The relegation of Lansdowne

[leinsterlank]

Yesterday confirmed the relegation of one of the oldest and most known clubs, Lansdowne.To date, 99 Lansdowne players have won international caps and the club has also produced 9 british and irish lions.Lansdowne have won the Leinster Senior Cup a record 24 times, as well as winning the most Leinster Senior League titles (9). Since the Club's first Senior Cup victory in 1891, Lansdowne have won a total of 104 Leinster Branch trophies as well as 6 national titles - more than any other club.

Is this a sad day for club rugby or a demonstration of the progression in irish club rugby?
Personally I feel it is a sad day.

Also, do you think lansdowne will bounce straight back or will the relegation spark a mass exodus of contracted and hopefully players. Having spent so much on their under 20's team which boasts 5 former irish schools players, 3 current irish U 20's and 2 irish U 19's aswell as a handful of talented leinster sub academy players, will this relegation result in abandonement of the young hopefuls?

[groundhog]

demonstration of the progression in irish club rugby

There you have it in a nutshell, that and demographics. Would have greater sympathy for a club like Greystones, who are building from the bottom up.

Having spent so much on their under 20's team which boasts 5 former irish schools players, 3 current irish U 20's and 2 irish U 19's aswell as a handful of talented leinster sub academy players, will this relegation result in abandonement of the young hopefuls?

You think these players care about Lansdowne? Why did Lansdowne let go/get rid off Liam Toland?

[its about winning]

Very sad to see such a big Leinster club go down.
When you think they were 2nd in the AIL in 2003/2004. The last 2 seasons they finished 9th and 10th, so its not like they didn't see it coming.
Hopefully the success of the u/20s can get them back up.
Is Toland still the coach???? If so he better watch his back.

[leinsterlank]

You think these players care about Lansdowne? Why did Lansdowne let go/get rid off Liam Toland?

These players,largely have no affiliation to any club previous to lansdowne as they are mainly from schools rugby and have never played for a club before so therefore, it was the job of some club to attract these players. It is a sign of the history of the club that these big players are attracted to it. It is now going to be difficult for these players to stay of they desire a future unless lansdowne bounce straight back. Toland isnt the coach anymore by the way.I'm not sure the circumstances around his departure.

[simonno6]

I think its sad to see one of the biggest clubs in the history of the Irish game go down but you have to admire the smaller clubs tenacity to reach the positions they have. They achieve this by nurturing the players from grassroots levels and therefore developing the true loyalty that leinsterlank referred to in his post. I often think that Dublin clubs like Lansdowne, Wanderers and Greystones are at an instant disadvantage in this regard as they have no real concrete affiliation to the grassroots level development of their players. At least marys and blackrock have the whole schools tradition behind them, which fosters pride in the jersey.

In clubs like Bruff, who are jumping through the divisions, they have them from mini rugby to senior level and are retaining more players than ever before to the bigger clubs like Shannon. These are the types of clubs that have a huge future in the AIL.

I heard a rumour from a lansdowne source today that indicated they had begun planning to return to the top flight before today. Apparantly they have already raised 400,000 to make sure they have the playing squad to head straight back up. This attitude of 'buying there way back to the top' could backfire, as im a firm believer that team spirit is a very important component in any rugby team.

[Sea_point]

I think its sad to see one of the biggest clubs in the history of the Irish game go down but you have to admire the smaller clubs tenacity to reach the positions they have. They achieve this by nurturing the players from grassroots levels and therefore developing the true loyalty that leinsterlank referred to in his post. I often think that Dublin clubs like Lansdowne, Wanderers and Greystones are at an instant disadvantage in this regard as they have no real concrete affiliation to the grassroots level development of their players. At least marys and blackrock have the whole schools tradition behind them, which fosters pride in the jersey.

In clubs like Bruff, who are jumping through the divisions, they have them from mini rugby to senior level and are retaining more players than ever before to the bigger clubs like Shannon. These are the types of clubs that have a huge future in the AIL.

I heard a rumour from a lansdowne source today that indicated they had begun planning to return to the top flight before today. Apparantly they have already raised 400,000 to make sure they have the playing squad to head straight back up. This attitude of 'buying there way back to the top' could backfire, as im a firm believer that team spirit is a very important component in any rugby team.

Point of order, 'Stones (as a former Seapoint player I spit here... ) are a Wickla club and Pres Bray and St Gerards would be feeders for them as well as the like of Rock and Monkstown lads from the Shankill/Bray area as well as having mini rugby all the way from U-8's to 18's .

[simonno6]

I think its sad to see one of the biggest clubs in the history of the Irish game go down but you have to admire the smaller clubs tenacity to reach the positions they have. They achieve this by nurturing the players from grassroots levels and therefore developing the true loyalty that leinsterlank referred to in his post. I often think that Dublin clubs like Lansdowne, Wanderers and Greystones are at an instant disadvantage in this regard as they have no real concrete affiliation to the grassroots level development of their players. At least marys and blackrock have the whole schools tradition behind them, which fosters pride in the jersey.

