitions in the world. Teams losing by 70 points or more, or double figures in tries. Imagine a football WC or Euro's where teams get regularly beat by 10 goals or more? A terrible watch. That rarely happens in qualifiers!
Can't wait for the competition to be over and for all the 'Welsh for a day' fans to go back to their jobs.
I often wonder how I'd feel if football was as easy as rugby. Welsh rugby was in the doldrums last year and now they're world cup contenders. Amazingly quick turnaround which never happens in football.
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Post by welshrover on Sept 26, 2023 14:16:05 GMT
I often wonder how I'd feel if football was as easy as rugby. Welsh rugby was in the doldrums last year and now they're world cup contenders. Amazingly quick turnaround which never happens in football. Did they change the manager? |
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Post by garynysmon on Sept 26, 2023 14:21:28 GMT
I remember Ian Gwyn Hughes saying that the FAW struggled with getting the tempo right before we removed the music, and we do have this issues at away games I agree we should ask to perform it this way at tournaments, but I suspect there is a rule stating that music must be played In fairness though, the music's tempo isn't terribly fast. Whenever I travel away I'm always perplexed why the the fans insist on singing it so slowly, and don't even try to keep up. The mrs cringes when she hears the Welsh anthem at away games on TV because its so all over the place. The RWC has to be one the most cringe, mickey mouse competitions in the world. Teams losing by 70 points or more, or double figures in tries. Imagine a football WC or Euro's where teams get regularly beat by 10 goals or more? A terrible watch. That rarely happens in qualifiers! Can't wait for the competition to be over and for all the 'Welsh for a day' fans to go back to their jobs. I often wonder how I'd feel if football was as easy as rugby. Welsh rugby was in the doldrums last year and now they're world cup contenders. Amazingly quick turnaround which never happens in football. I just can't believe how long the bloody tournament is going on for. They're still in the group stages! I can't imagine how much it would cost to go to France for this! Always tickles me the massive demographic change between Wales Away football and Rugby crowds though. The rugby crowds seems to be mainly made out of 50+ couples, which doesn't exactly bode well for the future. |
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Post by dai on Sept 26, 2023 15:05:33 GMT
I remember Ian Gwyn Hughes saying that the FAW struggled with getting the tempo right before we removed the music, and we do have this issues at away games I agree we should ask to perform it this way at tournaments, but I suspect there is a rule stating that music must be played In fairness though, the music's tempo isn't terribly fast. Whenever I travel away I'm always perplexed why the the fans insist on singing it so slowly, and don't even try to keep up. The mrs cringes when she hears the Welsh anthem at away games on TV because its so all over the place. The RWC has to be one the most cringe, mickey mouse competitions in the world. Teams losing by 70 points or more, or double figures in tries. Imagine a football WC or Euro's where teams get regularly beat by 10 goals or more? A terrible watch. That rarely happens in qualifiers! Can't wait for the competition to be over and for all the 'Welsh for a day' fans to go back to their jobs. I often wonder how I'd feel if football was as easy as rugby. Welsh rugby was in the doldrums last year and now they're world cup contenders. Amazingly quick turnaround which never happens in football. I just can't believe how long the bloody tournament is going on for. They're still in the group stages! I can't imagine how much it would cost to go to France for this! Always tickles me the massive demographic change between Wales Away football and Rugby crowds though. The rugby crowds seems to be mainly made out of 50+ couples, which doesn't exactly bode well for the future.Yeah I've seen a few videos online of what seems to be 50+ couples and middle/upper class Welsh folk. Crachach basically. Very tame as well by the stuff I've watched, seen a better atmosphere in my late gran's nursing home. |
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Post by bale-droed on Sept 26, 2023 21:09:45 GMT
