Ive never in my life met an Irishman who supports London Irish, they don't have a fanbase in the republic like Celtic do. Ive never even met an Irish rugby enthusiast who considers them his second team or has some sort of soft spot for them even though they have produced their fair share of Irish internationals down the years.

They play in Reading in an out of town, identikit Lego stadium on an industrial estate. I doubt many Londoners can be bothered to travel a few miles along the M4 to watch them.
I just can't even see the point of them being in operation. They do not capture the imagination of either the Irish or the London sporting public, in fact they are pretty much a total irrelevance.
If they went out of existence tommorow nobody would even care.

Not that I have anything against them personally Id just rather Bristol, Newcastle or Leeds were in the top flight at their expense.

40 miles IIRC.

Totally agree. I used to live in Reading and the faux Irish bullshit down at the stadium is just puzzling tbh. Why any self respecting English person would put on a fake green beard and silly leprechaun hat is anyone's guess.

My uncle played for one of their drinking sides when he first moved over to London. He's back long since, but it was a nice way of meeting people.

There are enormous numbers of Irish people living in London, and for some it's a nice easy way to remain Irish.

They are actually a valuable resource in ensuring that Irish qualified players declare for England.

Ive never in my life met a Falcon who supports Newcastle; they don't even have a fanbase in the winged predator community. Ive never even met any type of bird who considers them his second team or has some sort of soft spot for them.

I doubt many Geordies can be bothered to travel a few miles to watch them, judging by their crowds.
I just can't even see the point of them being in operation. They do not capture the imagination of either the avian or the Geordie sporting public. In fact they are pretty much a total irrelevance.

If they went out of existence tommorow nobody would even care.

Not that I have anything against them personally Id just rather Bristol, Bedford or Leeds were in the top flight at their expense.

It might come as a surprise, but you don't need to be Oirish to support or indeed play for London Oirish.

Yeah, but why support them then?

Likely to happen soon tbf

The total attendance figures for 2011/12 make interesting reading - Not Nots very well supported...



Plus Irish have a prolific academy, some very handy young players coming out of there now.

Why support any team? They have a local following, which in time expands, especially if they are successful. LI though, have absolutely nothing to do with the IRFU, but a few Micks around London do support them.

One of my friends Gerry (a Mick) is a coach for the one of the youth teams if that helps.

If they were called Reading RFC, or Berkshire RFC, that might make more sense.

And there are usually some reasons to support a team. Geography's the main one.

My aunt and uncle are season ticket holders since they moved (thankfully not complete with plastic Irish paraphernalia) just because they live locally. Pretty passionate about them though.

We don't have regions in England, we have clubs, LI is an historic name of an English club - long may it remain.

London Samoa

Although I much preferred going to see Irish when they played in Sunbury.

I used to go and watch London Scottish, not a drop of Jock blood in my family line.

They were a big Irish social club in the 70's and 80's. Uncle lives accross the road from the Sudbury grounds and has been going to games since the 60's. The aunt is still caught on sky in a big stupid guiness hat at Reading. Even though they still go to most of the games they admit that it is no longer an Irish club and it has changed a lot. Professionalism has changed everything and bar the name I'm not sure there is much to attract the Irish or second generation Irish in London. Pity, as I remember some great Sundays there as a kid when visiting London.

London Irish have a very active amatuer club.
Do the other premiership teams still compete at all levels, or are they just franchises ?

Is there a London English

My Dad's cousin / cousins played for them, and I would have kept an eye on their results when Geoghegan, Staples and co. played for them, I remember being really keen to see them get promoted to the top division back in the 90s(?). I'm fairly ambivalent these days but would still want them to win if they were on the telly in an Aviva game. I also like Sale though.

The amateur side is very well supported by the actual London Irish. The pro team is just another English pro team.

Why?

Double Header figures included in there, massively distort the Irish figures. I would imagine Irish average around 10K per match at the MadJet

The same way they distort the Wasp's figures

Irish people would be more inclined to support them if they didn't push IQ players to declare for England.

Just got it.

Just seen that. Something wrong those figures I think.......

The legit ones (home ground only) are Tigggers, Glaws, and Saints

All Irish half back pairing for next season.

I have a soft spot for them and the real LI club still in Sunbury is hopping these days I hear.

They missed up by trying to get shitbag pigdog to support them.

They need to be targeting Irish players and getting back to their roots.

Then they will miss up by getting relegated.

Worse things than that though.

I think HR's right about the lads playing for England thing. It's a bit much for a club to turn its back on its traditions so abruptly.

10,299 this season.

Which is decent.

Not great, but leaves the likes of Falcons, Leeds, Wasps and Saracens behind.

Is there any truth in this 'pressuring to declare for England' thing? Why would they care?

If they want RFU funding then there is a price to pay, it's not a charity.

The LI academy gets RFU funding, and LI get direct funding for playing EQ players.

Yes and the RFU payments for EQ players.

Bath's look right - 129,864 / 11 home games = 11,805

Rec capacity is 12,200 and it's full most weekends

The AP clubs get more funding depending on how many English players they have so it makes sense for them to push guys who could play for either Ireland or England to play for England. Recently Geraghty, Kennedy and Danaher declared for England ahead of Ireland, which is their call but it's much of a claim to being Irish.