In clubs like Bruff, who are jumping through the divisions, they have them from mini rugby to senior level and are retaining more players than ever before to the bigger clubs like Shannon. These are the types of clubs that have a huge future in the AIL.

I heard a rumour from a lansdowne source today that indicated they had begun planning to return to the top flight before today. Apparantly they have already raised 400,000 to make sure they have the playing squad to head straight back up. This attitude of 'buying there way back to the top' could backfire, as im a firm believer that team spirit is a very important component in any rugby team.

Point of order, 'Stones (as a former Seapoint player I spit here... ) are a Wickla club and Pres Bray and St Gerards would be feeders for them as well as the like of Rock and Monkstown lads from the Shankill/Bray area as well as having mini rugby all the way from U-8's to 18's .

Ok, The greater leinster area teams! (smartarse )

Every greater leinster area clubs have feeder schools but they dont play for them seriously from the ages of 12-17/18. Sure they might play on the sundays at u16's level but junior and senior schools teams take precedence every time. If you play for a club like bruff you play for them week in week out for ten years before u20's level! Thats real team spirit to bring into ail rugby when you consider how close a bond schools teams form in 5 years!

Besides Rock and Marys (rfc's), you would be lucky to play with 5 players from your senior cup team at 20's level, so bonds are broken and have to be built afresh.

[FrankBurke]

I think its sad to see one of the biggest clubs in the history of the Irish game go down but you have to admire the smaller clubs tenacity to reach the positions they have. They achieve this by nurturing the players from grassroots levels and therefore developing the true loyalty that leinsterlank referred to in his post. I often think that Dublin clubs like Lansdowne, Wanderers and Greystones are at an instant disadvantage in this regard as they have no real concrete affiliation to the grassroots level development of their players. At least marys and blackrock have the whole schools tradition behind them, which fosters pride in the jersey.

In clubs like Bruff, who are jumping through the divisions, they have them from mini rugby to senior level and are retaining more players than ever before to the bigger clubs like Shannon. These are the types of clubs that have a huge future in the AIL.

I heard a rumour from a lansdowne source today that indicated they had begun planning to return to the top flight before today. Apparantly they have already raised 400,000 to make sure they have the playing squad to head straight back up. This attitude of 'buying there way back to the top' could backfire, as im a firm believer that team spirit is a very important component in any rugby team.

Stones are a different type of club to Landsdowne or Wanderers. They are rooted in their local community, have feeder schools and have a very good under-age set-up.

[tate]

liam toland is away on a tour of duty with the army.

[Leinsterman]

I heard a rumour from a lansdowne source today that indicated they had begun planning to return to the top flight before today. Apparantly they have already raised 400,000 to make sure they have the playing squad to head straight back up. This attitude of 'buying there way back to the top' could backfire, as im a firm believer that team spirit is a very important component in any rugby team.

Good to see Lansdowne have learnt the lessons that most other AIL clubs learnt in the 90s...

[CRAZYDAVE]

You think these players care about Lansdowne? Why did Lansdowne let go/get rid off Liam Toland?

Did he not go to Chad with his job ??

[tate]

You think these players care about Lansdowne? Why did Lansdowne let go/get rid off Liam Toland?

Did he not go to Chad with his job ??

he did indeed

[CRAZYDAVE]

Yesterday confirmed the relegation of one of the oldest and most known clubs, Lansdowne.To date, 99 Lansdowne players have won international caps and the club has also produced 9 british and irish lions.Lansdowne have won the Leinster Senior Cup a record 24 times, as well as winning the most Leinster Senior League titles (9). Since the Club's first Senior Cup victory in 1891, Lansdowne have won a total of 104 Leinster Branch trophies as well as 6 national titles - more than any other club.

Is this a sad day for club rugby or a demonstration of the progression in irish club rugby?
Personally I feel it is a sad day.

Also, do you think lansdowne will bounce straight back or will the relegation spark a mass exodus of contracted and hopefully players. Having spent so much on their under 20's team which boasts 5 former irish schools players, 3 current irish U 20's and 2 irish U 19's aswell as a handful of talented leinster sub academy players, will this relegation result in abandonement of the young hopefuls?

Hard to have sympathy here, given past history.

Last time Lansdowne were in the mire, they were due to play Tarf in the second last league game of the season. I duely arrived at Tarf and read the respective team sheets. Problem with the Lansdowne team was that they didn't include Contepomi, D'Arcy, McCullen, Ronan. and Lyne, in their team list (Leinster had that weekend off). A host of "bangers" had arrived. Tarf lost the match by a narrow margin, and therby lost home advantage for the AIL playoffs. Lansdowne scraped a win the relegation playoff, and stayed up.

[Beltza]

I think its sad to see one of the biggest clubs in the history of the Irish game go down but you have to admire the smaller clubs tenacity to reach the positions they have. They achieve this by nurturing the players from grassroots levels and therefore developing the true loyalty that leinsterlank referred to in his post. I often think that Dublin clubs like Lansdowne, Wanderers and Greystones are at an instant disadvantage in this regard as they have no real concrete affiliation to the grassroots level development of their players. At least marys and blackrock have the whole schools tradition behind them, which fosters pride in the jersey.