In fairness though, the music's tempo isn't terribly fast. Whenever I travel away I'm always perplexed why the the fans insist on singing it so slowly, and don't even try to keep up. The mrs cringes when she hears the Welsh anthem at away games on TV because its so all over the place. I just can't believe how long the bloody tournament is going on for. They're still in the group stages! I can't imagine how much it would cost to go to France for this! Always tickles me the massive demographic change between Wales Away football and Rugby crowds though. The rugby crowds seems to be mainly made out of 50+ couples, which doesn't exactly bode well for the future.Yeah I've seen a few videos online of what seems to be 50+ couples and middle/upper class Welsh folk. Crachach basically. Very tame as well by the stuff I've watched, seen a better atmosphere in my late gran's nursing home. So I'm in France. I've been to every Wales game + five other games and id say the majority of Wales fans in Lyon were Males under the age of 40 with friends. Huge groups of of guys in their 20s here with friends. English fans, Australian and Japanese majority seem to be old fans. Wales and Argentinas fan base is looking healthy. On a personal note I love my live sport. Football, rugby union, rugby league, t20 etc etc etc ill watch anything and I've attended a lot. I'm telling you now Wales v Fiji was easily in the top 5 best atmospheres I've ever experienced. Absolutely fucking electric in and out the stadium. Wish I could've bottled that. When you consider it wasn't a semi or a final and just another fixture v Fiji it's insane to think it was so good. I agree with comments above theres bucket hats and Wales football tops everywhere. It's great. I've heard a few don't take me home chants. We literally only have a few sports where we can be Cymru Let's get behind them all. It's shit the elite twats at the top are so out of touch and love 3 feathers but the working class boys on the pitch are a symbol of hard working Wales. |
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Post by hooky on Sept 26, 2023 21:47:59 GMT
The RWC has to be one the most cringe, mickey mouse competitions in the world. Teams losing by 70 points or more, or double figures in tries. Imagine a football WC or Euro's where teams get regularly beat by 10 goals or more? A terrible watch. That rarely happens in qualifiers! Can't wait for the competition to be over and for all the 'Welsh for a day' fans to go back to their jobs. I often wonder how I'd feel if football was as easy as rugby. Welsh rugby was in the doldrums last year and now they're world cup contenders. Amazingly quick turnaround which never happens in football. I love both sports and whatever you say about rugby - the effort our players put in to punch well above their weight is incredible. Others view it as remarkable, almost super human - they see mediocrity for the regions and then these guys put that red shirt on and get transformed. Facts are there. We have won as many European (6 Nations, 5 Nations, etc) tournaments as England - 39, more than France and not too far off double that of Ireland or Scotland We have been to 3 semi finals of World Cups and lost two of them by a couple of points. England have 20x the population and 20x the numbers of players and are on average substantially taller and bigger than us. I do not know a country we have more players than. As you know rugby in Wales is not played as religiously right across our country - our rugby catchment area is mainly focused on 2mn of the population, as the North are much less involved! The history of our game (like New Zealand) is unique - it was truly classless - the working and middle classes were involved from the beginning, whereas it continues to be dominated by privates educated types in Ireland, England, etc. That is what I most love about the game and it kept our own identity going in a sporting context. Wales was the first team to sing a national anthem - at an international rugby match versus the All Blacks The atmosphere for rugby matches when Wales play out of their skins is truly electric. Lets just celebrate both sports and lets not pretend rugby does not have its own special appeal where our national team is involved. Yes its a minority sport but it can be magical and the 6 Nations is a massive event in the British sporting calendar, never mind the WC |
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Post by hooky on Sept 26, 2023 21:54:32 GMT
Love how brilliant our cyclists, darts players, boxers, etc are too. Proud of the bloody lot of them  |
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Post by jimexotic on Sept 26, 2023 23:54:07 GMT
Whatever the sport, if it's Wales I want nothing but for us to win. Some of my fondest memories of Welsh sport have come from watching us play rugby, we never beat the English at football but we regularly do it at Rugby and when we produce a star player they really are something special. Forget the divide and support with pride.
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Post by aberbeeg on Sept 27, 2023 7:20:57 GMT
Absolutely agree with the “we are Wales let’s support our teams” . The fact there are so many bucket hats and Wales football tops show most Welsh fans support both sports and enjoy travelling to support the boys.
Our rugby team actually have a fantastic record historically and we should be proud of it.
