Spirit of Irish?
By AlecW
September 15 2021
At the start of the year Griff made a call for stories to keep the site alive. This was supplied by Craic stalwart AlecW who shares his thoughts on the differences between Irish and more geographically-based clubs. Now we're offline again Alec can come to our rescure.
As part of my work the other day (I am a headhunter specialising in finding board members for financial services companies), I interviewed someone who had been very close to the top of Connacht rugby. Naturally, at the end of the meeting, we started to chat about rugby and the subject of Bristol’s success came up. The guy explained that he had known that Pat Lam would be a success at Connacht because he had spent so much serious time going round the ‘heartland’ clubs in Connacht, getting to know what made the province ‘tick’, not just in rugby terms, but what knitted the community and communities together.
I wondered if this was a function of Lam’s South Sea Island heritage, where anecdotal evidence suggests that communities are comparatively small and tight-knit.
It also got me thinking that possibly Lam and his team (several of whom he has taken to Bristol with him from Connacht) had done the same with the Bristol area, talking to the club, the supporters etc about why Bristol (as opposed to Bath or Gloucester, for instance)? And what makes that great old club ‘tick’. He might, for instance, have talked to Stuart Barnes, who played for both Bristol and Bath, or Paul Hull (once of this parish).
It also got me thinking about how you could do the same for Leicester (in the East Midlands, and why them, not Northampton), Gloucester, Exeter etc, but could he have done the same at London Irish?
To me (as a supporter for 30 years), there is no geographical LI ‘community’ any more. I’d argue that you wouldn’t go round Sunbury or Hazelwood asking about what makes LI tick, for instance. I’m not sure you would around Reading, because we’ve left. Brentford is an unknown, as yet.
Is there a supporters’ community? Undoubtedly, but they appear to come from such a variety of backgrounds, areas and points of view that I imagine it might be difficult to identify a ‘culture’ or what makes the club ‘tick’. A playing culture, yes. Traditionally, LI played entertaining, open rugby. But not so much of that, recently.
He could have talked to LI supporters about ‘why not Quins?’, but I’m not sure that will really be relevant until we have been at Brentford for a year or two and there are regular Brentford-attending LI supports to talk to.
Is this, perhaps, because we are an exile club? I would argue that that was a massive factor pre-professionalism, but that now LI is a business, not a club, that we have a pretty cosmopolitan bunch of players and supporters and that the Irish diaspora is an important component, but no more than that. The LISC could poll its membership and that would be an excellent snapshot, but I don’t think the supporters are as intimate a part of the club as they once were. The Amateur club is wonderful and there are close connections with the professional club, but I’m still not sure that one would give an accurate view of the ‘culture’ of the other
So - ignoring for now that fact that K&K are firmly established - if you were a new DoR (or a Martian) trying to gauge what makes London Irish tick, who would you talk to? Here are my suggestions (in no particular order):
Macca (Kieran McCarthy)
Conor O’Shea
Dick Best
Kelly Adey
Paddy Lennon
Brendan Venter
Who would YOU recommend the new DoR or Martian should talk to, in order to get to the essence of London Irish...?
Editor's Comments: Many thanks to Alec for putting the effort in, really appreciated. A lot of people post threads from time-to-time with really great topics - they could easily be stories like this keeping the site operating. If you've got some take on Irish or Rugby please send your words to editors@londonirish.org.
Spirit of Irish?
Posted by: The Craic www.londonirish.org (IP Logged)
Date: 15/09/2021 18:32
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Re: Spirit of Irish?
Posted by: HMRH (IP Logged)
Date: 16/09/2021 16:42
Thanks Alec- definitely Blair.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:09:16:20:24:10 by HMRH.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2021:09:16:20:24:10 by HMRH.
Re: Spirit of Irish?
Posted by: Shawshank (IP Logged)
Date: 16/09/2021 18:18
Good stuff Alec.
I’m not as close to the club as some on here, but someone like Topsy is probably best placed to give a modern perspective.
On a slightly wider point, if I were a new coach joining a club I would make a beeline to talk to as many current Prem referees as I could on a confidential basis, in order to get a real good feel about the players you will be in charge of.
I’m not as close to the club as some on here, but someone like Topsy is probably best placed to give a modern perspective.
On a slightly wider point, if I were a new coach joining a club I would make a beeline to talk to as many current Prem referees as I could on a confidential basis, in order to get a real good feel about the players you will be in charge of.
Re: Spirit of Irish?
Posted by: Florida (IP Logged)
Date: 16/09/2021 21:46
Being a firm believer that the spirit of London Irish is the magic of our academy, some Irish grunt and a sprinkling of star dust from far flung places I would suggest
Gislelle Mather
Neil Hartley
Bob Casey
Blair
Maps
Topsy
Cracking post by the way, really got me thinking
Gislelle Mather
Neil Hartley
Bob Casey
Blair
Maps
Topsy
Cracking post by the way, really got me thinking
Re: Spirit of Irish?
Posted by: HMRH (IP Logged)
Date: 17/09/2021 09:20
Does culture = playing style too? Sat here envious of Leicester with Wiese and van Staden and Saints with Trokkie but I wonder whether they’d fit our “culture”? The first 2
Certainly match Tigers culture and style
Certainly match Tigers culture and style
Re: Spirit of Irish?
Posted by: tatthecraicnew (IP Logged)
Date: 17/09/2021 14:46
or Leicester and Augustus
Re: Spirit of Irish?
Posted by: Ginger Pirate (IP Logged)
Date: 17/09/2021 15:14
Great Post, got me thinking, a few additional names to be added to the list:
Peter Whiteside
Justin Bishop
Peter Whiteside
Justin Bishop
Re: Spirit of Irish?
Posted by: HMRH (IP Logged)
Date: 17/09/2021 16:40
Trokkie is Augustus and he’s at Saints. It means truck
Re: Spirit of Irish?
Posted by: Life long exile (IP Logged)
Date: 19/09/2021 18:32
Dec Danaher for sure. A true London Irish man.
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