England/Scotlan sports teams

[BrainsTracy]

Why is that when England win they are somehow unworthy and Scotland are in someway hard done by and therefore singled out for praise. If England lose they get berated as rubbish if they win their opponenets get praised and England still get berated as rubbish? So a team that plays below par but still manages to win against one that has never got past the knockout stages despite having chances against both Argentina and England and they fail but It's England that gets attacked. Scottish sympathisers please explain your reasoning.

[ichkeria]

How can you expect the Celts to love the England rugby team when even many Engish people don't seem to? How can you expect a neutral to take to a team containing a plug-ugly centre with a horsey royal for a wife, who makes an ass of himself in night clubs with a blonde bimbo? A winger with an arrogant dive as he scores a try who also seems to have developed an unpleasant sideline as a sex pest?
But England thrive on being unloved - it's what they're good at. I doubt if they care and they won't if they lift the world cup

[pa___ul3]

now now, to be fair on Chris Ashton, he didn't invent the dive, even that dude in the top corner's having a crack, the only reason he's associated with it now is because he scores so many tries!
If you want to hate a team because of how the player looks or to whom he is married then I can only assume you're hiding something else behind those 'reasons'.

[Arksided]

I think it could be his Mrs. venting a little steam.

[emmie]

Ickeria, how do you know that all English people don't like them, i do, though i confess to often keeping fingers crossed at crucial points in their games. Perhaps England don't play with the flair of some other teams, but let's be honest, in it to win it, that is what counts. Those other teams can play with the all the flair and flamboyance they like, but are on the plane home.

[Arksided]

Steve, I know what you meant by the mentality of the English... the other nations are a joke in such competitions but we all like a good laugh.

I only quoted you in jest :-) but you are right

[Duncer]

Paul

Reference your question "Duncer, not looking to get political, although the question obviously has some political connotations... what's the general concensus on it being a combined Irish team? I've often wondered".

I certainly won't get politicial as I have a very low opinion of virtually all politicians, and anyway, I grew up with inbred political squabbling and was delighted to leave it all behind. However, discussion of this topic is virtually impossible without including politics to some degree, and I don't mean personal politics.

When Ireland split into two entities politically, so did the football associations, but rugby stayed as one and were supposed to alternate internationals between Belfast and Dublin, something that happened until the 1950's I believe. When playing in Belfast they used our anthem and flag, and the reciprocal was true in Dublin. However, since I can remember, this has not happened, and I greww up with a team playing in a foreign country under a foregin falg and with a foreign anthem, making me feel that my culture was undervalued, if not unwanted. It is because of this that I have always found it difficult to support them, even though I wanted to. This was exaccerbated when Ireland did play at Ravenhill in Belfast and we heard that several southern players would refuse if the "Queen" was playued or the Union Flag flown. "Ireland's call" (a well-meaning but awful Phil Coulter dirge), was introduced, but I still see the team as very much a republican entity that is more representative of the Republic of Ireland than Northern Ireland, irrespective of who plays. Sad, but that's my take on it. I have been to Murrayfield to support Ireland once, but the dire game and the price put me off as much as anything esle, and I stick to going to watch Ulster ever now and then, although that is not a political statement on my part by any means, it's just that they come to Scotland twice a year and it's a chance to catch up with other "exiles".

[Noraq]

There there BrainsTracy..dry yer eyes. =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iVsYJjaAvFI

[pa___ul3]

thanks for that Duncer, I had a feeling it would be something like that.
Back to just the rugby though, I may ask the same question a week on Saturday when then men in green could be lining up against England! That's could be one hell of a game and, on current form, I'd back Ireland!

[emmie]

England have a habit of being very slow starters, so don't discount them yet..

[Harry-Wragg]

You can stick your something chariots up your arse. (It's to the tune of "She'll be coming round the mountain when she comes" - good luck in the quarters - HW

[BrainsTracy]

sorry noraq, can't see that link at work but no doubt it'll be one of the rare occasions when Sciotland have won a game against England! Enjoy your scarce baubles!

[emmie]

HW, wish i understand your post.

That by the way sounded just like UB40?

[pa___ul3]

I'm not discounting England so much, Em, but we need to pull it together sharpish, I'm more impressed with Ireland, they've played some really good rugby, forwards and backs, and they're really working as a 15.

[Noraq]

=)

[ichkeria]

em10 I didn't say "all" English people don't support England, but many don't and I heard an English pundit on the radio saying he hoped they'd lose, which I must say I find strange, even though - as I say - I can fully understand why us Celts have a problem with them.
There are lots of good reasons to argue against those feelings of animosity - they are, after all, not rational - and yet we all instinctively understand why, at the same time.

Duncer, it's a pity you feel the way you do about the Ireland team, especially when so many Ulster players compete with pride for the green jersey. A few years ago second row Davy Tweed, a DUP councillor and a manI think it's fairly safe to call a bit of a bigot, would lock arms with his team mates and was even seen to at least mouth the words to Amhran na bhFiann. I have a friend in Belfast to insists on supporting Scotland rather than Ireland - which is a little tragic in my opinion, but even he hates England!!

[emmie]

Ickeria i still follow England but do so holding my breath, that can be difficult when trying to do other things..

Paul, I will be cheering them on, but i also cheer other teams when they play well.

[Duncer]

Ichkeria,

I think it's equally bigoted to expect Protestants/Unionists/Loyalists to go to Dublin to support a team supposedly representing BOTH countries when all they play is, to many, a foreign anthem and the only flag they fly is the tricolour, a flag that is synonymous with terrorism to many people from my community. I don't even fall into the Protestants/Unionist/loyalist camp to any great degree as I am a strange old bird who is perhaps more comfortable with an al round loathing of politics and a belief closer to athesim/agnosticism, contingent upon the weather, but I feel uncomfortable and unwanted by the current set-up. It does little or nothing to encourage, and I hate using this Sinn Fein term, "parity of esteem". Perhaps when things change, so will I. Until then I'll be silently hoping Wales win whilst feeling slightly guilty at the same time.

[ichkeria]

Well Duncer it's up to you who you support of course. I just think it's a pity you feel as you do. It isn't true, of course that "all they play" is the Irish national anthem. They play "Ireland's Call" now as well at home games, and only that at away games, which seems fair enough to me.
I think, to be honest, that it's only you who's bringing politics into it. However, like I say, you support who you like. I also have a great liking for the Welsh rugby team and I am sorry we are playing them to be honest.

[Duncer]

Ichkeria, with the greatest respect, it is not "Only me who is bringing politics into it", I was merely answering a question as to why so many people from Northern Ireland feel disenfranchised when it comes to rugby, and I thought I did so fairly. As for the IRFU now playing that dreadful Coulter dirge, "Ireland's Call" as well as the ROI national anthem -well how very gallant of them. I am no fan of GSTQ, (or any anthems for that matter, I find them peurile and for the overly insecure of identity), but if the ?Ireland team is to represent both countries then it should play both anthems. Or none!