Murray Kinsella reports from Melbourne
A COUPLE OF newspapers managed to squeeze in a few paragraphs about Israel Folau today but you could be forgiven for wondering if there really is a Test match between Ireland and the Wallabies taking place in Melbourne this weekend.
Even the short articles about Folau were in relation to his Aussie Rules-style overhead catching skills, which the Wallabies fullback has revealed he first began to hone at guest sessions with the AFL’s Carlton Football Club during his time in rugby league.
With 10 top-level Aussie Rules clubs based in the state of Victoria, this is very much AFL country and a visit to the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Monday helped to underline how popular the sport is here.
‘The G’ is a 100,000-capacity stadium and even for this regular-season AFL fixture between Melbourne and Collingwood, there was a crowd of around 85,000 people in attendance.
Collingwood – the Magpies, or even the Pies, as the locals call them – came out on top of a 133-91 scoreline.
Surprisingly enough, it was a Texas native who impressed us most, with Mason Cox - he’s nicknamed ‘American Pie’ – standing out for Collingwood in a fixture that once again highlighted the sheer quality of the AFL’s fielding skills.
Inspired by Aussie Rules, Folau is taking fielding in rugby union to another level and his threat will surely have been a big focus for Ireland in their preparations this week.
Joe Schmidt’s men are based in the city-centre Grand Hyatt hotel, while the fact that their training sessions are taking place at nearby St Kevin’s College underlines the quality of the sporting facilities in many Australian schools.
A heated training session on Tuesday was a good sign for Schmidt and his coaches, who are simultaneously keen for Ireland not to get worked up too early this week, with another ferocious Test to come on Saturday in AAMI Park, home to the Melbourne Rebels.
AAMI Park’s capacity is only 30,050, which is more than 20,000 less than last weekend’s first Test venue, Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane.
But it makes sense when you consider that Hawthorn, based in the Melbourne suburbs, are playing an AFL game in the MCG literally next door at 7.25pm on Saturday evening, while the Australian soccer team also kick off their World Cup campaign in Russia against France at 8pm.
The Wallabies get underway against Ireland at 8.05pm and, as ever in Australia, rugby union is facing a real battle to get attention.
Another victory for Michael Cheika’s side would perhaps earn them a few more seconds on TV news bulletins, as well as articles online and in the papers, with the Wallabies searching for the kind of consistency that will make their country proud.
Going into the final week of this series in Sydney 2-0 down would be a disaster for Ireland, even if it would likely mean more scope for Schmidt to experiment.
The Ireland head coach is all about winning, however, and a big response is expected as frontliners like Johnny Sexton, Tadhg Furlong, Garry Ringrose and Cian Healy come back into the starting team.
There are plenty of Irish people in Melbourne, of course, and the support on Saturday should be vocal.
Sonia O’Sullivan, who spends her time between Melbourne and Ireland, was at the team hotel on Tuesday, popping in to greet friends in the media, and wishing some of the Irish players well for the second Test.
Ireland’s squad used their down day on Wednesday to relax, heading out and about in a city that is packed full of cool cafés, street art and plenty of tourist attractions.
They are back to business on the training pitch on Thursday as Schmidt looks to ensure they are perfectly prepared to level this series in Melbourne.
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Complete opposite here, media flog it to the death
@Jeremy Knau: total overkill.
@Jeremy Knau: lads. I never get this. They create content which plenty of us want to digest. It’s economically viable. If you don’t want to read it, don’t. You’re big boys.
@Jeremy Knau: ehh football, which we’re terrible at and is incredibly boring, gets way more attention than rugby. GAA also gets more attention, even though we’re the only country that plays it.
@Rudiger McMonihan: Football World Cup (which we’re not in) currently getting more attention than any other sport…
@Rudiger McMonihan: ehh AFL is played by more than 10 countries is it ????
@Conor Paddington: and rightly so it’s a global event
@Conor Paddington: maybe we are looking for content on other sports but because half the sports journo’s who operate out of the media in this country are in Australia covering for all intents and purpose a friendly, it’s quiet ironic then that the Aussie journos have no interest in covering same
@Jeremy Knau: A global event of tripe corruption violence racism hooliganism GROWN MEN CRYING and obscenely disgusting wealth with, let’s be fair, a bit of skill somewhere in the middle. That’s my opinion I’m sticking to it
@Jeremy Knau: sap
@Conor Paddington: at least ‘big boys’ don’t call each other names
@Jeremy Knau: you’re a lost cause, pal
@Jeremy Knau: I assume your a football fan? Each to their own but why have a pop at other sports? We are all Irish and we are a lot better at rugby than we are at football. And try come up with a better argument than “there’s only 10 teams competing” absolutely not the point.
