Watching the World Cup Rugby highlights the other night I wondered about the Irish team. Without getting into the politics, please, for international sports, where does the “Ireland” team draw its players? Are they strictly from Ireland the country or the whole island. If you live in Northern Ireland would you play for England or Ireland?
If it was like the Olympics, I’m guessing the Irish players would only come from the nation of Ireland. Players from Northern Ireland would not play for either Ireland or England but rather the United Kingdom.
The Ireland Rugby team is comprised of players from both the Republic and Northern Ireland. Hands across the border if you like. Northern Irish players cannot play for England because they aren’t English.
Rugby is a great example of countries putting aside their nationalistic differences for sport’s sake. The four ‘home’ nations (England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales) also come together as a united team known as the British and Irish Lions for some international tours, even though the teams are sworn enemies the rest of the time (well, three nations regard England as the sworn enemy in any case). Being picked to play for the Lions is a huge honour, wherever you come from.
The rugby union team draws its players from the whole island of Ireland.
Moved to the Game Room, and title edited to indicate subject.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I stand corrected.
Which is why they sing that shitty “Ireland’s Call” song before a match, instead of a national anthem.
(When they play matches in the Republic they play the Irish national anthem AND Ireland’s Call. If you watch, some of the players will not sing the Irish national anthem - they’d tend to be nordies, probably proddies.)
Ireland’s Call is only one of the reasons I hate rugby. 
A game for protestant shopkeepers, as Behan said. Before playing, and enjoying it, in Borstal Boy.
More specifically for the sake of cheating in sport.
Nationalistic differences??? The entire point of international competition is that different national teams compete against each other.
I live in the Republic of Ireland and I think it’s a disgrace and a joke. I’m sure most of the teams have no idea that what we’re doing is so absurd. I have always said this, it’s a good thing I don’t like rugby. 
We’re not even a part of the commonwealth. It would make much more sense for all of the UK to band together, or for Northern Ireland and England to band together, or best of all for Northern Ireland to have their own team like how it is in soccer. It would be like USA and Mexico and Canada all making an “international team” called “America” for the world cup in soccer.
Putting aside our “nationalistic differences” and playing happy families my ass. That goes completely against the idea of international sport. You can’t just join onto another nation like that.
Except, of course, the Irish rugby team existed before the creation of Northern Ireland as a separate entity. It was politics that tried to split the team up (amongst other things obviously) - not Northern Ireland choosing to join another nation, especially given the structures for organising rugby on the island were already in place. Frankly, there was nothing wrong with the situation on the pitch, so why should they change it?
The presence of the Irish team is also responsible for the greatest after dinner speech in the history of rugby. In 1972, Wales refused to play Ireland due to threats against their players, presumably made by the IRA. The following year, with their players facing similar threats, England turned up to Dublin and played anyway, receiving a 5 minute standing ovation, before getting well beaten - inspiring John Pullin, the English captain to remark at the post match dinner “we might not be any good - but at least we turn up”. It’s stuff like this that made rugby a great game - shame we don’t get too much of that nowadays in the pro era.
Of course not, but Ireland had, and has, a much closer relationship to the UK than anywhere else, and vice-versa, at least at an individual level. Voting in General Elections for a start.
Not really, no.
Because they are now different countries. If we were to go down that path, then any teams established during the roman empire would be Italian. Brazil and Portugal would be Spain from times past. The old USSR would still play together. Serbia and Montenagro split to Serbia and Montenagro. What if they said: “hey let’s put those differences aside, shur we have a team here why change it lol”. Hell, why not go all the way back and have them all part of Yugoslavia?
It’s scandalous really that Ireland are continued to be allowed to do this. Then you go into an anecdote which I find remarkably unrelated to the discussion at hand.
Many different countries can claim ties and relationships to each other. That doesn’t mean they can form an international side together.
How, exactly, is it not like that? How is it not like USA and Canada and Mexico forming a team called “Team America”… or ok let’s call it: “North America”? Only for posterity’s sake is it even a question. But the days when the island of Ireland was a single country are over.
The reason why Northern Ireland have much more of a claim to joining with England is that they’re under the same government. This doesn’t make them the same country, but it definitely makes them more internationally tied than a completely independant country: the Republic of Ireland.
ModernPrimate, you’re the only person, of any nationality, who I’ve ever seen that has a problem with it. Perhaps you’re young.
There’s no perfect analogy, but it would be less like a “North America” team and more like an all-Korea team, or united Cyprus. Divided former nation, shared history, inescapable local or island geography, etc.
IMO it’s one of the more healing and less divisive phenomena in international sports. Stay on the internet long enough I guess and you’ll find people who’ll get pissed off with anything…
I’m in total agreement with jjimm. The closest analogy I can think of is the West Indies in cricket, a team that predates the division into 10 sovereign nations and 5 dependencies.
Oh, and *Ireland’s call *is no worse than Flower of Scotland IMHO
I love that Ireland play as one team. Not a fan of Ireland’s Call though. I’ve no problem with another song being used in place of an anthem, its just that Ireland’s Call is kind of crap.
Except that people from Northern Ireland aren’t English, they are ethnically Irish. The drawing of a political border doesn’t change that fact, and given the horrors created by that divide, the putting aside of differences to come together for rugby is an example that many others could follow.
I really wish England would pick a song other than the British National Anthem. Apart from incensing supporters from Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, it gives England no rallying call of its own. I want Land of Hope and Glory! (stamps foot).
I was at the Super League final at Old Trafford last week. There they played “Jerusalem” which would be good for an English anthem too.
Another vote for Jerusalem. In addition to being specifically English, that shit is rousing.