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Post by quetzal on Sept 27, 2023 8:32:06 GMT
Yeah I've seen a few videos online of what seems to be 50+ couples and middle/upper class Welsh folk. Crachach basically. Very tame as well by the stuff I've watched, seen a better atmosphere in my late gran's nursing home. So I'm in France. I've been to every Wales game + five other games and id say the majority of Wales fans in Lyon were Males under the age of 40 with friends. Huge groups of of guys in their 20s here with friends. English fans, Australian and Japanese majority seem to be old fans. Wales and Argentinas fan base is looking healthy. On a personal note I love my live sport. Football, rugby union, rugby league, t20 etc etc etc ill watch anything and I've attended a lot. I'm telling you now Wales v Fiji was easily in the top 5 best atmospheres I've ever experienced. Absolutely fucking electric in and out the stadium. Wish I could've bottled that. When you consider it wasn't a semi or a final and just another fixture v Fiji it's insane to think it was so good. I agree with comments above theres bucket hats and Wales football tops everywhere. It's great. I've heard a few don't take me home chants. We literally only have a few sports where we can be Cymru Let's get behind them all. It's shit the elite twats at the top are so out of touch and love 3 feathers but the working class boys on the pitch are a symbol of hard working Wales. I went to Japan 2019 for last RWC and at 43 at the time I definitely felt really young amongst the Welsh. It was basically Dad’s army following Wales. Middle class, retired with disposable income. Financially France is a lot more accessible. |
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Post by janglingjack on Sept 27, 2023 10:07:51 GMT
Good to see people speaking up for the rugby fans after the usual miseries have had their say, i am not a rugby fan i suppose but i watch it when we play on TV because i was brought up with it i suppose, i loved seeing us smash the aussies it was great.I want my country to win at tiddly winks, it's how most of us on here are i guess.Though the rugby shoved down out throats by the national media is a bit much at times so i can understand people getting pissed off.
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Post by dai on Sept 27, 2023 10:50:30 GMT
The RWC has to be one the most cringe, mickey mouse competitions in the world. Teams losing by 70 points or more, or double figures in tries. Imagine a football WC or Euro's where teams get regularly beat by 10 goals or more? A terrible watch. That rarely happens in qualifiers! Can't wait for the competition to be over and for all the 'Welsh for a day' fans to go back to their jobs. I often wonder how I'd feel if football was as easy as rugby. Welsh rugby was in the doldrums last year and now they're world cup contenders. Amazingly quick turnaround which never happens in football. I love both sports and whatever you say about rugby - t he effort our players put in to punch well above their weight is incredible. Others view it as remarkable, almost super human - they see mediocrity for the regions and then these guys put that red shirt on and get transformed. Facts are there. Wasn't the intention to turn this is into a rugby v football debate, cba with that back and forth. However I cannot agree with this idea that Welsh rugby punches way above their weight? C'mon, a bit of realism here. They only have like 8 other proper nations to compete with, it's hardly a competitive sport is it? It's easy to be good when you're one of the big fishes in a small pond. There's been very little development in rugby outside of the top nations in 20 years. Like I said, the RWC is laughable competition. It's just a combined Six Nations / Rugby Championship tournament with a sprinkle of crap teams on top to bulk it out. Fiji perhaps being the exception this year. I don't support Welsh rugby and never will, but for every person like me, there will be another 10 who are just as apathetic towards football. |
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Post by bale-droed on Sept 27, 2023 11:41:13 GMT
I love both sports and whatever you say about rugby - t he effort our players put in to punch well above their weight is incredible. Others view it as remarkable, almost super human - they see mediocrity for the regions and then these guys put that red shirt on and get transformed. Facts are there. Wasn't the intention to turn this is into a rugby v football debate, cba with that back and forth. However I cannot agree with this idea that Welsh rugby punches way above their weight? C'mon, a bit of realism here. They only have like 8 other proper nations to compete with, it's hardly a competitive sport is it? It's easy to be good when you're one of the big fishes in a small pond. There's been very little development in rugby outside of the top nations in 20 years. Like I said, the RWC is laughable competition. It's just a combined Six Nations / Rugby Championship tournament with a sprinkle of crap teams on top to bulk it out. Fiji perhaps being the exception this year. I don't support Welsh rugby and never will, but for every person like me, there will be another 10 who are just as apathetic towards football. Sorry mate we all have our moments of saying silly things on forums