@Conor Paddington: maybe so but I don’t have to resort to name calling, I hope the irony isn’t lost on you when you clicked in that ‘content’, hopefully you will grow and learn going forward.
@Coco86: my original statement was that rugby union coverage was flogged to death in the media here and now we are at ‘we are all Irish’ if that’s the case it’s ironic you accept a guy playing for Ireland who if he went back 100 generations wouldn’t have even European lineage not to mind Irish
@Jeremy Knau: you’re trolling rugby articles because you’re angry and bored, and the “it’s basically just a friendly” is the most tired and clichéd soccer lad pop at rugby fans in existence. “Sap” isn’t that bad a name, but I’m sorry it knocked you off kilter so badly. But, to be fair, you’re boring and you’re probably a bit of a sap.
@Rudiger McMonihan: both have easily 10 times the participation rate. It doesn’t seem to bother the Aussies that they are the only ones playing AFL seriously. Bit on an Irish inferiority complex worrying about how else plays our games.
@Conor Paddington: ha, I wonder are you fat and bald
@Jeremy Knau: ‘We are all Irish’ As in can you not just be happy your country is actually punching above its weight in a growing global sport? FFS they are having 30 year anniversary celebrations of Ireland WINNING A MATCH at Euro 88!!! Im sure media flogged the coverage of football back then! Like it or not Rugby is on a constant upward trajectory, nowhere near GAA but closing the gap on soccer quickly.
@Dahayeser: I’m not the one worrying. I don’t go into football articles and cry about there being football articles. I only respond negatively about other sports when their mentally challenged fans, who can’t seem to find the football section of the42, end up trolling rugby articles. It’s not our fault that your overblown club competitions have devalued your international competitions to the point that you don’t care about “friendlies”. It’s not our fault that you’d rather support English teams than Irish teams. So why are you here complaining? You have more than enough content of your own to digest. The number of articles written about rugby clearly isn’t effecting the number written about football.
@Dahayeser: also having larger participation rates doesn’t make it more entertaining, it simply means it is more accessible. Football is simple. You can play it anywhere and it is easy to follow the rules. Rugby is growing, but I don’t think it will ever be as popular, because it takes a lot of time to understand all the rules. That’s why I love it though. It’s complex. Players need a balance of strength, speed and endurance. They need to have skills with their hands and their feet. They need to coordinate their movements with teammates in rucks scrums mauls and lineouts. Rugby is a effectively a combination dozens of different sports. It’s so nuanced that nobody can be the best at everything. So it ends up being an extremely physical game of chess.
@Rudiger McMonihan: So we are terrible at football then, are we? Those sort of statements is exactly why you rugby guys get so much stick. We are 31th in the world rankings at the moment so just about in the top 15%. We also beat the current World Champions and a 3 times former World Champion in COMPETIVE games not too long ago. Our style of football is terrible though at the moment and needs to be worked on urgently.
@mar: we’re 31st but not in the top 32 that matter, and when were we last? And to call the matches where we beat Germany and Italy COMPETITIVE is a tad bit dishonest, the matches were dead rubbers for them as Germany were qualified and Italy through the group, they fielded weaker teams and their heart wasn’t in it. Listen, I’d love if Ireland were stronger and celebrate when they win, but let’s call a spade a spade. We’re playing the best football we’ve played in 2 decades and we still can’t get into a World Cup.
Ireland, as Six Nations champions, really, really have to win this second Test against Australia. Otherwise, this summer and the post-Six Nations high will be a complete disaster. To put it another way, we need to push-on from our Grand Slam achievement by winning in the Southern Hemisphere, not to rest on our laurels. Winning in Europe doesn’t count for much if we can’t beat prospective World Cup challengers (i.e. Sanzar nations) away from home.
