Test matches are there to generate revenue nowadays, that is all. All Blacks (or their board) is paid a minimum of 1M€ before they agree to play these Tests.

witnof (Dublin) - Posts: 1604 - 14/11/2014 09:03:38    1672164

The GAA actually give Dublin home advantage in every championship game to make money. The actually create an unfair championship so as to make more money. That is certainly putting making money ahead of sport. Every sport wants to make money from big games but to compromise the fairness and equality between competing teams to do so is outrageous.
Sad that some fans can't just enjoy many sports (like players do) without silly oneupmanship

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4663 - 14/11/2014 10:30:10    1672177

Maybe the marketing heads in TV and radio are targeting a rugby audience because, rightly or wrongly, they think that target audience is more affluent than a GAA or soccer audience and might bring in better advertising revenue? Just my own thought. If there are any marketing people here please give some opinions.

GreenandRed (Mayo) - Posts: 8193 - 14/11/2014 11:10:57    1672188

greengrass

everybody seems to be taking the word challenge or friendly to heart as a bad thing here regarding rugby
I cannot understand why they feel that word is so bad regarding that sport in particular
im not saying they are rubbish matches, im not saying they are outstanding matches either
what im simply pointing out is a fact
if its not a league match, a cup or comepteition then its is indeed a challenge match or friendly game
whatever word people want to use
the fact is there is nothing at stake for winning or loosing the match
the same as a challenge game in gaa or a friendly in soccer
its quite simple, therfore to give a full hour to one of these games and only 15 minutes to ana ll ireland semi final
is very inbalanced

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 14/11/2014 12:20:48    1672205

1pm. Friday. Not one football or hurling story in the RTE Sport website's top 20 stories. However there is a vital story on American Football giving the score of the Miami Dolphins and Buffalo Bills game which is obviously much more important to RTE than Stephen O'Neill's retirement. After all he's only one of the most talented sportsmen this country has ever produced. You really couldn't make this up.

mediaman (Antrim) - Posts: 355 - 14/11/2014 13:02:45    1672223

13/11/2014 16:45:48 hill16no1man
i have to laugh when you say i have been brainwashed haha you seem totally and utterly brainwashed by the fact guinness sponsor these few challenge matches. a marketing campaign has made you feel they are of significant meaning. the meaning of what im saying is going over your head. you play sports as part of a competition its competitive you compete to win something, there is nothing at stake in these rugby friendlys just like there is nothing at stake in soccer or gaa equivalent all the fancy branding or names in the world still cannot mask its a friendly or challenge game its like you feel your letting rugby down to even acknowledge this These matches are top tet matches. You are belittling the status of them by calling them mere challenges. They are tests, just like cricket you play test matches which are matches between full international sides.
These matches and the term test matches existed long before any marketing or advertising programme. They have always been of very significant meaning. There is plenty at stake in these international tests.
13/11/2014 16:48:02 mediaman
4.30pm. Thursday. Of the top 20 sports stories on RTE's Website just one hurling story (Rory Hanniffy's retirement) and not one football story included. That's one better than yesterday. There are however rugby stories about Scotland/NZ/France/Australia/a Welsh rugby referee being verbally abused in England and some booing at a rugby match in Wales (stop press). The national broadcaster has a responsibility first and foremost to inform its licence payers of what is happening in this jurisdiction and that is obviously not an RTE priority. RTE prefer to pander to one section of their audience i.e. those with an interest in rugby. There can be no other explanation for the massive imbalance in their sports coverage. The football and hurling followers would like fair coverage of the only truly competitive sport's events this weekend, the provincial club football and hurling championships which are now approaching a climax. RTE's coverage of those games is pathetic. Is it really too much to expect 'fair play' from RTE, supposedly the national broadcaster? International Rugby is big €€€s for RTE. Booing and breaking of tradition is big news as is the abuse of a match official. The national broadcaster has a responsibility to inform first and foremost what its customers/licence fee payers want. Why do you not complain about the over the top coverage of the soccer premiership. That has few irish involved, involves English teams competing in an English competition and never has games in Ireland
What have you done to contact RTE if you feel GAA is not getting a fair deal.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 14/11/2014 14:07:04    1672259