especially Me but that's utter shite. Apart from football, basketball and baseball rugby is probably the sport that's made it into the top 5 most played sports within a nation. For example did you know the national sport of Madagascar is Rugby? Sri Lanka I believe is the country 7th in the world for registered players. It's a lot bigger than we realize but then ironically a lot smaller in Australia, Canada and Japan than we think. Fiji for example with a smaller population have all the advantages of having a team in super rugby and changed eligibility rules basically just for them yet us with no help and a shit league can still beat them. We have no business winning the amount of 6 nations that we have in the 21st century. Rugby world cup is only behind football world cup and the Olympics for attendance. That's because rugby is huge..... just not as big as football. Basketball world cup was last month and rwc viewership is smashing it. |
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Post by gwernybwch on Sept 27, 2023 17:12:27 GMT
Always tickles me the massive demographic change between Wales Away football and Rugby crowds though. The rugby crowds seems to be mainly made out of 50+ couples, which doesn't exactly bode well for the future. Not so sure about that. It seems that whilst WalesAway always had and always will have a hard core, it seems that there has been a huge increase in the young "only came for the titty bars" crowd. Not sure that they will hang around when they are in relationships, have other commitments and we become shite again. The ability of rugby / the WRU to attract a constant stream of middle-income individuals doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. |
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Post by hooky on Sept 27, 2023 18:36:25 GMT
We have 59k registered male players Italy has 161k Ireland has 141k France has 597k England has 1.4 million! South Africa has 733k Argentina has 153k New Zealand has 133k Australia has 85k Georgia has 65k Portugal has 50k - we have marginally more than them Fiji has 136K I could go on - bottom line we should all be bloody proud of them! On top of that certain countries have much bigger resources and bend the rules. Despite having much higher playing numbers, the private school feeder network in Dublin (note up to 9% of Irish kids are privately educated) and far more money, the Irish had to import 4 players from New Zealand and Australia to give them a decent backline - they scouted them, offered them packages to come to Ireland and qualify on residency - 3 of them had zero family links to Ireland whatsoever. They are good now and treating Wales like beneath them in rugby terms but would love to see Ireland without their mercenaries. Obviously New Zealand, Australia, etc, cherry pick players from the Pacific Islands in a similar way. Even France end up with a few Boks and Fijians! It will not happen but it would be so beautiful if a country like Wales won the WC in spite of all of this. WE PUNCH MASSIVELY ABOVE OUR WEIGHT! Here is the wiki page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rugby_union_playing_countries |
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Post by hooky on Sept 27, 2023 18:45:05 GMT
Always tickles me the massive demographic change between Wales Away football and Rugby crowds though. The rugby crowds seems to be mainly made out of 50+ couples, which doesn't exactly bode well for the future. Not so sure about that. It seems that whilst WalesAway always had and always will have a hard core, it seems that there has been a huge increase in the young "only came for the titty bars" crowd. Not sure that they will hang around when they are in relationships, have other commitments and we become shite again. The ability of rugby / the WRU to attract a constant stream of middle-income individuals doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. and the weird thing is some of our neighbours, especially Ireland, can't stand or acknowledge our incredible success. Ireland and England pundits, media, accused the ref of rigging the Fiji game in our favour. No Irish pundit has praised Wales for thrashing Australia (we gave them their heaviest defeat by a European team and also at the WC ever) - but focused exclusively on how terrible Australia are - it was all because of them despite the fact we nevertheless managed to dismantle the, completely. I really hope our neighbours over the Irish sea get egg on their face at some point in this WC. They are not a nice lot when it comes to sport and their media have been derogatory to Welsh people in general on a few occasions too for no real reason. Whatever happens they will not have transformed rugby like Wales did through being the first team to have 8 players in a pack (rather than 7), to sing a national anthem for the first time at a sporting event, to start employing coaching in 60s/70s, to transform rugby into an attacking game in the 70s when they utilised a full back (JPR) as a running threat and when Barry John stunned the All Blacks and forever changed the way they played the game. That sport unified us as a country and helped shape our identity into the 20th century - we should be proud of what it represents and how much the players put into the shirt for the nation |
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