@J. Reid: not a complete disaster. Australia are still highly ranked, are fresher and are at home. We haven’t won in Australia since the 70s
@Rudiger McMonihan: the argument for them being fresher is absolute nonsense. Yes it’s been a long season but these guys are professional athletes looking after themselves in the best possible ways weekly and they also have been wrapped in cotton wool by the irfu. Using that as an excuse for the first loss this team has had in over a year is ridiculous really, the coaches and players aren’t using it as an excuse so I don’t know why a lot of people commenting on here keep harping on about tiredness as a factor in why they lost last week
@Liam Flague: sure they’ve been well protected, but the Leinster contingent in particular since the 6 Nations have played in 2 semis and 2 finals basically of test match intensity. So rest or not, their season has been incredibly weighted towards the end. And I don’t know if you’ve been to Aus, but the jet lag in that direction is fierce, it is a factor by week one. The fact is the Autumn favours the Northern Hemisphere (bar New Zealand, who are on another plain) and June favours the Southern because of fatigue and home advantage.
@J. Reid: “Ireland, as Six Nations champions, really, really have to win this second Test against Australia. Otherwise, this summer and the post-Six Nations high will be a complete disaster”
Much as some people like to make out tests huge and you dare not call them friendlies. The truth is in the modern era they are little more than friendlies designed to fill up the kitties of the home nations.
If Ireland can add some depth to the squad and leave Oz with a tried and trusted second option at out half then it is a job well done. Well a job well started at least with the World Cup being the overall job.
@Dahayeser: jaysus you soccer trolls are out in force. It must have been agonising sitting through 12 wins in a row before you crawled back out after the weekend’s loss…
@Dahayeser: This post ’09 Grand Slam thing of people calling test matches friendlies is cringe worthy.
It just shows your ignorance, that if a sport is carried out in a way that your are alien with you can’t deal with it.
Also I ask if any of those who say it have ever played rugby. It’s arguably impossible to play a ‘friendly’ rugby game.
@David Hickey: Sure I’ve played loads of rugby. It’s the recent rugby bandwagon that get worked up the tests / friendlies thing. The lads who want silance in the pub out of respect for the kicker!! Brilliant, you cant but get a kick out of that one.
Pre ’87 there the only international tournament. Tests didn’t happen that regularly and hence were very important. Now we have a World Cup, The Rugby Championship and a host of international club competitions. Tests happen twice a year to fill up the coffers it’s only logical that they have fallen down the pecking order. The game has evolved.
@Conor Paddington I’d shout for Ireland at line dancing. Love seeing us doing well at anything and I’ve no real ties to soccer.
@Dahayeser: fine on your point to me, but your point to David is totally incorrect, you can call them bandwaggoners all you want, but you’re describing the diehards. They just aren’t friendlies, friendlies are played in soccer, and to call test matches friendlies or to compare them to friendlies betrays a lack of understanding bordering on ignorance. It may not be wilful or malicious ignorance, but that doesn’t make it any less wrong.
@Dahayeser: I’ve played since I could walk, not that it made me any good at it, but any game against a tier 1 nation isn’t a friendly. If Ireland were playing Canada or Russia then yeah, you can call it a friendly, but the summer and Autumn tests are important. There is history between these teams going back over 100 years. Also, international rugby teams only play around 10 games a year and the internationals are far more important than the club games. Id rather Ireland win a test series against a tri nation’s team in their own back yard than watch Leinster do the double again next year. Not sure if there are many football fans that would rather see Ireland win a friendly than see man utd or Liverpool win their league/cup.
@J. Reid:
Half the team last week were 2nd and 3rd choice players in an experimental line-up. Tour is far from a disaster.
It will be disappointing if we don’t win with the big guns however
The game REALLY struggles for attention down here unfortunately. Especially here in Melbourne, where the top sport is AFL followed by cricket, soccer after that and rugby league after that! Honestly most of the people I know who follow the game are Kiwis, or NH expats!
At the same time, it has been nice following the lads in social media and seeing them knock around Melbourne!
Obviously would like a win but does it really matter in the grand scheme of things? Far better to blood players so we can build a squad for the world cup. A win while doing that would be great but certainly not a disaster.
@Ro Molloy: what is the grand scheme of things other than playing to win? If you play the game as though the only thing that matters is winning the World Cup then everyone is going to be disappointed 99% of the time. Obviously the World Cup would be the best, but you have to enjoy yourself and entertain the fans in between.
Interestingly Israel Folau was a spectacular flop in AFL and failed to make the grade.