13/11/2014 17:44:53 fabio8
they are challenge/friendly games...same as any other sport...why are you dismissing friendlies or challenge matches?..you do realise test matches are exactly the same..stop trying to big up anything in rugby at every opportunity..the points you make arent constructive..its an online forum..people are entitled to post how they want..why do you post here if thats your attitude?...your the biggest keyboard warrior of them all!....gaa pulls in much bigger ratings..much of the test matches is simply a chance for the respective unions to make plenty of money..look at us...we wore guinness jerseys 1 year!!!..the fact remains an all ireland semin final deserves a lot more build up and coverage than 15 mins and certainly more than a 'test match' in a much smaller sport Test matches are much more than friendlies. They are fullblooded affairs, sure even the New Zealand test Ireland had last year was higher intensity than anything we played in the 6Nations last year that why im countering Hill and everyone elses points who are dismissing these games as "challenges"
These test games are not only about money. If they were then why do Ireland not play 4 every year like the welsh/English do?

13/11/2014 17:48:09 hurlingdub
I have nothing against rugby and enjoy watching it, but I was depending on radio last Sunday and the coverage of the provincial games was poor. They had reporters at a good few of the games but there was hardly any commentary. More from English soccer games and from a basketball match. Not even final scores on some games until they were over by half an hour. Mediaman is right in saying that the club games are important and are hugely popular. I would guess that with possible exception of Vincents in Portlaoise that all of the club inter provincials had bigger crowds than would have been had Cork/Limerick, Tipp/Clare, Wicklow/Kildare, Tyrone/Armagh, Galway/Leitrim, Mayo/Ros been playing early league matches. More people were at GAA club games last weekend than were in Aviva. Fact. More overall would be interested in English soccer games than individual club gams.

ormondbannerman (Clare) - Posts: 13473 - 14/11/2014 14:17:43    1672268

ormond

you continously say that rugby is big money for rte and that it has a licence to give its viewers what it wants
but i keep putting it to you each time
that obviously the gaa is big money for rte too if it brings in some of their largest tv ratings in the year
and the fact that gaa is the biggest sport in ireland surely means that if rte are not showing headlines from that sport
then they are not giveing their viewers what they want to see

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 14/11/2014 14:25:31    1672276

ormond

you still cannot understand the simple fact
that if the game is not part of a league cup or competition
therfore it is a challenge match or friendly or test game whatever word you prefer to use
nobody is quaetioning if its a good match or bad
just the fact that it is not a league cup or part of a competition

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 14/11/2014 14:32:28    1672282

Different sports use different terminology and that terminology is not simply transferred from one sport to another. We have league and championship in GAA (intercounty). In club competitions we have championships run on league basis (in part) on leagues run on a knock-out basis toward the end (championship as we know it). In swimming, they have heats and gala events. In motor racing, they have qualifying rounds. In greyhound racing, they have cups, heats and just races. In boxing, they have bouts (there are so many belts -read 'cups'- you could hardly call them competitive). In rugby they have test matches. We don't have test matches in GAA. We might want to call them challenges (disparagingly or otherwise) but they are test matches. In rugby, test matches are important. Rugby people see them as important. If rugby people see them as important then who is anybody else to say that they are not? In GAA, we do not think challenge matches are important. Therefore, how can one logically equate something that is not deemed important (by those involved) to something that is deemed important (by those involved).

The above is secondary to how RTE treat different sports. There are many valid points about shoddy GAA coverage that they give. Personally, I don't care because when I pick up the Evening Echo, the Southern Star, the Avondhu, the Examiner on Monday - I get wall to wall GAA coverage. Most of those outlets will have more column inches dedicated to Ballyhooley v Buttevant u14 CFL final than Ireland v South Africa.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 14/11/2014 15:06:22    1672299

