Leinster v Bulls Friday RDS 19:35 TG4

[D4surfer]

The weather is rotten right now and doesn't look like it'll clear as early as had been forecast, could be a bit of a slog later.

Was lashing with thunder & lightning here (Laois) around 3PM but its fine now so could be grand up there in a few hours.

It's clear blue sky in Ballsbridge right now. It will be slippy underfoot after all that rain though.

[ronk]

We should probably remember this the next time there's schadenfreude at Munster not getting a crowd of more than 20k amid talk of 'communions'.

If you leave aside the 'greatest fans in the world' shite that's fun to poke holes at, Munster generally do better than us at getting crowds in.

Don't want to get into a pissing contest on who has the best support but what you say isn't correct. We have been consistently the best supported Pro 14 team, usually with an average gate 5k or so higher than the nearest (last pro 14 average had Ulster second placed by the way). We have also (by far) been the best supported club in the champions cup - typically with an average gate 10k higher than the next best.

Some people poke fun at Munster not because they aren't well supported (they are) rather because of the way their supporters are positioned in the media and opposite that how our support has been portrayed as somehow inferior (which it isn't).

You're looking at overall numbers which is easy to do

But we have by far the biggest catchment area and a stadium that's easy to access, smack bang in the middle of the largest fan base.

Leinster have in my view totally failed to grow this base over the last few years and our crowds for more 'regular' and some knockout games are well below par.

Munster got a lot of stick in April for having 'only' 20k people at a regular season derby game with lots of cracking banter on here about 'communions'.

Last week we had less than 9.5k show up for a knockout.

We've only managed above 15k five times this season, and none of these have been RDS games.

My point is, we shouldn't be patting ourselves on the back because we're slightly better than Munster, we should be looking at crowds declining and asking why LR aren't doing better to attract fans to the only pro sports team in the biggest catchment area with a huge winning record.

As I recall the main comments about Thomond Park were complaining about lack of travelling Leinster fans.

After 2 years of Covid restrictions it seems off to expect attendance to be anything like it was, especially when looking at the season as a whole. If everyone else was back to normal then maybe there'd be a point to make.

URC knockouts have never been well attended, especially the early round.

Leinster took a decision to use the Aviva a few years ago. It grew the crowd at the expense of some RDS fixtures, and that makes sense. The biggest games go on general sale and many fans choose the big games in the fancy stadium watching the better players rather than the fillers that aren't sold out. The URC semis don't have season tickets, they don't have much buzz, there's no season ticket discount and full price is sometimes higher. They're competing against the more attractive and expensive fixtures of the season. They're rarely exciting results.

There's probably a case for scrapping them.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

The weather is rotten right now and doesn't look like it'll clear as early as had been forecast, could be a bit of a slog later.

Was lashing with thunder & lightning here (Laois) around 3PM but its fine now so could be grand up there in a few hours.

It's clear blue sky in Ballsbridge right now. It will be slippy underfoot after all that rain though.

You can thank me for that, the weather gods obviously just wanted to prove me wrong.

[Barry]

Weather app says that the sun is currently shining in Ballsbridge - there's a downpour

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[Dave Cahill]

Weather app says that the sun is currently shining in Ballsbridge - there's a downpour

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

Its pelting down right now in the rds

[Leinsterimp]

Anyone know of any sites to watch premier sports in the UK?

[MylesNaGapoleen]

Anyone know of any sites to watch premier sports in the UK?

https://www.premierplayer.tv/?pp2=1

where are you? I'm in CH and URCTV is pretty good...payg per game or bundles.

[ronk]

Weather app says that the sun is currently shining in Ballsbridge - there's a downpour

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

Its pelting down right now in the rds

Grandstand won in the end over South Stand and buy a jacket.

[neill_m]

Anyone know of any sites to watch premier sports in the UK?

Have you tried to access TG4 Player? URC TV not available in UK for info.

Sorry re TG4 Player, didn't realise not available due to rights issue.

[ronk]

Baird out. Ruddock in

[Keith]

Attendance looks good to me. I don't know what people are expecting with less than a week to sell tickets.

[enby]

Sweet try. Clever kick from Ross and fabulous chase by ROL but where did Sheehan come from? Any 7 would be very proud of that score

[enby]

Some really soft and mistimed tackling there. Steeped that 15 made a hames of the finish

[enby]

Clever move by Bulls but atrocious defending

[Avenger]

Plenty of mistakes so far

[carlow man]

Getting bullied in defence

[enby]

Its a knockout match, the 3 should be taken

[enby]

Magical pass there from Henshaw. Himself and Ringer playing v well

[Avenger]

Beautiful by Henshaw.

[Laighin Break]

ROL has given away two penalties, both led to tries. The second one especially was very poor