In clubs like Bruff, who are jumping through the divisions, they have them from mini rugby to senior level and are retaining more players than ever before to the bigger clubs like Shannon. These are the types of clubs that have a huge future in the AIL.

I heard a rumour from a lansdowne source today that indicated they had begun planning to return to the top flight before today. Apparantly they have already raised 400,000 to make sure they have the playing squad to head straight back up. This attitude of 'buying there way back to the top' could backfire, as im a firm believer that team spirit is a very important component in any rugby team.

Point of order, 'Stones (as a former Seapoint player I spit here... ) are a Wickla club and Pres Bray and St Gerards would be feeders for them as well as the like of Rock and Monkstown lads from the Shankill/Bray area as well as having mini rugby all the way from U-8's to 18's .

Greystones is absolutely not in the category of clubs with no "real concrete affiliation to the grassroots level", on the contrary it always has had a thriving under-age scene made up of players who went to schools other than Pres and Gerards (St. Brendan's in Bray and St. David's in Greystones spring to mind). But it also attracted players from all over north Wicklow who went to schools in which little or no rugby was played. Many of them also played football or hurling in the summer when I was there. If anything, this is precisely the kind of thing Leinster clubs ought to be doing, since they managed to integrate the Pres/Gerards (and Michael's, 'Rock) past-pupils with those who had come from the under-age teams very well by McCorry Cup time. One further advantage of being based in a local community was that people stayed on to play rugby, Stones regularly fielded a J5 and J6 team.

Seapoint, Seapoint... now I'm sure I remember that name from somewhere...

[epaddy]

I think Bruff may be a poor example. Hasnt JP been pumping money into them recently?

[groundhog]

Toland isnt the coach anymore by the way.I'm not sure the circumstances around his departure.

I know he wasn't the coach, I'm not sure the tour of duty washes as he was working as a pundit during the World Cup and was coaching the Defences Forces rugby team in other words he was back in time to oversea the AIL campaign. He was doing ok with Lansdowne and to let him go was madness, especially as he was replaced by last years J1 coach.

They spent over 100K on their U20's this year alone and now are going to spend 400K on their senior team next year, one word sums that up, madness!!!!!

[Sea_point]

I think its sad to see one of the biggest clubs in the history of the Irish game go down but you have to admire the smaller clubs tenacity to reach the positions they have. They achieve this by nurturing the players from grassroots levels and therefore developing the true loyalty that leinsterlank referred to in his post. I often think that Dublin clubs like Lansdowne, Wanderers and Greystones are at an instant disadvantage in this regard as they have no real concrete affiliation to the grassroots level development of their players. At least marys and blackrock have the whole schools tradition behind them, which fosters pride in the jersey.

In clubs like Bruff, who are jumping through the divisions, they have them from mini rugby to senior level and are retaining more players than ever before to the bigger clubs like Shannon. These are the types of clubs that have a huge future in the AIL.

I heard a rumour from a lansdowne source today that indicated they had begun planning to return to the top flight before today. Apparantly they have already raised 400,000 to make sure they have the playing squad to head straight back up. This attitude of 'buying there way back to the top' could backfire, as im a firm believer that team spirit is a very important component in any rugby team.

Point of order, 'Stones (as a former Seapoint player I spit here... ) are a Wickla club and Pres Bray and St Gerards would be feeders for them as well as the like of Rock and Monkstown lads from the Shankill/Bray area as well as having mini rugby all the way from U-8's to 18's .

Greystones is absolutely not in the category of clubs with no "real concrete affiliation to the grassroots level", on the contrary it always has had a thriving under-age scene made up of players who went to schools other than Pres and Gerards (St. Brendan's in Bray and St. David's in Greystones spring to mind). But it also attracted players from all over north Wicklow who went to schools in which little or no rugby was played. Many of them also played football or hurling in the summer when I was there. If anything, this is precisely the kind of thing Leinster clubs ought to be doing, since they managed to integrate the Pres/Gerards (and Michael's, 'Rock) past-pupils with those who had come from the under-age teams very well by McCorry Cup time. One further advantage of being based in a local community was that people stayed on to play rugby, Stones regularly fielded a J5 and J6 team.

Seapoint, Seapoint... now I'm sure I remember that name from somewhere...

You'll remember the bruises more I wager.....

[harryp]

Pity to see them go down.

TBH, their U20's backs are very good, but their pack is very soft. Can't see the 20'S pack getting upto much at AIL 1 or 2.

[jaybyrne]

i play underage for wicklow and a few of us have been asked to join greystones when we move up to seniors instead of staying with wicklow.
they do try and take talent from the smaller clubs

[Beltza]

You'll remember the bruises more I wager..... [/quote]

Or that pitch on the Loughlinstown tundra, more like