Well said bennybunny

bad.monkey (USA) - Posts: 4663 - 14/11/2014 15:14:59    1672301

bennybunny

but the reason the arguement about challenge games came up as because we are discussing the two sports
and how rte treats them.
now you had an all ireland semi final and a rugby non competitive if that is more softer a term to use on the rugby boyos heart strings
so we have to use a comparison to relate both sports in how we are discussing them
the fact that one match was the semi final of the biggest competition in the sport
and the other was not part of any competition in the sport
shows the inequality by rte in how much air time they gave in the build up to both matches

hill16no1man (Dublin) - Posts: 12665 - 14/11/2014 15:28:40    1672308

the overall point being that an all ireland semi final is a lot bigger than a 'test match' therefore deserving more than 15 mins coverage...the 6 nations is also a lot bigger than these test matches as at the end of the day in rugby..teams are judged on how they perform in the 6 nations and world cup..not on how they do in the test matches...it seems people are going to continously ignore the end of summer tours as we get hammered in them so they somehow matter less?...of course a game v new zealand is going to be better than anything in the 6 nations..they are a far better side than anybody in the 6 nations

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 14/11/2014 15:58:29    1672319

Boys can we drop the comparison thing between full internationals in rugby and challenge games. If you want to compare a better one would be non cap awarding internationals and challenge games. When GAA people talk about the number of intercounty games lads play they don't include challenge games.

For me I couldn't care if they gave the rugby game two hours, I have nothing against the coverage rte gives rugby rather its the lack of coverage and the negative coverage that the GAA gets is the issue.

zinny (Wexford) - Posts: 2036 - 14/11/2014 16:13:38    1672328

Boys can we drop the comparison thing between full internationals in rugby and challenge games. If you want to compare a better one would be non cap awarding internationals and challenge games. When GAA people talk about the number of intercounty games lads play they don't include challenge games.

For me I couldn't care if they gave the rugby game two hours, I have nothing against the coverage rte gives rugby rather its the lack of coverage and the negative coverage that the GAA gets is the issue.

zinny (Wexford) - Posts: 2036 - 14/11/2014 16:13:44    1672329

Hill16No1man

Yes. Fair enough. As I said there are valid points on RTE's GAA coverage. I said on another post that it would seem, at cursory glance, that only giving 15 minutes before an All-Ireland semi-final (particularly given the circumstances of that particular match) was poor judgement in the commercial sense. However, this is not a reason for not giving good coverage to an important match for rugby followers and for floating sports followers who probably tune in to see South Africa, All Blacks as much as anything. I agree with you on criticism of RTE on GAA but not on Rugby. They are right to give good rugby coverage - though being honest they use the same hackneyed style for all their sports - most people probably didn't tune in until the anthems were belted out.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 14/11/2014 16:27:08    1672333

Zinny

For me I couldn't care if they gave the rugby game two hours, I have nothing against the coverage rte gives rugby rather its the lack of coverage and the negative coverage that the GAA gets is the issue.

+1

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 14/11/2014 16:36:25    1672337

Hill16 no one in their right mind would say that an Autumn international v New Zealand, South Africa or Australia is the same as a challenge in Gaelic games or soccer. You are bringing your Gaelic games and soccer mentality with you when you talk about Autumn Internationals in the context of being friendly games. Rugby has always had tour matches as a result of the geography of the participating teams. The standing of these games in rugby is huge. You do not need points at stake for these to be full blooded contests with a lot at stake as they are viewed as being that in rugby and have been so for over a century. You need to divest yourself of your narrow GAA and soccer mentality when talking about these games and view them as rugby people view them. Different sports, different viewpoints, different definitions .

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6193 - 14/11/2014 17:26:43    1672347

Well said both Zinny and Benny.

Greengrass (Louth) - Posts: 6193 - 14/11/2014 17:30:00    1672348

im not giving out about the rugby matches themselves as i quite enjoy ireland playing against the big sides as its often better quality than that in the 6 nations due to the likes of new zealand being involved....my issue is its a great example of the bias rte shows towards one sport while it treats the most popular sport so poorly on numerous occasions as evidenced by a 15 mins build up...for all the giving out about sky..sky provided 30 mins build up for the match

fabio8 (USA) - Posts: 2182 - 14/11/2014 17:35:34    1672351